An iPod recharging/docking station due in May lets consumers use the remote control of more than 5 million existing Onkyo audio components, HTiBs and shelf systems to select songs and photos stored on the Apple device for playback and viewing.
The $100-suggested dock, called the Remote Interactive Dock, connects with most Onkyo audio products produced in the past 10 years through a bidirectional remote interactive (RI) port, which is designed to connect to other Onkyo A/V products to allow for automatic start-up and the integrated operation of separate components.
Onkyo is the first CE supplier to offer iPod connectivity in a broad range of audio products. At International CES, Samsung and RCA introduced a handful of HTiBs whose remotes control the selection of songs on connected MP3 and WMA headphone portables.
Onkyo’s docking station is compatible with third- and fourth-generation iPods, iPod Photos and iPod Minis. The Onkyo components’ remote will control the iPod’s play, pause, stop, skip and shuffle/repeat functions
The dock spits out audio and video signals via analog stereo and S-Video outputs, respectively. It integrates the iPod’s startup and shutdown, timer and sleep functions.
