A system for economically extending the effective operational range of an infrared
remote control system having a remote control unit with an infrared transmitter,
and a controlled device having an infrared receiver. The system includes a first
transmitter to receive IR signals from the remote control unit and transmit an
RF output signal corresponding to the infrared signal received from the remote
control unit. The RF signal is received by an RF receiver which generates a second
IR signal corresponding to the received radio signal. The second IR signal is transmitted
to and received by the IR controlled device. In some cases, the first IR control
signal, and in all cases, the RF, signal include information/data concerning the
IR carrier frequency. This information/data of IR carrier frequency, instead of
the RF transmission of the actual IR carrier frequency, permits a reduction of
the RF bandwidth since the full frequency spectrum of possible IR carriers need
not be transmitted, thus permitting amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation to
be used. The RF receiver decodes the received signal and uses the information/data
to configure a second IR control signal that is compatible with and transmitted
to the controlled device.
