Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. continues to embrace the power of today’s smartphones and their abilities to be key sources for streaming audio and video entertainment in the home by designing products with smart device integration and developing custom applications that access their full range of entertainment features. Compatible with the two most popular smartphone OS platforms, two new Pioneer apps are now available for download for use with compatible 2012 and 2013 audio video receivers, Blu-ray Disc^™ players and SMA wireless speakers. The apps offer multiple functionalities including simplifying the setup process, and advanced control of and access to content stored on connected smart devices. 

Pioneer offers two new app, compatible with the two most popular smartphone OS platforms, for use with compatible 2012 and 2013 audio video receivers, Blu-ray Disc™ players and SMA wireless speakers.

“With the popularity and wide range of apps available today, consumers are quickly becoming accustomed to having complete control of their entertainment at their fingertips,” said Chris Walker, director of AV product planning and marketing for the Home Electronics Division of Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “Not only are we improving and expanding the functionalities of our existing apps year-to-year, but we also continue to develop and launch new apps to take advantage of newly developed hardware features integrated into the new generation of Pioneer products.”

Pioneer Available Apps

• ControlApp and iControlAV2013 – Pioneer’s apps expand control over the current line of receivers directly from the screen of the smart device, including management of home theater settings, inputs, audio adjustments, and the ability to browse and play content from USB memory or streaming services. Both apps offer PUSH PLAYER, a new feature that enables users to access the music libraries stored on their devices and create playlists that can be streamed wirelessly to compatible receivers, all from within the app. ControlApp-compatible receivers include the Pioneer VSX-823 and VSX-1023 and Elite VSX-43.

  The iControlAV2013 App, compatible with Pioneer’s VSX-1123 and Elite VSX-70 AV receivers as well as additional models to be announced later this year, has been completely redesigned from the previous version of the app, providing a new user interface and the added convenience of “finger flick” touch action for faster access to receiver features. A dedicated “ECO MANAGER” page is also accessible to monitor and modify energy settings of the receivers to increase power efficiency and reduce costs. With the app, users also have access to the receiver’s advanced sound features such as Sound Explorer, which displays more than 18 of Pioneer’s unique sound adjustment functions on one screen, and Virtual Speakers, which lets users quickly create their ideal sound field even when real speakers are not part of the setup, as well as the ability to adjust sound equalization by simply drawing a custom EQ curve on the smartphone screen using the Finger EQ feature.

  Both iControlAV2013 App and ControlApp are also compatible with the latest Pioneer^® BDP-150 Blu-ray Disc Player and Elite^® BDP-62FD Blu-ray Disc Player, turning the user’s iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Android^™ device into a remote control when the Blu-ray Disc player is connected to the user’s home network. Both apps control basic functions of the player including play/stop, pause, fast forward and rewind. ControlApp is also compatible with Pioneer’s line of SMA series Wi-Fi^® speaker systems, the XW-SMA1-K, XW-SMA3-K and XW-SMA4-K, giving users control over built-in Pandora^® Internet radio, vTuner^® Internet radio and Pioneer’s PUSH PLAYER, for access to a virtually endless playlist of music and more than 10,000 Internet radio stations. ControlApp allows users to find and choose radio stations, control volume, and display song title, artist and album art.

• AVNavigator – Available for the iPad, Mac and Windows^® PC, Pioneer’s AVNavigator is an interactive owner’s guide that walks customers through the entire setup of their AV receivers. It also provides a linked two-way interactive manual, giving users an easy and quick way to learn about the new and existing features of various AV receivers. The app is extremely useful for walking users through speaker setup, sound optimization and firmware updates. The AVNavigator app is compatible with the VSX-1123 and Elite VSX-70 receivers, and additional models to be announced later this year.
• Air Jam – Air Jam is a proprietary Pioneer app promoting social entertainment and interaction between friends in the home setting. When used in conjunction with a networked Pioneer AV receiver (VSX-823, VSX-1023, VSX-1123, VSX-40 and VSX-70) Air Jam lets users connect up to four smart devices via Bluetooth (optional AS-BT200 Bluetooth adapter required). Once connected, each user can cue songs from a smartphone to create a collective playlist for playback on their receiver. Each connected device will display the list of songs added by all users and the device each song will play from. The Air Jam App will also keep the list of songs from each session on each device for future purchase or to view on YouTube^®.

Pioneer’s apps are available for download free of charge from the App Store (www.AppStore.com) or Google^® Play (www.GooglePlay.com).