Yes, there is an outboard status sensor for use with IR systems. Its built by Xantech, and its called Gatekeeper. The RTI is simpler to setup however, and is likely to be similar to or lower in price, by the time you've got a complete Gatekeeper system. Gatekeeper is probably better applied to a distributed IR or multiroom system w/ IR keypads. There is also an X10-IR status sensing system available from SmartLinc that could be used for this purpose.

jcmitch