App Based Control

Our Home Theater system in the basement is anchored around an Anthem 5.1 AVR.  It sits in a rack that is at the opposite end of a rectangular shaped room from the TV.  There are long cable runs required.  The whole thing was originally set up almost 20 years ago and components have changed but not the basic position and as the subject to this post, the control.  
  Control is from a Logitech Universal Remote.  There is a receiver for this with an antenna in the equipment rack, and another switch box that all the components have IR wires attached.  The AV functions are by the remote.  The TV is old, a Sony 1080 p , and there is an Apple TV with various streaming services; a Pioneer Elite UDP and since we cut the cable cord years ago a DVR.

  My post is about the control system.  A few months ago the switch box died and while it was easily replaced, the system is so complicated, with so many places for wires to run and come loose that it took me an hour to figure out where the problem was.  This weekend the remote stopped working.  Another hour wasted (my first thoughts were that something had happened to the switch box-receiver combo just because that was where the last problem was).  This time the problem was fixed when I popped out the battery on the Logitech Remote and put it back in.  An easy fix, but again it took an annoying amount of time before I figured it out.

  I should mention the system is Ethernet wired.  There have been no issues with that.

  20 years ago WiFi and apps were not as sophisticated as at present. Anthem has an app but it’s useless.  It hasn’t updated for 4 years, it doesn’t work well to switch components when I have tried to use it, and it gets terrible reviews in both Apple and Google.  Ultimately I would like to upgrade the TV to a Smart TV, ditch the Apple TV, and be able to control the whole thing from my phone.  This would require a new AVR if Anthem doesn’t get with the times, which is a pity because I otherwise like the AVR, especially for its room correction.

  Any thoughts?