This is for my cruiser, so plenty of space in the cabin under the counter for tons of air flow. AC is mounted under there also so plenty of air movement. Just required large azz wire to be ordered to hook them up, whereas in the bilge it would have been a peice of cake, close to batteries, speakers and sub.
Either way, done deal wire ordered last night.

You need a couple of waterproof remotes that float! Interactive technologies. Just plugged into the radio. Pretty neat.

Going to go with either Alpine or Clarion HU. They have remotes that float and are RF with a 100' range, not the aim and point IR.
HU is located in cabin facing away from the doorway. Gotta go down below, turn around, and aim at HU. Good for down below, useless for listening to tunes outside. Don't want to relocate radio. Looked into the IR remote extenders/repeaters, but the RF is the way to go. Rather have a JVC unit, but they don't have the RF out yet. Don't want the wired remote because of the drilling holes to mount. I usually change my mind in a yr or so and am stuck with holes, so I avoid drilling if at all possible.
Just finding the head unit that has 6 channel 4-5 volt RCA output, front and rear AUX and USB inputs, steering wheel remote capability (for the RF remote use), plus iPod operation capability from HU in a brand I rather not have is taking some time.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_020MF1/....html?tp=13308

I have a alpine Ida-x100m HU. Its user friendly and works great with a iPod. I still haven't got a remote. I feel the same about drilling a hole for a remote. Im still looking for ideas.

I went with sony marine. Built a pod on top of the dash for electronics. I wanted the head unit in the dash or close by for control. Just couldn't make it work. Head unit is in the cabin, with the RF receiver behind the unit. The RF's work at least 75', I did not test further. I have seen one work from inside a restraunt a good ways. I put a wired remote in my "pod" and ran a usb from the back of the head unit inside the cabin to the helm for iphone. You can see the two (dualing his and hers) floating remotes are on top of the pod. I saw all different names of radios that the remotes work with when ordering. They might work with the JVC you want.

Great! thanks Just what I want

Called to order, but was told it won't work on the JVC unit I want. Only on marine radios that have the wired remote jack. Isn't the automotive steering wheel controls the exact same thing, a "marine wired remote"?

Is it a plug and play or do you have to program the RF remote to work with the HU? Might be worth pursuing

I think it's plug and play. There was no programing the remotes. The directions they sent showed the rf receiver "y" into the wired remote. I went over the directions with my stereo installer, who told me the directions were wrong. The wired remote had a special cable that fit into the corresponding Sony head unit. The interactive remote receiver was just a simple 3.5mm headphone plug that plug into the generic 3.5 input on the rear of the headunit. Would be no different than plugging in your iPod or iPhone into the aux in on the back of the head unit and all controls would be from your iPhone. I'm really thinking it just needs a aux in to plug into. Please verify what I'm telling you with the manufacturer.

Called JVC tonight, what a trip!

The tech couldn't explain the difference between the marine HU version wired remote plug and a car version steering wheel remote plug. They suggested I talk to my local car stereo installer. You'd think JVC would know more than an installer??? I'm just going to order the radio and the remote and see what happens.

Post up how it goes. Hope it works for you.