Roku is wagering its strong branding and messaging of connectivity simplicity will resonate with consumers as it enters wireless home audio for the first time.

The manufacturer of streaming-video devices for cord cutters unveiled the Roku TV Wireless Speakers on Monday (July 16), a pair of WiFi and Bluetooth bookshelf speakers the company said are designed to work exclusively with its co-branded Roku TVs.

It also introduced the Roku Touch, a WiFi tabletop remote with voice control and playlist-launch buttons.

The TV Wireless Speakers are the company’s first products to employ the Roku Connect software and branding. First announced during CES in January, the Roku Connect software also lets OEMs build home entertainment devices that connect wirelessly to Roku OS devices and other Roku Connect devices within a network.

Related | twice.com: Roku Takes Aim at Voice-Controlled Home Theater & Multiroom Audio

The devices will ship as a bundle—two speakers, the Touch remote and a Roku TV Voice remote—for a $199 suggested retail. The company will also offer $20-50 discounts to consumers who preorder before they become available on Oct. 14.

Roku, which partners with 10 manufacturers to build its OS into co-branded TVs, promotes its devices and OS as simple to set up and navigate. It intends to bring this same message to consumers for audio, with Lloyd Klarke, Roku’s director of product management, saying it’s expected to appeal to consumers intimidated by the complexity of A/V receivers or connected soundbars.

The speakers, which receive power via a wall outlet, are designed to work exclusively with Roku TVs, with setup completed on the TV display through the Roku OS. They also boast volume-leveling and dialog-enhancement technology intended to compensate for uneven sound quality.

The company first teamed with TCL and Hisense in 2014 for Roku TVs, and models are now additionally available under the Element, Hitachi, Insignia, Magnavox, Philips, RCA and Sharp brands in the U.S. (They are also sold under the Sanyo brand in Canada.)

Related: twice.com: Hisense R7 Roku TV Ready for Retail

Klarke cited data from IHS stating that one in four smart TVs sold in the first quarter in the U.S. were Roku TVs. According to The NPD Group’s Checkout E-commerce tracker, Roku was the No. 3 online seller of streaming-media players for the 12 months ended in May, with 16% of dollar share and 19 percent of unit share.

U.S. STREAMING MEDIA PLAYER ONLINE SALES

Audio has become a growing central focus for Roku, Klarke said, noting the company’s 2017 purchase of Dynastrom Audio, a developer of wireless audio technology.

Adding a novel feature to its new Xfinity Mobile service, Comcast said those customers can now use their X1 voice remotes to locate lost smartphones.

To enable the Phone Finder, Xfinity Mobile customers can say, “Xfinity Mobile, find my phone,” into the X1 voice remote, or identify the phone by the user’s first name if the account uses multiple lines. Customers can also conduct the search by uttering their 10-digit phone number into the X1 voice remote.

During the search, the Xfinity Mobile phone number is called and a pre-recorded audio message from the service informs the user why they are receiving the call.

The feature is supported in all of X1 voice remotes, including the newly redesigned XR15 model. Comcast has deployed more than 18 million X1 voice remotes, and has activated more than 250,000 Xfinity Mobile customer lines since launching the service in May.

RELATED: Comcast Launches New Voice Remote

“At one point or another, everyone has lost their mobile phone in their home,” Amaya Capellan, senior director of product management and customer experience for Xfinity Mobile, said in a statement. “With Phone Finder we’ve made it easy to find it. There’s no set up required – you just ask Xfinity Mobile to find your phone using the X1 voice remote, and the phone rings. It’s simple and convenient – that’s what differentiates Xfinity Mobile, and we’ll continue to innovate and find ways to make our Xfinity services work better together.”

Comcast posted a video walk-through of the new Phone Finder feature:

Truly conversational devices are becoming more and more prevalent in our daily lives. Through smart home devices such as Amazon Echo or Google Home, interactive “assistants” allow consumers to activate shortcuts to save time and help automate routine tasks — all using the sound of their own voice.

This sea change in home automation is starting to take place in the living room as well. No longer the domain of just adjusting the thermostat or turning on music, people are using their voice to search for — and discover — content on TV. The industry is seeing not only an increase in the number of households that use voice to discover content, but also the complexity of that discovery. The prevalence of home assistants is teaching people not only that they can speak to a device, but how to speak naturally with that device.

Act Naturally
A transformation from robotic dictation to natural conversation is underway and will play out over the coming months and years. What started out as simple searches for titles (“Find me Game of Thrones”) or channels ( “Tune to HBO”) has now broadened to much subtler, and more complex, searches such as “What’s on TV?” or “Find me some good comedy movies,” followed by “only the ones rated five stars.” A voice-supported interface that isn’t smart enough to handle these complex searches, or maintain context for follow-up questions, is like the first iteration of Siri: a fun toy, but for many of us, it’s not providing an overly valuable experience to improve our day-to-day lives.

The implications of this shift are significant. A voice interface is a like a wormhole through a user interface. Instead of navigating through endless menu paths that only very few viewers succeed at mastering, a cluttered screen can be replaced by a clean and intuitive user interface that allows voice interaction. The challenge then becomes not only to provide a set of results for a given search, but also to interpret the intent of the viewer, and act upon that intent in a meaningful way so that only the most salient results are seen, personalized to the viewer's interests.

Adding the extra dimension of personalization to voice functionality not only offers viewers the most cutting-edge user experience, but also a more accurate, high-quality set of results. The data is available to marketers, thus it’s important to deliver the right promotion at the right time to the right viewer.

Talk, Then Target
For example, when a viewer expresses a very well-defined intent, like “Find me my game,” the system knows to tune to the New York Yankees based on previous viewing habits, but also provides the opportunity to deliver targeted marketing and upsell paid content such as MLB Extra Innings. For networks and studios, the opportunity to deliver a target promotion is priceless. If a viewer asks, “Find me a comedy movie” and a broadcast network or studio has a new satirical comedy, that program can be promoted to only the viewers who have previously enjoyed such shows.

The ability to dynamically generate valuable screen real estate, as opposed to hard-coded areas of the screen, will deliver a much greater monetization opportunity. Combining this with the ability to target certain portions of a viewing audience enables not only the right content at a time that is “in the moment,” but also delivers it to the right viewer. Tracking the performance of these efforts will also allow marketers to continuously optimize not only the content, but also the ad message.

The living room is on a journey of transformation. Gone are the days of endless sifting through channels, or debating over which content is best. Voice functionality provides not only the ability to provide a clean, simple and easy-to-use interface, but also the next generation of monetization platforms.

Jon Heim is director of product management, conversation services, and Chris Ambrozic is senior director of analytics and product at TiVo.

Dish Network has introduced a second-generation voice remote and will look to expand its avaialbity rapidly by bundling it with all Hopper DVRs that go out to new pay TV customers.

Existing Dish subs can upgrade to the new remote for $20. The second-gen remote is compatible with all generations of Dish’s Hopper DVR, as well as client boxes such as the Joey, Wireless Joey, 4K Joey and Super Joey.

Dish, which introduced its original voice remote in July 2016 for $30, said the new model includes enhanced capabilities and features, including motion-activated backlighting and two customizable buttons that can, for example, be used as shortcuts to the integrated Netflix app, Dish’s VOD library or access to parental controls. The new product also is equipped with a Remote Finder that emits beeping noises after the customer presses the “Locate Remote” button on compatible receivers.

RELATED: Dish Launches Its Voice Remote

“Voice control will now come as a standard feature on DISH remotes shipped with our Hopper set-top boxes,” Niraj Desai, Dish’s VP of product management, said in a statement. “In the not-so-distant future, we’ll begin to navigate our TV experience the same way we navigate human conversations. Our new voice remote is not only a technological stepping stone as natural language processing and machine learning progress, but it’s also an effort to bring customers along in the process by increasing their familiarization with voice control.”

Dish’s service has also been integrated with Amazon Alexa.

Heading into the holiday season, Dish has also launched a humorous TV spot where its “Spokeslistener” helps Santa Clause find his favorite Christmas movie (hint: It’s not The Santa Clause).

Dish is upping its game in the voice remote area as it becomes an increasingly standard component of pay TV offerings as well as OTT streaming players.

Dish hasn’t announced how many first-gen remotes it has shipped. Comcast has shipped nearly 17 million voice remotes for its X1 platform so far.

Altice USA has unveiled its new communications hub, Altice One, offering customers seamless navigation across traditional video and over-the-top services as well as whole-home WiFi connectivity, a voice remote and other features.

Altice USA’s parent company Altice N.V., had previously successfully introduced a similar offering in Europe under the name “La Box” several years ago. In the U.S., the technology will be largely housed in the cloud, offering fully integrated access to live TV, video on demand, apps such as YouTube and Pandora, cloud DVR recordings and WiFi connectivity – plus advanced search via a new voice-activated remote control, with more to come.

“We live in a world where content and technology are converging at a fast pace, and Altice One provides the experience, entertainment and connectivity that consumers are looking for today,” Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said in a statement. “Altice One is just the beginning of a new, better and simple experience for Altice’s Optimum and Suddenlink customers as we look to become the connected home provider of choice now and into the future. Less than two years after acquiring Cablevision and Suddenlink, we’re thrilled to bring this new service to market for our customers and reinforce our ongoing commitment to continuous innovation in the U.S.”

Related: Altice USA Hawks Nest Smart Home Products

Altice One has been in customer trials and will be available in select areas of Long Island beginning next week, rolling out across the rest of Altice USA’s footprint in the coming months.

News of the new platform comes as Altice USA announced third-quarter earnings. 

RELATED: Altice USA Q3 Video Losses Improve

Aside from the voice activated remote – a staple of Comcast’s X1 operating system – Altice One features include a My Picks section for customers’ favorite shows and recently recorded content; Restart, which allows customers to go back to the beginning of a show; a cloud DVR and 4K capabilities. In addition, Altice One allows for more seamless app integration, including access to content from YouTube and Pandora, with deals in place to integrate additional OTT services in the near future.

When it reached its carriage deal with Disney earlier last month, Altice agreed to eventually carry Disney’s direct to consumer offerings – an ESPN-branded service slated for early 2018 and a Disney DTC service to be launched in 2019 – so those services likely will be included.

Connectivity features include: Altice One Minis, smaller digital boxes servicing additional TVs in the home and offering the same user interface and experience. Each mini also can act as a WiFi extender.

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Goei said the first installation of the service is scheduled for Monday (Nov. 6) in Long Island and that future rollouts will concentrate on double play and triple play customers. About 60% of Altice USA’s customers take two or three services, he added.

Related > 'MCN' Exec of the Year Neil Smit: No Team, No Dream [subscription required]

With the prospect of its first full year of positive video subscriber growth staring it in the face, Comcast can point to many factors that have helped push the operator over the hump, but none perhaps with as much impact as its state-of-the art operating platform, X1.

Comcast introduced X1 in 2012 and to date it is available in about 45% of the cable company’s footprint, reaching 50% by the end of the year. With X1, Comcast customers get a state-of-the-art user interface, cloud digital video recording, home-streaming capabilities and other features, like an interactive voice remote. Those features have proven to be popular with customers.

For the cable company, the X1 architecture allows it to more easily overlay new services and products, essentially via software downloads from the cloud.

X1 also is having a big impact on customer retention and the uptake of new services. Customers of the platform are less likely to churn, DVR take rates for X1 users are about 3 times that of non X1 customers and X1 users are twice as likely to buy pay-per-view products.

FROM PLANS TO REALITY

Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit said that X1 was still in the planning stages when he joined the company in 2010, adding that the platform dovetailed nicely with Comcast’s emphasis on video and the renewed focus on the customer experience.

In its final iteration, X1 had all the bells and whistles associated with new technology rollouts. But Smit said that at its core, X1’s message is simple.

“We invested in X1 and the on-demand content and the different platforms at a time when there was not a lot of significant investment going on,” Smit said. “Video is about great content but also about ease of discovery of that content — if you have great content and make it easy to find and you bring up new recommendations of things. We believed from the beginning we could achieve that.”

X1 was a collaborative effort from the beginning, Comcast executive vice president and chief operating officer Dave Watson said.

“One of the first things he did was prioritize the list,” Watson said in an interview. “We had so many things going on, a lot of promising things that were emerging post the early stages of DOCSIS — more VOD, all the standards we had invested in. The infrastructure stuff was for the most part coming to an end, but the product stuff was not. That’s where Neil came in and helped prioritize. X1 was at the top of the list.”

Watson added that in addition to X1’s chief architect — technology president Tony Werner and his team — Smit brought in other disciplines and executives to help shape the product.

“One of the things Neil did, he included [Comcast chairman and CEO] Brian [Roberts] in a lot of the early iterations of feature design,” Watson said. “A lot of others that were engaged — the marketing team, the rest of Tony Werner’s engineering team, there were a lot of people that were very focused.”

That sense of collaboration has been part of Comcast’s DNA for years, Watson said, but it was especially evident in the formation of X1.

INCLUSIVE PROCESS

“It goes back to that belief that an effective team gets better results,” Watson said. “You don’t roll out things at scale of this magnitude without having great teams on it.”

That kind of collaboration also led to one of the X1’s most popular features, the voice remote. The remote, which allows customers to search for shows and launch apps with voice commands, is one of the most popular features of X1. To date, about 10 million voice remotes have been deployed to Comcast customers.

Watson said Roberts championed the voice remote. “The engineering team had developed the capability, but Brian was focused on [the idea] that this could be special,” he said. “Neil then brought it to a whole other level. Neil got with his team and said, ‘Let’s scale this.’ And that’s what happened.”

Comcast recently incorporated the Netflix app into the X1, allowing for subscribers to the SVOD service to more easily access it. While that may have been unheard of several years ago — Netflix is considered a cable competitor by some — Smit said it fits in with Comcast’s overall philosophy.

“We’re all about saving the customers’ time,” Smit said. “Their time is precious and we have to respect that. The Netflix integration was saving the customer’s time; it was making it more convenient for them. They didn’t have to switch over to input B, they could just speak into their voice remote and say ‘Find Orange is the New Black.’ It was grounded in making the customer’s life more convenient and saving them time.”

The X1 has received rave reviews: Geekwire called it an “Escalade,” referring to the high-end Cadillac SUV. And Comcast doesn’t plan to keep the operating system to itself. It has already licensed X1 to two cable operators, Cox Communications in the U.S. and Shaw Communications in Canada, and hopes to add more licensees in the future.

WORKS FOR COX, TOO

At Cox, which markets X1 as New Contour, the platform has lived up to and exceeded expectations, executive vice president of product development and management Steve Necessary said.

Cox began rolling out New Contour in one market with 3,000 customers at the beginning of the year; by April, it was deployed in all 21 of the cable operator’s territories. By the end of the year, Necessary said Cox expects to have nearly 600,000 New Contour customers.

Because Cox has had the product less than a year, the operator hasn’t seen the full impact of the platform yet. But he said the company has seen a reduction in early life churn and customer satisfaction has risen. Necessary said New Contour has resulted in higher Net Promoter Scores — a more than 20-point lift for X1 users. And VOD usage has roughly doubled for X1 customers.

“The metrics we have to date are very positive and support or exceed our business expectations,” Necessary said. He expects the growth trajectory in 2016 to continue into next year.

Comcast said it has added a feature that enables its voice remotes for the X1 service to automatically pair with televisions without requiring customers to input codes manually.

Comcast said it has received calls over the years from customers asking for help with setting up their remotes, and said this new automated feature will eliminate the step of having to fumble for remote control codes. However, devices must be connected by HDMI in order for the feature to work.

“For new X1 customers – or existing customers who may have just received one of our X1 Voice Remotes – X1 will now immediately detect the model of the television they are using and program the remote to control things like TV power, volume and input,” Jonathan Palmatier, VP, product development and consumer devices at Comcast, explained in this blog post. “Within seconds, X1 will display an on-screen message that the remote is ready to go.

Universal Electronics said its QuickSet Cloud software is enabling the auto-connect feature for X1. Universal Electronics, which has a warrants agreement with Comcast based on purchase milestones, said QuickSet is widely deployed in more than 250 million devices, including set-tops, televisions, game consoles, smartphones, and tablets.

Comcast is adding the feature as it expands the deployment of X1 and the voice remote. Comcast expects about half of its video sub base to be on X1 by year-end, and has deployed more than 10 million X1 voice remotes. The operator said X1 subs are speaking more than 200 million commands into the voice remote every month, and that it has processed north of 1 billion voice commands since launching the device last year. 

The way in which TV viewers search for and consume content at home on their primary television sets is radically changing. Did you know there is a pecking order in how we watch TV? It turns out most people choose their programs the same way.

These are the findings from our company’s independent research to better understand consumer behavior when it comes to watching TV.

Most TV viewers faced with a mountain of available content break down their viewing options into a discernable pattern in choosing what to watch first, second, third and fourth in a pecking order of preference.

(1) First, viewers tune to highly anticipated “top tier” content (i.e., live sports, breaking news or a debuting episode of a favorite series);

(2) If this “top tier” live content is not on, the second choice is specific pre-recorded (DVR or VOD) content – again this tends to be favorite programming;

(3) The third choice happens if VOD or DVR content isn’t appealing at that moment – viewers go to streaming services like Hulu, Netflix or Amazon Video, or look at DVR-recorded programs that have yet to become a favorite; and

(4) Finally, if all else fails, viewers will select from the guide listing or by scrolling across live TV for what’s on their favorite channels currently -- and when they do this, it’s for the most casual of engagement, using the TV as a background while doing other things.

Despite the fact there’s more content and channels than ever before, viewers are “channel surfing” less and less. This trend is troubling for linear TV programmers and service providers, as much of the valued or high-cost content is not on the radar for many of today’s TV viewers.

What’s holding viewers back from exploring all this diverse content could be the way we navigate.

Many consumers will tell you there’s an overwhelming number of buttons and function keys on a standard universal remote control, which can be intimidating and confusing. Some users will go as far as to cover sections of their remote completely, with tape or other materials, fearing that pressing the wrong button could alter settings and leave them unable to watch any TV -- and require another call to customer tech support.

Companies like Comcast and Dish have introduced voice navigation for their subscribers, and it’s proving to be a hit! This technology can now deliver more than 90% search accuracy.

Today’s fickle and overwhelmed couch potato is a creature of habit. A pecking order for selecting what to watch on the big screen will always be a part of their routine. And just as streaming services are now a natural part of their viewing experience, voice navigation will be too, along with other innovations that should delight consumers.

 Ultimately this will result in a better user experience. And at the end of the day, that’s what all of us in this business strive for, isn’t it?

Stephen Gutman is senior vice president, Subscription Broadcast Unit – Americas, at remote control and sensor technology vendor Universal Electronics, where he serves as a consultant to the customer premises equipment group at nearly every major MVPD across North and South America.

Dish Network has finally moved forward with the national debut of its Voice Remote, a $30 product that also features backlighting and a clickable touchpad for “swipe and scroll navigation.”

Dish’s new Voice Remote, which is about half the size of its traditional remote control, is compatible with the recently launched Hopper 3 whole-home DVR and 4K Joey set-top boxes and can control up to two IR devices. It features two touchpad models – the default setting allows for navigation tasks, while a numeric mode illuminates a keypad when channel or password entry is preferred.

Dish’s Voice Remote follows a similar voice-powered remote control that Comcast has rolled out for its X1 platform (Comcast has already rolled out more than 6 million voice remotes).

Dish’s version has been long in the making. The company introduced the Voice Remote at the 2015 CES and, at the time, had plans to launch the product later that year. Rovi announced in April 2015 that its Conversation Services platform would power Dish’s new voice-based TV interface.

Dish said its Voice Remote can interpret natural language and provide search results based on program title, actor or genre, and use contextual searches to narrow options. Voice commands can also be used to control basic functions of the set-top, including recording and changing channels.

“Voice Remote is simple to use, affordable and, most impressively, operates with incredible speed and accuracy,” Vivek Khemka, Dish’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, said in a statement. “Leveraging modern navigation paradigms like touch and voice, this remote represents a complete reinvention of the outdated remote control customers have come to expect from cable providers.” 

BOSTON -- Comcast is using this week’s INTX confab here to show off several new consumer products that will debut soon, including a new wireless video client device, called the Xi5, that will support High Dynamic Range (HDR), a format that enables a richer image through brighter and more colorful pixels.

That device (the one in the middle shown here) will work in tandem with the XB6, a multi-service gigabit wireless gateway that will also support the MSO’s Xfinity Home service.  The Xi5 is currently in small field trials.

To facilitate whole-home coverage, Comcast is also showing a network extender product (far right) that supports several platforms including WiFi, Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and Ethernet.  That product is expected to start shipping in 2017.

Also on show is a sleeker remote control that emphasizes the MSO’s voice search/navigation platform. That will start to ship by the end of this year and reach volume shipments sometime in 2017.

More to come…

Universal Electronics Inc., a maker of universal remote controls and smart home technologies, said it has entered a warrants agreement with Comcast as an extension of the vendor’s arrangement to develop new products in partnership with the MSO.

The agreement follows a development and supply collaboration renewed this year, in which UEI supplies the voice remote for Comcast’s X1 platform. UEI said it’s also positioned to provide products for Xfinity Home, the MSO’s home security and automation service, as well.

“In anticipation of continued sales growth, Comcast now has the opportunity to acquire shares of capital stock from UEI tied to the potential fulfillment of pre-defined purchase milestones under the terms of the warrants agreement,” UEI said.

More details were revealed in this SEC filing, which shows that Comcast has a warrant to purchase up to 725,000 shares of UEI’s common stock, "par value $0.01 per share (the 'Common Stock')," with an exercise price per Warrant Share of $54.55. The warrant provides for “certain adjustments” that could be made to the exercise price and the number of shares issuable due to “customary anti-dilution provisions based on future corporate events.”

UEI shares were trading at $57.83 each, up $2.33 (4.2%), in late afternoon trading Wednesday.

Per the SEC filing, Comcast’s right to exercise the Warrant is subject to vesting during three successive two-year periods, with the first two-year period commencing on January 1, 2016, during which Comcast must purchase (in each two-year period) no less than $260,000,000 in goods and services from UEI and its affiliates.

To vest in all of the Warrant Shares, Comcast and its affiliates must purchase an aggregate of $1,020,000,000 in goods and services from the vendor during the six-year vesting period. The Warrant will be exercisable with respect to vested Warrant Shares, in whole or in part, at any time prior to January 1, 2023.

“This agreement represents a major milestone in our history,” Paul Arling, chairman and CEO of Universal Electronics, said in a statement. “We are privileged to have helped Comcast’s X1 redefine the entertainment viewing experience, and we are now positioned to provide innovative products across XFINITY Home as well.”

Update: UEI is supplying Comcast with an electronic keypad for Xfinity Home, per an FCC document found by The Donohue Report. 

Comcast has deployed more than 5 million X1 voice remotes since last May, company chairman and CEO Brian  Roberts said at the recent Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco.

“That’s the fastest ramp of any product we’ve ever done,” he said, noting that the heaviest users of that product use it “a couple hundred times a week.” 

Cartoon Network is working with Comcast to create special messages that fans of Teen Titans Go! can hear using the cable operator's X1 voice remote.

Comcast has been rolling out its new voice-powered remote that searches content and performs other functions via voice commands. Because rhe device could iinfluence what viewers wind up watching, some programmers are looking for ways to take advantage of it.

Working with Comcast, Cartoon has set things up so that when a viewer says, “Teen Titans Go!” “Boy Wonder!” “Pretty, Pretty Pegasus,” “Starfire and Silkie,” “Hello, Beastboy,” “Booyah, Buddy,” “Hello, Raven,” “Hello, Cyborg,” “Hello, Robin,” the remote plays back responses unique to the characters.

The voice commands went live Thursday (Oct. 22).

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Nuance Communications said its Dragon TV platform is what’s powering voice recognition and voice search capabilities that are integrated with the latest Roku 3 streaming player model and the Roku mobile app for iOS and Android devices.

Roku rolled out voice-based search for new top-of-the-line Roku 3 models (which come with a new remote with a built-in microphone) in April, enabling users to sift for content based on titles, actors, directors and other categories across a mix of 17 sources spanning ad-supported, subscription, electronic sell-through/rental,  and authenticated streaming offerings, including Amazon Instant Video, Blockbuster On Demand, CinemaNow, Crackle, Fox Now, FX Now, HBO GO, Hulu Plus, M-GO, Nat Geo TV, Netflix, Time Warner Cable (the operator's authenticated TWC TV app), and VUDU, among others.

Roku’s new app for iOS and Android mobile devices also supports the new voice search feature.

“Voice makes it simple for consumers to get right to the content they want, quickly and easily," said Scott Taylor, SVP of mobile devices at Nuance, said in a statement. 

Offering more evidence that it is nearing the commercial launch of a new voice-activated remote called the XR11, Comcast is offering a complimentary model ahead of its official release to select X1 customers.

A Comcast customer evidently based in Newtown, Pa., posted an image (see at left) of the promo on the DSL Reports message board.

Comcast has not announced a launch date or pricing on the XR11 or detailed the extent of its XR11 early access promotion, but the new voice remote will work in tandem with the operator's IP-capable, cloud-based X1 platform. Customers will activate the feature by pressing down the remote’s blue microphone button and speaking commands -- enabling them to tune to specific channels or search for TV shows and movies that are available live, in Comcast’s VOD library or on the customer’s DVR.

Comcast has released several details about the XR11 ahead of its commercial launch. This item posted to the MSO’s customer forum in February, for example, outlines features that extend beyond voice control, including a backlit keypad, an RF-based “Aim Anywhere” capability, and easy access to accessibility features such as closed captioning and the recently launched voice guidance component for the blind and visually impaired. The post also mentions that the XR11 is currently being offered in a “limited customer trial,” and that the product will be available to all X1 subs “later in 2015.” Comcast has also set up a fancier Web page where X1 subs can register to be alerted when the XR11 becomes available. 

The XR11 FAQ notes that the voice remote is currently compatible with the XG1, an HD-DVR model for X1, and the Xi3, a new IP-only HD client device. 

This video offers more details, noting that the XR11’s voice component not only helps customers find content more quickly but also makes it easier for people with severe arthritis to perform navigation functions.