Whether the idea scares you or not–some don’t like relying on one device to do too much–your smartphone may soon be your automated controller.  An automated controller is what makes audio/video systems easy.  You want to watch TV?  You press a button on an automated controller that says “TV.”  The controller, or “remote,” then tells the TV to turn on, tells it what input to go to, tells the cable box to come on, tells the stereo to turn on, and tells the stereo what input to turn to and what sound mode (e.g. Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, Stereo) to be in.  The remote also knows that when you then press “7,” it’s to tell the cable box to go to the high-definition version of channel 7 (i.e. you’re not telling the DVD player to go to chapter 7).  Similarly, if you want to watch a DVD, you push the button that says “DVD.”  If you want to listen to Sirius, you push the button that says “Sirius,” and similarly for your other audio and video sources.  And, you don’t have to aim automated controllers–the better ones, anyway–at the TV or at the other equipment.  It’s truly user friendly a/v–the way electronics that are designed for people should be.

For a few years now, our smartphones have been effectively letting us choose songs, and make playlists, for listening to on our stereos.  These apps allow one to pick songs and to make playlists from the music on our computer and from the music offered by the likes of Rhapsody, MOG, or Spotify (i.e. internet-based companies that offer just about any song or album).  These smartphone apps also allow us to listen to internet-based radio such as AM/FM stations (i.e. the stations on your table radio, but all of them and all crystal clear), and internet-only music stations (Apple has some, Logitech has some), and Pandora, a service that serves up songs it thinks you’ll like based on songs you type into it.  It’s mind boggling to be sitting in a recliner, smartphone in hand, choosing among all the worlds’ commercially recorded music to playback through the stereo.  Now is a golden age for the music lover.

Getting back to our smartphones, what haven’t been widely available are apps for our smartphones that will let us control our a/v receivers (e.g. to choose CD or radio or DVD or to change the volume).  Some manufacturers have started offering such apps–Denon and Onkyo come to mind.  (Denon, I know, also has an app for control of a DVD player.)  What also hasn’t been available are apps for TV control, like changing inputs and controlling volume and changing channels and controlling the internet-based content (e.g. movies from Netflix, YouTube, etc.).  Samsung has started to do this, though this is very new.  (Heed the warning that the cutting edge is the bleeding edge, and you’ll be happier.)  And, also in its infancy, is controlling one’s cable box with an app.  Comcast has started down this path, purporting to have an app that acts as the remote control.

Still, it seems reasonable to think that not only will these apps grow in number, they’ll rapidly get to the point where they work well.  Of course, once they work well, it will not be enough for a user-friendly experience.  You will still have to run an app for the cable box and another for the TV and another for the DVD player and another for the stereo.  That’s a lot of page flipping to do on a smart phone and things will get confusing quick.  This is the problem with the standard type of universal remote.  Sure, it may be able to control all your devices, but you have to know all the right buttons to push.  It’s a far cry from the one-touch ease of the automated controller, where you push the ”TV” button, if you want to watch TV, and then everything that needs to happen to your a/v system happens automatically.

So, what many predict will happen for smartphones is that they will become like today’s automated controller.  That is, there will be an app for your smartphone that controls all of your home theater system.  You will not have to switch to Comcast’s app for the cable box and switch to Denon’s app for the receiver and DVD player and switch to Samsung’s app for the TV.   Instead, one app will handle the DVD player, the cable box, the a/v receiver, and the TV.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a safe, reliable, user-friendly experience in as little as 2 years.  That will be cool!

For now, the automated controller is still the ticket, while many have a toe-in-the-water when it comes to controlling their home theaters with their smart phones.  In particular, what many users find very much to their liking, is to augment the automated remote with an app on their phone for selecting network-based music.  It’s just a two-step process.  First, they press a button on the automated remote that says “Network Music.”  Second, they pick up their iPhone or their Android or whatever smartphone they’ve got.  Now, smartphone in hand, app loaded, they’re in the driver’s seat to access the worlds’ commercial recordings.  No one I know who has done this is all that concerned about how soon the smartphone will be able to do it all.  The current combination of automated remote and smartphone is that good.  And, many are comforted by the fact that the automated remote will work just fine even when their network is down.  App based control?  Not so much.