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Harmony Remote Changes the Channel for Good Design
Last week, an engineer mentioned his Harmony remote to me. He really loved it and was one of those passionate early adopters. I remembered that they had more humble beginnings, so I went back and did some quick research. Use this for a great case study of the power of design.
Harmony began as Easy Zapper in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ontario around 2000-2001. In 2002, they were selling the remote pictured, the Harmony Easy Zapper, for $200. It featured all of the technical features that today's users rave about: activity-centered control, easy programming of the remote via a PC and constantly updated software. However, the one big thing it lacks is style: it looks like a Radio Shack bought electronic project box from the 1980s.
Someone else saw the same glaring problem: Logitech. Logitech bought the company in 2004 for the small sum of $29 million. According to their 2005 annual report, "The first Harmony remote to leverage Logitech's renowned design expertise, [the Harmony 880] features a large color screen and comfortable sculpted buttons." That focus on design is what has lead to the 2005 Logitech Harmony 880 pictured here. It retailed for $250.
Here's the kicker: In 2011, Harmony contributed $164 million in revenue and a profit of $57 million to Logitech's empire.
To those who are not familiar with the product, I have a later version, the 550, which retails for around $100. The quality design is evident just picking it up. It has a substantial weight, tight tolerances, no sharp flash around the plastic parts. Moreover, the higher quality (i.e. more expensive) manufacturing is clear: metallic painted plastic and soft-touch painted shell with an acrylic window separated by a line of vacuum-plated trim running through it. That's a lot of operations and assembly by the standards of a remote control that is normally squeezed out of an injection molding machine, stamped with a logo and screwed together over a PCB and some silicone buttons.The real beauty, though, comes through in the interface design something that hasn't changed much from the original Canadian design. First, you install the Harmony software on your computer. Then, you plug the remote into your computer using the supplied USB cable. The software will then prompt you to create a username and password to launch the setup software. You identify your TV, DVD, stereo, cable box, video game system, et cetera through drop down menus or a search function. The database is comprehensive: I've found 15 year old VCRs and 20 year old stereo receivers listed!
After all of your equipment is identified, you set up activities, like "Watch TV." In my case, to watch TV, I want to turn my TV on, flip the input to "HDMI2", turn on my stereo, flip the stereo input to "LD" and turn on my cable box. Harmony allows me program those functions in and create a soft key on its LCD screen. That means when I hit "Watch TV", the remote will do the job of remembering that list of functions and do them automatically. Lastly, if something doesn't work, the remote has a help button. Click it and the remote will run down a troubleshooting list corresponding to the activity you are trying to do.
Aside from those features, the interface is the familiar universal remote. A digit pad, directional pad, channel and volume control and DVD/VCR/PVR controls. Very straightforward.
It's not perfect though; the primary problem that I've had is battery usage. Some versions have rechargeable batteries and a charging station, but mine has 4 AAA batteries. It runs through them every two months, which is a pretty high rate. Another problem is the volume control is very sensitive with my stereo. One click and the volume is vibrating windows, the next I can't hear anything. That's forced me to keep my stereo remote as a back up just for volume control. Lastly, some of the secondary remote functions aren't available. For example, I can't switch my TV input selection without switching activities entirely.
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Becker: You raise an interesting point. Last night, I was reading a marketing article. They discussed how poor customer service with electronics companies is. The principle reason is that people will buy the cheapest device in the shops and only realize the customer service is important when they try to set it up a few hours later. I guess that's why Apple can charge such a premium!
But another aspect of this cost is the lack of interoperability between devices. A bi-directional communication would be nice, but that requires a minimum of another transmitter and receiver ($$$). Radio replacing infra-red would be nice too, but again adding cost ($$$).
Then again, no one has tried to become the Apple of TVs and stereos yet...hmmm
Rising above the engineer's perspective of having everything accessible, my Harmony One does 20 things while needing to push only one button. My ATI remote, TVs, DVD, wife's HP laptop, our HTPC, and stereo remotes have been buried for two years now! The relative ease of setup and available options make this rise above most iApps and iAdd-ons for cross-functionality and Wife Acceptance Factor.
I agree the buttons need work for tactile differentiation. Yes, its not a closed system and, thank god, hasn't been ergonomically 'Apple cleansed'. But it works very well. My 2cents.
Raymond: you can add any device to the harmony>customize buttons which may dial in more/less IR output for volume.
Further, the screen displays hard-to-read text superimposed on top of various semi-meaninful icons. End result? Illegible.
A friend tried to set up the remote and it required many, many calls to tech support. Several times he would get one or two sequences to work, get stuck, call support, and they'll tell him to reset the device, putting him back at square one.
But, hey! It will look pretty sitting on the coffee table. And you'll have plenty of time to admire it while you're using your old remotes...
Logitech/Harmony makes a remote/dongle that phones/tablets communicate with. It can deal with five different instances of its app (five phones, tablets, whatever, but not other Harmony devices that I can tell).
The problem is that sometimes it's nice to have a traditional remote control with real, tactile buttons you don't have to look down to see. I don't believe that the Harmony Link plays well with any of the other Harmony devices (as I said before, they need to have exclusive control).
Obviously, what needs to be done is to have a remote that has bidirectional communication with the Link. Hopefully that would also be cheaper than a $200 iPod Touch... but then again, given normal Harmony prices, it probably wouldn't be.
I assume the Link actually has an IR input- if only for teaching it the obscure remote you have. It might be possible to code a universal remote (like another Harmony, say the cheap $30 one) to send codes for "Button 0xFE has been pressed" that the Link can receive and parse to the proper action, depending on what activity is currently chosen. (yeah, I'd possibly look for this or suggest it on the Harmony forum, but then I'd actually have to sign in for an account).
Of course, a household wouldn't want control of the remote to belong to only family members who have iPhones, but with the iPod Touch going for $199, a family could buy a dedicated iPod as a remote for less than a Harmony remote.
Tangent: I think I could probably adjust something somewhere to help with my volume problems, but that's a pain in the butt. It should be less sensitive by default.
I had the same problem with a receiver before.
Without having to look down, on the Tivo remote you can easily tell where the play/pause, fast forward/reverse, and index fwd/rev buttons are. With the Harmony 880, you have to remember where they are and there aren't really any useful locating features on/by the buttons (all those buttons are mostly rectangular).
Only recently with the newer Harmony remotes has Logitech made the transport controls more intuitive.
Finally, as mentioned the activity based control is a great idea, however, right now only a single Harmony should be used exclusively or the device state information can get out of sync. Given the multitude of devices that can control any given device (namely: the stock remote control and "universal" remotes such as the Harmony or even phone/tablet-based IR or even IP remotes), a better device is needed to unify the control when multiple different remotes are used in any given usage session. One might wonder if the fabled Apple TV might either solve this issue or make it irrelevant.
(disclaimer/disclosure- I was very peripherally involved with some of the Harmony remote design a while ago- I can't believe that any of the simple recommendations I made weren't already voiced by others)
The only problem is the price for the higher end units. $350 for a remote is totally absurd.