URC is one of the founding companies in this industry. It started as a manufacturer of OEM remote controls for well-known television brands, but its founder, owner, and CEO Chang K. Park saw the developing CEDIA channel and began making the Home Theater remote control exclusively for it, and it became quite popular. As the years went by, the remotes controlled more and more, until, eventually, URC became a whole-home automation company.
Though URC is in its fourth successful decade, there are many integrators who are not aware of the full capabilities its tools can offer. The company has been actively working to expand dealers’ perception of both URC’s products and its values, and its presence at CEDIA Expo 2024 is designed to do just that.
The DNA of URC
“We pride ourselves on producing a durable remote control,” says Park. “We began on the OEM side where quality is really important. If you are making a remote control for LG, Samsung, or Toshiba, that remote needs to work. OEM suppliers have to be extremely strict about the quality. So, quality is in our DNA.”
As an example of the robustness of URC’s products, Park points to one of the company’s MX-3000 remote controls that was supplied to Air Force One 20 years ago and is still in use today.
“I look at my business as an extension of myself as a person,” Park continues. “There are certain elements that are important to me personally, such as decency, integrity, and humility, and I want to make sure that our business reflects those elements as well. We care greatly about our dealers. I tell our people that we need to work together and share the fruits that come from our labor, and that applies to our dealers as well. We are here to help them, and our relationship has been mutually beneficial.
“I’m the sole owner of the company, and I don’t have anyone looking over my shoulder telling me what I should do and should not do. I have the luxury of reflecting on what I think is important to the root of our business and our relationships. I see our dealers’ success as our success.”
Freedom of Choice
As URC expanded into controlling and automating more and more areas of the home, it was important to the company that dealers and their clients were able to use the products they were most comfortable with. “We like to give our dealers options so that they can choose what they like rather than box them in,” says Park. “It is somewhat difficult to develop a product that works with other products, so we do take great pride in our work with other manufacturers.”
“The big thing for us is to simplify everything for the dealer,” adds Lars Granoe, URC’s vice president of product. “We’re not charging any licensing fees, and we make sure that we work with all the best-in-the-class products. Every dealer has their own opinion, every dealer has their own favorite thing they want to do, so we’re not going to penalize somebody for using Lutron or Sonos or whatever their preferences are. We want to make sure that the customer is happy, the dealer is happy, and that our product is rock-solid stable and there aren’t any issues in the programming of it.”
To help ensure they are meeting the needs of their dealers and end-users, URC has created an Advisory Council made up of their top integration partners. “The Advisory Council plays a very important role in terms of product development,” says Park. “We do need their advice and their wisdom.”
Practical AI and VR
The quest to simplify the lives and jobs of integrators has led URC to embrace very practical ways to use two very popular buzzwords: VR and AI. In terms of virtual reality, more than two years ago URC worked with Cogent 360 to create a virtual showroom that offers a realistic, 360-degree interactive experience that immediately engages visitors, and inspires them to explore the space and discover the many capabilities and options available throughout the home.
The company’s artificial-intelligence initiatives included using AI-generated, large-language model responses to answer integrator questions on URC’s dealer website, which recently expanded to answering client questions on the company’s consumer-facing website.
“Simplicity is a keyword for us,” explains Park. “AI makes it so much easier for our dealers and consumers to get help. I think there’s a great future and growth opportunity in AI as well.”
“To make life more simplified and easier for our dealers,” adds Granoe, “what they’re now able to do is go in and either talk into a microphone to text or by type something that they need to know and it will display the answer or verbally talk back to them as opposed to them searching for the answer via the program manual or getting on the phone with tech support. The whole benefit of AI is its learning capability, so it’s just going to get better and better.”
“We are quite fortunate in that our tech support has been compiling all the questions and answers that have been coming in for the past several years,” says Park. “So, we have a wealth of data that the AI can tap into to come up with an answer. We already have a big data bank, and that helps us a great deal.”
URC’s dive into AI was very purposeful, according to marketing lead Ron Pence. “Mr. Park challenged all of us in our departments to look at AI and machine learning to see how we could advance workflow,” he says. “Lars’s team was already working on that for URC’s automation abilities, and in marketing, we are using it on some of the asset development. It’s become part of how we work as a company, and it’s permeated the organization based on Mr. Park’s challenge.”
CEDIA 2024 Plans
At the 2024 CEDIA Expo, attendees will see an all-new booth design for URC, as well as several new products on display (see sidebar for a sampling of the CEDIA Expo gear and integration announcements). Just as important as meeting with existing dealers and explaining the benefits of the new additions to them will be meeting integrators who are familiar with URC and don’t yet work with the company, as well as those who have never heard of them.
“There are some companies that are changing their priority and some of them are moving away from the automation and control space, but we are committed to it, and we believe that we can offer a lot to dealers who are not familiar with our product line,” says Park.
As part of the education process, URC is hosting four 90-minute sessions at the show — two Thursday afternoon and two Friday morning — that will introduce the company to interested dealers.
“There are so many features and so many things that you can do with our system that it’s beyond what you can put in an elevator pitch,” concludes Granoe. “We can do the elevator pitch in the booth, but if you really want to find out what we can do for you, come to a session.”
URC can be found at booth #2118 during CEDIA Expo. URC’s sessions will be held in room 113 on Thursday, September 5, at 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM and on Friday, September 6, at 8:30 AM and 10:00 AM. Learn more at urc-automation.com.
URC at CEDIA Expo
Here is what you can expect to experience at booth #2118.
- The TRC-1120 handheld remote, with a contemporary design, hard buttons, and a capacitive, color LCD screen, delivers high-resolution graphics and ease of use. With enhanced processing speed and versatility, the TRC-1120 enables quick response to one-touch or voice commands, and the built-in mic and speaker communicate via Amazon Alexa, Comcast Xfinity, or Apple TV.
- The 8-inch TDC-8300 tabletop touchscreen delivers high-resolution graphics and ease of use. With enhanced processing speed, the TDC-8300 enables quick response to one-touch or voice commands and includes built-in access to Amazon Alexa, Comcast Xfinity, or Apple TV.
- URC expands its URC Lighting product line with the LT-3400 in-wall keypad. Combining hard-button operation, easy installation, flexible notifications, extensive customization, and slim design, the LT-3400 delivers next-generation control of whole home or commercial systems.
- URC continues to expand its voice control platform with Amazon Alexa Built-In in both the TRC-1120 and TDC-8300. This adds to certified Apple TV and Comcast Xfinity voice and IP integrations native to Total Control.
- URC’s HDA (High-Definition Audio) delivers a high-fidelity audio solution with built-in DSP, ducking/paging features, and studio sound for residential and commercial environments. New at CEDIA Expo 2024 is HDA Connect, which allows HDA to be added to other control systems (outside of URC’s Total Control).
- Some of URC’s new integrations include Airzone Climate Control, Audio-Technica ATND 1061 Microphone, Govee Lighting, Luma X20 NVR, MSTR Illumivue, Philips Wiz Lighting, RVIA RV-C, Somfy Synergy PoE Shades, WiiM Audio Streaming, and more.
