Available March 17, Chowmain has developed an IP based Control4 Driver that provides control over UK based Sky set top boxes. This IP driver eliminates the need to attach infra red emitters to the set top box and is compatible with the Sky+ HD, Sky Q and Sky Q mini boxes. On top of IP control, the driver also provides automatic channel media list updates for Control4, ensuring that the channel listing on Control4’s user interface is always up to date with the latest channels for that particular region.

“We think that this will be a popular one as all the Control4 staff, Control4 dealers and consumers who we’ve spoken to/worked with on the driver seem extremely excited by it,” comments Alan Chow, Chowmain MD. “The beautiful thing about our solution is that there is no need for a third party box to sit between Control4 and the Sky+ HD / Sky Q set top box. With a single site licence, which has a price of US$60MSRP (approximately £49) you can set up one box or 100 boxes.”

The driver will work on any Control4 controller running OS 2.6 or later and with Sky+ HD, Sky Q and Sky Q Mini and can be manually updated via programming action (by tying it to a custom button or experience button).

The reason for OS 2.6 and above is that it offers a superior security encryption algorithm and a new and improved driver format, says Alan. “We have decided to only utilise this new format to ensure that the integrity of this driver is not compromised and that we can provide the best dealer/user experience available.

“There are no more IR buds,” he adds. “This means no more IR bleeding if you have multiple boxes in the rack. It also means no more accidental knocks on the IR buds that cause service calls. You can also speed up control over your customer’s sky set top box by 3-10 times over IR control, plus, your customer’s sky media list will always be up to date with all the channels for their particular region – the user will never be effected by channel number changes or when Sky adds or removes a channel again.”

Alan says that a user should select their region and have all the Sky channels automatically import periodically for their area. All Chowmain drivers for Control4 come with a 48-hour trial, which is activated once the driver is added to the project.