Long Beach, Calif. – Pioneer has upgraded the free apps that turn Android and Apple mobile devices into Wi-Fi remotes that control a host of its networked home audio products.
Pioneer expanded the number of functions controlled by one of the apps and enabled both apps to push music from mobile devices to the home audio products. The apps’ push feature, called Push Player, lets users access their mobile device’s music library and create playlists on the device from within the apps. That makes it unnecessary to switch to a separate app to push music to the company’s networked products, the company said.
The iControlAV2013 app controls the functions of select 2012 and 2013 Pioneer and Elite AVRs, three Pioneer Blu-ray players, and six Elite Blu-ray players. The Control App controls other select AVRs; wireless Wi-Fi speakers equipped with DLNA, AirPlay, and Internet radio; component network media players; and the same Blu-ray players controlled by the iControlAV2013 app.
The apps deliver such capabilities as simplifying the setup process, managing home theater settings, making audio adjustments, and browsing and playing content from USB memory stick or from streaming services.
The iControlAV2013 app offers more control than the ControlApp, enabling users to access advanced sound features such as Sound Explorer, which displays more than 18 sound adjustment functions on one screen, and Virtual Speakers, which lets users create an ideal sound field by adding “virtual” speakers. The app also lets users adjust sound equalization by simply drawing a custom EQ curve on the smartphone screen.
For 2013, the iControlAV2013 app has been upgraded to add a status viewer, enabling users to view the AVR’s input-and-output information, and to enable up to four mobile devices at once to control an AVR for multizone applications. The app has also been upgraded with a dedicated “eco manager” page to let users monitor and modify energy setting of their AVR.
