"It was the last day of one of the industry trade shows for me," continued Henann, who works with Cinema Sound Unlimited, a North Lauderdale, Florida-based custom installation company. "I was determined to find a remote control that was universal."

As every installer knows, remote controls can be the bane of any installation. They can be complicated to use, difficult and time-consuming to program, and they never seem to control all of the functions. Even in the sales process, the remote control can be one of the more formidable obstacles to selling a system. Because of the glut of those product-specific remote controls that the client already has, another remote control can be one remote control too many. But Hennan found his solution: the SL-9000 from Universal Remote Control.

"We recently made a four-hour presentation. It came to the end, to negotiation time," Henann commented. "The client’s wife was extremely hesitant, partly because of the number of remotes they already had. I showed her the new SL-9000 and told her that this one remote control could work everything in the system. After demonstrating its unique features to her, she was so impressed that I believe it really closed the deal."

So what is it about Universal Remote Control’s SL-9000 that makes it such a strong deal closer?

According to Henann, "With the SL-9000's learning capabilities and its hundreds of macro functions, there isn’t a thing I can’t get it to do, including creative customization."

"A really fantastic feature is the Auxiliary button, which can be used to adjust the lights," Hennan commented. "Instead of having to sell the customer a separate lighting remote, we can give him one single remote that will control the lighting, even multiple sets of lights. The "channel up" keys turn on each set of lights individually, while volume up and down can dim the lights! It’s a tremendous time saver for the installer and highly impressive for the client."

Another unique feature is the remote’s Macros, which link functions easily and effectively. With one Macro, it is possible to join the receiver, CD player, satellite, television and VCR to operate simultaneously with the touch of one button. A second macro can make them all go off. A third could make only certain components come on.

Hennan found other features that were real time savers for the installer.

"We’ve tried all the other remote controls and they are absolutely terrible, because once the batteries go dead, you lose the programming. With the SL-9000, as long as the batteries are left in the remote, even if they are dead, nothing will be lost. When you invest two hours to program a remote control, this can be a great benefit to the installer."

In the last eight months. Hennan estimates that he has probably sold 150–200 SL-9000s. "We have the opportunity to sell anything we want when it comes to remotes We’ve examined everything and decided that this was the best remote on the market!"