This isn’t a story about workshops, or automotive news. But it’s something that has an influence on anyone who watches TV – finding the right remote control for what you want to watch, or just listen to.

For instance, I’ve got Sky, and a surround sound system with DVD, plus a TV box, and an iPod, all linked into my television. It takes no fewer than SIX different remotes to operate this setup. Not ideal.

Now though, a US company called Ray Enterprises has come up with the answer. A universal remote that links with no fewer than 1,200 brands and 200,000 devices, all offered in a Smartphone-like attractive aluminium touch screen package that’s intuitive to use, and is compatible with all pay television services.

Set up in minutes, the Ray Super Remote uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, infrared and ZigBee to automatically connect to and control thousands of devices including HDTVs, DVRs, set-top boxes, streaming media players, gaming consoles and connected home devices.

Ray’s custom remote functionality seamlessly switches between devices and sources with a tap of the screen.

At the same time the 4.8 inch high-resolution touch screen offers users a wide array of content discovery tools, such as easy-to-use search, recommendations, trending and most popular, and TV programming presented in personalised and dynamic content themes. Enhanced experiences around kids programming and live sports are available.

The Ray Super Remote has a built-in 2,550mAh lithium ion rechargeable battery which will run for a day between charges, and is recharged using a wireless charging mat. It has an ARM dual core processor, plus 8GB of Flash storage, 1GB of RAM, and seven transmitting LEDs.

All this is not cheap, though, and the Ray remote is exclusively available for pre-order at www.ray.co for US$199, with limited time free shipping.