Keeping The Peace

Every neighborhood has one, the guy no one talks to. Whether it starts with an unkempt yard, a house needing paint for three years or constant dog barking, this family puts bees in everyone’s bonnet without even trying.

No one intends to become that family, but circumstances intervene. Last week, having just finished a new home theatre, our homeowner tries it out with an action feature with tons of explosions and loud effects. This would be fine, except the new outside speakers remained on all evening, broadcasting every impact and detonation for the entire neighborhood, which, due to the sound proofing of the home theatre, our homeowner couldn’t hear. Next up: that visit from the local PD that no one wants.

Our homeowner shouldn’t feel too bad; it could happen to anyone. Anyone, that is, except the family that engages a reputable and capable electronic systems consultant to start the home theatre project. Our family got it mostly right. They got a great audio system (including the now infamous outside speakers), a nice, big HD flat screen, and a control system that gives them fingertip command of the entire system.

However, omissions often matter more than inclusions. In this case, a component as simple as visual indicators, showing which elements of the system remain active, would have helped our homeowner avert becoming a local pariah. An electronic systems consultant would have suggested this, among other solutions, thus enabling peace to reign uninterrupted.