What’s Puck?

SmashToast’s Puck “removes traditional remotes from the equation, which is a pain point for many folks who assume that three or more remotes are a permanent object on their coffee table,” SmashToast Founder, Barnabas Helmy, explains. “You can see this problem amplified when you ask a bartender to change a channel.” 

Puck solves this with a splash of tech. At 1.6 inches, the battery-operated Puck isn’t much of a physical presence. But what it does is pretty impressive: “It works by attaching to the target accessory near it’s IR receiver—the part of the TV that accepts the remote signal,” says Helmy.

Meanwhile, “the business end of Puck is essentially a universal remote,” he explains. “It communicates with the phone using Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE. BLE has a great range and can penetrate walls, meaning devices can be hidden from view—and no more wires.”

To the uninitiated (or to non-techy people who just read the above explanation), these devices can seem complicated—you might as well just deal with the three remotes you’ve (finally) figured out how to use. But Helmy waves that aside. “It really is a simple device,” he says. Basically, as long as you know how to work an app, you’re golden: “I designed it in a way that would put all the heavy lifting on the app side,” Helmy explains.

Excerpt from original article in EQ STL