Jessica PereiraSnap One has announced new features and capabilities for the Control4 Halo and Halo Touch remotes, providing a more streamlined interface with greater reliability and improved user experiences. Following the over-the-air update to v1.7, all Halo and Halo Touch remotes will gain a redesigned lighting page that offers faster control, longer battery life, improved Wi-Fi stability, access to custom buttons from their system and a convenient ‘What’s New’ page explaining the new features right on the remote itself.
According to Eric Fritz, Snap One’s Senior Director of Product Management, the new Halo firmware delivers in-demand features requested by users and partners to make the family of remotes even more powerful and easy to use.
“With the new firmware v1.7 for Halo and Halo Touch remotes, users immediately get an upgraded home control experience with faster, more intuitive lighting and ceiling fan control, up to 24 customised buttons for unique multi-system scenes or programmed controls, significantly improved battery life, a new more reliable Wi-Fi architecture and a handy What’s New info page available right on the remote’s screen,” says Eric.
He adds, “This increases the power and usability of both remotes, ensuring users enjoy the experience, and Snap One partners have strong arguments when recommending the remotes or bundled Control4 solutions to clients.”
Through the newly redesigned lighting experience, users can precisely control light dimming and ceiling fan speed using sliders on the list view and colour control pages without needing to navigate to individual devices.
With the addition of custom buttons, the remote control experience mirrors that of the Control4 mobile app or touchscreen interfaces, making all existing custom buttons available on the remotes. Custom buttons can be used to execute scenes, macros, or any programming events within Control4, offering rapid and precise control of large areas with multiple subsystems. Users can create up to six custom buttons on each of four menus, offering 24 unique actions that combine lighting, audio, video, window shades and HVAC, offering instant control of fully customised environments.
To improve daily usability and user satisfaction, Snap One’s engineers have made major improvements to battery life, with both versions of the Halo remote delivering roughly double the previous runtime, thanks to better power management.
In addition to extending the time between charges, the new firmware also enacts a new Wi-Fi architecture featuring improved capabilities that enhance network connection reliability and usability whilst reducing the need for resets. Continued rigorous Wi-Fi testing ensures ongoing enhancements and consistent performance optimisations for the remote.
Crucially, all of these enhancements are presented directly to users on the remote on a ‘What’s New’ page, with a blue dot on the home screen indicating new updates or features to be reviewed. Future firmware updates will be detailed in the What’s New page.
“Software offers us the chance to consistently improve user experiences and device functionality as new opportunities and needs arise and Snap One is committed to making Control4 easier to use and easier to sell with every new iteration,” adds Eric.
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