This case study showcases Mistral's capability in providing a ZigBee technology based solution for a Universal Remote Controller. The product is now going into large volume production by the customer.

1. Case Study
iPhone Based Remote
Introduction
The Customer
The advent of living room entertainment has lead to the control
The customer is a startup, specializing in building products for living room
of TV programming from any handheld device. This case study
entertainment.
showcases Mistral's capability in providing a ZigBee technology
based solution for a Universal Remote Controller. The product is now The Requirement
going into large volume production by the customer. The customer came up with the concept of providing an easy access to
TV programs, and controlling the various IR devices using an iPhone,
iPad (or any other device from Apple Inc.) interfaced with wireless
access points/routers. Both these devices are very common in any US
household.
The concept involved development of intermediate devices between
the iPhone and the end IR-device. The intermediate devices, called
Node and the Hub, are based on ZigBee technology. The customer came
up with two ZigBee devices that would address this requirement and
approached Mistral to provide the ZigBee based firmware solution for
these two intermediate devices.
Solution Provided
Mistral provided the customer with a ZigBee firmware solution, using
the CC2530 ZigBee SoC from TI with Stellaris Microcontroller. The Hub
plugs into a Wireless router using Ethernet and communicates to the
Node using the ZigBee protocol. The Node emits IR to the endpoint
IR-devices. iPhone communicates to the Hub using the UDP protocol.
The Hub operates on AC power and the Node is battery operated.
The Challenges
! The Mistral team had to spend time onsite at the customer's premises
to clearly understand the customer's requirements and deliver
the entire solution in a very tight time-frame. This was achieved by
setting up a very tight interaction system with risk mitigation
An iPhone based Remote for mechanism between the Mistral team and the customer
controlling TV programs and various ! Designing the custom protocol for communication between the
iPhone and the Hub. This custom protocol involved actions starting
IR devices from Hub discovery to sending the IR codes to the Node and to emit
the IR for the end IR-devices

2. ! Designing a device with low-power consumption. This involved the ! Mistral not only provided the ZigBee based solution to the customer but
tuning of the firmware, to achieve optimal battery performance also supported them to take it to production and product launch
! Meeting the RF range of ZigBee. This involved designing a ! Built a strong expertise on the ZigBee technology
communication software between Hub and Node that was within the ! Getting the customer to recommend Mistral to other customers for
required RF range, while maintaining the defined power consumption firmware support.
metrics, to achieve better battery life
! Solution for user-friendly access of TV from the iPhone. This involved
Customer Benefits
tuning of firmware to achieve almost the same user experience from the ! Leveraged Mistral's proven expertise in firmware development, to
iPhone as provided by the default remote control. architect and develop the a living room entertainment solution faster-
to-market
Key Achievement ! The powerful and highly integrated architecture designed by Mistral
! Implementing the ZigBee solution on the existing design was complex allows the customer a quick-turn around cycle for future designs.
and the customer approached Mistral to provide it with a working
solution. The Mistral team worked onsite with the customer team and
was able to provide a working ZigBee solution on their platform
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