Kuala Lumpur, August 11, 2020 – Astro’s new Ultra remote has won the prestigious 2020 Red Dot Award for Product Design in the “TV and Home Entertainment” category. The Ultra remote was chosen by a jury of 40 international experts for its impressive user-friendly button layout and logically arranged layout thus enabling the device to be operated comfortably.
The Ultra remote is part of Astro’s new Ultra Box which features include 4K UHD, Cloud Recording and a new user interface that enables seamless content consumption across multi screens, improved content discovery with personalised recommendations, play from start functions and the ability to record multiple shows at the same time. More than 100,000 customers have installed the Ultra Box.
As part of its design, the surface of the Ultra remote consists of a combination of matte and gloss surface. Its characteristic feature is the splayed top, which reflects the Astro’s signature product styling. The buttons are made with premium hard plastic with metal dome membranes which provides instant feedback and precision clicking, thus improving the clicking experience.
Shahrul Imran Sultan, Vice President of Product Engineering, Astro said, "We are pleased with this win for the Ultra remote`s innovative design as part of our continuous improvement to provide our customers with better experiences. We are proud that the remote is not only well designed but it also combines form and function in an excellent way”.
Some future features of the remote include, a voice control function for content discovery and a find-me function to ensure that the remote remains easy to locate. The remote also works on a cloud-based TV database for the remote to be updated with the latest software to work with various TV brands in the market.
The remote was designed by ruwido exclusively for the Ultra Box, reflecting Astro’s brand and design. ruwido is an Austrian based company with the leading position in terms of design, technology and manufacturing of input devices and interaction mechanism.
“We all at ruwido are extremely proud about the brilliant relationship between Astro & ruwido. The Red Dot Award strongly underlines the story of success of our joint work over the last few months. Therefore only a product like Astro’s Ultra remote created by design visionaries can achieve such perfect harmony between the quality of the function, use, responsibility and emotional touch,” says Ferdinand Maier, CEO of ruwido.
Customers who would like to upgrade to the Ultra Box can call 03 7481 8000 or visit https://www.astro.com.my/ultra.
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About Astro Malaysia
Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) is Malaysia’s leading content and consumer company in the TV, OTT, radio, digital and e-commerce space, serving 24 million individuals in 5.7 million TV households, 16.9 million weekly radio listeners and 12.3 million unique visitors per month across the digital platforms of its entertainment and lifestyle brands. Go Shop, our home shopping and commerce business engages with 2.4 million shoppers.
In 2019, we elevated customer viewing experience by launching the Ultra Box, our latest 4K Ultra High Definition Set-top box with Cloud Recording and introduced content-broadband bundles to cater to customers’ needs. Our streaming service, Astro GO, allows its 1.2 million monthly active users to access their preferred content anytime, anywhere across multiple devices.
About ruwido
ruwido is a leading provider of input devices and interaction mechanisms in the context of the home. The company is specialized in excellent product design, enhanced technology and scientific research to enable intuitive navigation and user experience excellence. Premium brands around the world rely on ruwido solutions.
Founded in 1969 in Salzburg, ruwido is built on almost 50 years of experience in consumer electronics. With 25 percent of ruwido’s 200 employees dedicated to research and development, the company excels in new interaction techniques, user experience and usability concepts. www.ruwido.com.
The Red Dot Award
The Red Dot Award is an international design award that aims to applaud innovative companies and recognize those responsible for tomorrow`s trends. The Red Dot Award: Product Design has been finding the year’s best products since 1955. From fashion to consumer electronics, vehicles, medical technology and furniture – manufacturers and designers can submit their industrial products in 49 categories at present. For this year, designers and companies entered more than 6,500 products in the Red Dot Award: Product Design in 2020.
