ORIGINALLY POSTED IN THE INTERMISSION FORUM

The layout of kit in my L-shaped living room is proving rather awkward for the use of IR remote controls though this layout meets all my other needs (so I don't want to move the kit).

My hi-fi stereo system is located close to my CD collection and well off to the right hand side of my listening position . The angle of the remote control IR beam to the front fascia of the pre-amp is on the limit of the acceptance angle of the IR receiver.

My home cinema system is mounted on the left hand side side wall as viewed from my listening position and thus the remote IR signals also reach this equipment at an extreme angle (which is ok for some units but not others). Incidentally, the two systems share the front left and right speakers.

Ideally, I would like to find an IR receiver that could be hard-wired to a pair of secondary emitters - one of which would be mounted on a wall directly opposite the hi-fi system, with the other mounted on the wall facing the AV system. Obviously this receiver would be placed within easy line of sight of the seating position.

My problem is that I have not been able to locate secondary emitters that have a similar range to that of most ordinary remote controls. All I have found so far is a selection of short-range emitters for use within equipment cabinets. Can anyone help to point me towards a solution?

Any help will be very gratefully received.

Don't use an IR flooder like you are suggesting, and just use a small flasher to place on the IR sensors of your equipment. Using flooders could possibly present a problem of interfering IR codes. Stick on emitters can't miss.

I am trying to avoid the stick-on emitters because they are visually rather intrusive. With an AV stack of 4 boxes there would be a lot of wires that would tend to spoil the appearance of the kit. There would also be far more (and much longer) wires routed back to the IR receiver than required for my preferred solution.

In addition, I don't see why retransmitting the IR codes via 'flooder' emitters should be any different from using the original remotes. To the best of my knowledge, all the codes are unique and therefore no 'interference' should ever occur.

Aestethics aside, two flooders in the same room (l-shaped or not) could pose some interference issues. That being said, I do not know of any flooders that are as powerful as you need.

Hoop, can you please expand on the reasons why you think that two flooders in the same room would interfere. Can you also define exactly what you mean by 'interfere'. Note that both emitters would be sending the same code at the same time.

I'm not sying it will, I'm saying it could. It is possible for the IR to bounce off of the walls and possibly send a double code to the gear. I didn't say it would happen, or even if it was likely. My only point was, aesthetics aside, stick on flashers are more reliable.

Have you considerd an RF remote ? The 'base station' would sit by the equipment, recieve RF from the remote, then send IR to the equipment. Then you would never have to 'point', period.

Perhaps you could mount miniflashers inside the equipments chassis. Should be functional, and the aesthetics would remain the same.

i agree with pilgram, upgrade your remote to take care of this situation.

I considered an RF repeater but discarded this option when I discovered that they can cause interference with wireless Ethernet networks.

I have partially answered my own question by finding some long range 'blaster' emitters from Audioplex. However, Audioplex tech support has made similar comments to those above from Hoop. They say it is important that the equipment receives a signal from only one source at a time. You also need to avoid the emitters being 'seen' by the receiver I would point my remote at, otherwise you will get feedback. In my situation, this would only be possible if I were to put my kit and the emitters in a closed cabinet.

Let me ask a different question. Has anyone got any experience of the passive 'IRPrism' devices that simply stick on top of the IR sensor of each AV component? These are claimed to increase the angle of acceptance to 90 degrees from the central axis - and might therefore be a very simple solution to my problem.

There won't be any interference form having two emitters (floods) in one room.

The reasons you've been given against it are ridiculous and not based in reality.

I have this setup at home and at many customers homes. It has not been an issue.

Theoretically, you could possibly have interference with a wireless ethernet, but I've never had any problems. I'm running both in my home and have done countless others with no problems whatsoever.

As for the emitters, I prefer to put them inside the case if the device doesn't have an IR jack on the back. It doesn't take much time and the emitters don't fall off (I wonder how many service calls there have been for this reason!).

My basic problem is that none of my kit, apart from the TV, faces the seating area making IR reception unreliable. Some components have a very wide angle IR receptor, some are moderately wide and my VCR has a very narrow acceptance angle (thankfully I don't use it very often, because I have to get up and walk over to face the unit before I use the remote).

This means that using even one repeating flood emitter will result in some components receiving a signal from both the remote itself and the repeater (perhaps with a time delay that might cause a double action for, say, volume increase or channel increment?). The layout of my room also makes it very likely that the receiver that drives any flood emitter will see the output of these floods and the warning about feedback therefore seems highly plausible.

Both these potential issues (i.e. double signals and feedback) seem equally relevant even if I used an RF solution.

Pilgram, I've just picked up your point about having experience of fitting emitters INSIDE the controlled equipment. I would appreciate more information on this. I suspect that you might have to drill a small hole in the back panel, or do you feed the cable via a ventilation slot? Does it matter where you position the emitter within the case? Are there any noise or interference issues that would matter for use with high end audio kit?