t4h. (Tech4home), a global leader in remote control solutions for IPTV, OTT and Pay TV operators, and in sustainable home-entertainment technologies, has won the Red Dot Award 2026 for the Notus Programmable Buttons, recognised in two categories. Alongside the Home Entertainment category, the product was also recognised in Sustainable Design, a Red Dot metacategory that assesses durability, adaptability, and material and energy efficiency.
The Notus Programmable Buttons challenge an assumption that has held since the earliest pay-TV remote controls: that the physical interface is fixed the moment it leaves the factory. At the centre of the product are four programmable buttons, each with its own integrated display, letting the shortcut layer be reassigned as streaming services change and viewing habits shift, with no new hardware and no wait for an operator’s next fleet refresh.
Recognised for Function: The Home Entertainment Category
The Home Entertainment recognition rewards how the Notus Programmable Buttons handle the everyday physical experience of watching television. A deliberate contrast of matte textures and high-gloss focal points naturally guides the user’s fingers, enabling effortless, eyes-free navigation.
Underneath that finishes, every technical choice is made for what it gives the person holding the remote. Bluetooth alongside infrared keeps remote control fast and reliable from anywhere in the room. A backlight system and an RGB front LED make the remote readable in a dark living room and easy to locate at a glance. Keys with precise haptic feedback confirm every press. Slim and light in the hand, the device is built to disappear into daily use rather than announce itself in it.
Recognised for Responsibility: The Sustainable Design Category
Sustainable Design asks a different question: what happens to this device over its working life? The Notus Programmable Buttons use recycled materials and a USB-C rechargeable architecture, removing the disposable batteries most remotes still depend on.
The more consequential answer sits in the same four programmable buttons that earned the Home Entertainment recognition: a remote whose shortcut layer updates in software has one less reason to be replaced. Durability and adaptability, the criteria at the centre of Red Dot’s Sustainable Design, are not features added to the Notus Programmable Buttons. They are what the core architecture was built to deliver.
A Display Operators Can Actually Use
The integrated displays give operators something most remotes cannot offer: a channel at the exact point where a subscriber’s attention already lands. A shortcut fixed at the factory can only reflect the moment it was manufactured. One that updates in software can reflect this month’s promotion, a household’s actual viewing habits, or a new content partnership, keeping the everyday experience of the remote feeling current rather than stale.
The payoff is threefold. Relevant shortcuts get pressed, giving operators a real engagement signal rather than a guess. Dead shortcuts stop generating support calls, because they update centrally. And since churn builds from small frictions, current shortcuts are a low-cost way to hold operators’ attention on their own content.
One Architecture, Two Standards
For pay-TV operators, the significance of a recognition in two categories is practical as much as reputational. It confirms that the Notus Programmable Buttons were not designed as separate propositions bolted together, refined form on one side, environmental responsibility on another, a commercial channel on a third. They were designed once, as a single system. The same programmable displays that earned the Home Entertainment recognition also earned the Sustainable Design recognition, and they give operators a live channel into engagement and retention besides.
“A remote control is judged every time it is picked up, long after the design award is decided. With the Notus Programmable Buttons, we set out to build a device that would still feel right in the hand and still make sense environmentally years into an operator’s deployment. Being recognised by Red Dot in two categories confirms that the same decisions that make this product a pleasure to use are the ones making it last.” Graça Cândido, Co-Founder and Commercial Director, t4h.
Continuing a Legacy of Award-Winning Design
The Notus Programmable Buttons add another milestone to t4h.’s long-standing record of international design recognition, extending more than a decade of consecutive Red Dot Awards. They join a growing portfolio of award-winning remote controls that continue to redefine what operators and end users can expect from one of the most frequently used devices in the connected home.
For t4h., the latest recognition reinforces a simple belief: the best product experiences are often shaped not by what appears on the screen, but by what people hold in their hands.
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