News

Armour Home Electronics to be Exclusive UK Distributor of Universal Electronics' NevoSL (15/4/2005)

Armour Home Electronics is very pleased to announce that it has been chosen by Universal Electronics (Nasdaq: UEIC) to be the exclusive UK distributor of its award winning control device NevoSL.

NevoSL is a universal controller that intuitively delivers complete audio/visual and digital media control for the networked home. With NevoSL, consumers can not only control virtually all their home theatre and stereo equipment, but also play any song, display any digital picture and view any movie in any room from the palm of their hand. It is designed to specifically cater for the Custom Installation and High-end AV market.

"As consumers increasingly embrace wireless networking to deliver an expanding menu of digital entertainment content to various devices, managing all these media sources becomes a real challenge," said Paul Bennett, Managing Director at Universal Electronics b.v.

"NevoSL solves this problem by delivering a sophisticated and powerful control solution, in a handheld unit that's extremely easy to operate and highly customisable, to give consumers seamless control over their home entertainment and digital media."

Total Control of Entertainment and Media Devices in the Home

Featuring UEI's world-class IR code database for device control and upgradeability, NevoSL is guaranteed to be compatible with virtually any manufacturer's consumer electronics products. With built-in Wi-Fi, NevoSL further extends the multimedia experience in the networked home by providing wireless access and control of digital photos, songs and movies throughout the home or office network.

Unmatched Ease of Use and Intuitive Simplicity

NevoSL features a high-resolution colour graphical user interface that delivers a user-friendly control experience that can be quickly and easily configured through a simple PC software application. Even discovery of digital media content on the network is automated, ensuring an effortless set-up and control experience.

Complete Personalisation

NevoSL is bundled with a suite of PC editing tools that allow users to create truly personalised control interface solutions to meet the needs of the most challenging home entertainment system and its discerning enthusiast.

NevoSL offers the ultimate control solution for the connected home, with features such as these:

* The NevoSL universal controller and charging cradle, with 17 programmable keys and a scroll wheel for page navigation for an ergonomically-superior, one-handed control experience * NevoStudio(tm), a suite of software tools that includes drag-and-drop capability, site map visualisation, extensive button and background galleries, remote function emulation, support for all standard image formats and fast downloading of configuration files to the NevoSL. * NevoMedia Manager, utilizing the Universal Plug-n-Play (UPnP) protocol stack to browse available digital content to stream music, share photos and play movies on most UPnP-compliant network devices * NevoLink(tm), an IP-addressable bridge that enables multi-room device control

Backed by Technology Leaders

NevoSL runs on Microsoft Windows CE .NET 4.2 and the Microsoft .NET Framework as the underlying platform for its robust and flexible development environment.

To meet the demanding technology specifications of the NevoSL, Universal Electronics leveraged its long-term relationship with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to incorporate Samsung's high-performance mobile processor, an IR micro controller, flash and SDRAM memory.

"As a longtime technology partner of Universal Electronics, we support the digitally connected home and are pleased to have contributed to the success of Universal Electronics' NevoSL product," said S.H. Hong, director of the System LSI business at Samsung Semiconductor. "By providing key components such as logic and memory for the NevoSL design, this innovative product will lead the market for broadband-enabled consumer electronic devices."

Exclusive Distributor

NevoSL will be distributed throughout the globe through Universal Electronics distributors. In the United Kingdom, Universal Electronics has appointed Armour Home Electronics as the exclusive distributor of Universal Electronics in the Custom Installation / High-end AV market effective March 2005. NevoSL is one of the first products that Universal Electronics' has planned for this market segment.

Paul Bennett, Managing Director at Universal Electronics BV, explained the rationale behind the appointment of Armour Home Electronics. "Universal Electronics wants to grow rapidly to achieve a pre-eminent position in the world of custom installation and high-end A/V market, and we want to achieve this by having the right partner who can represent us strongly at a national level. "We have found such a partner in Armour Home Electronics. Working closely with our new distributor we will ensure that in addition to offering 'best in class' products, we will also be able to offer United kingdom Custom Installers and High-end A/V dealers the best support and the best service possible."

Armour Home Electronics' Managing Director Glenn McClelland added, "We are extremely pleased to have been chosen by Universal Electronics to be the UK Distributor for such a powerful product as Nevo SL. We believe it is exactly right for today's market and will be an outstanding success."

Suggested retail price £650 inc vat. Availability: June 2005

www.armourhe.co.uk