 So BBC engineers began talks with one or two television manufacturers, which led to early prototypes in around 1977–1978 that could control many more functions.ITT was one of the companies and later gave its name to the ITT protocol of infrared communication.In 1980, the most popular remote control was the "Starcom Cable TV Converter" (from Jerrold Electronics, a division of General Instrument) which used 40-kHz sound to change channels.