Guest Friendly Homes

["Malcolm Lansell" <mlansell@xxxxxxx>]

>From my admittedly limited dabbling in HA the one crucial thing that
seems
to be missing is what I would call "Guest Friendliness". 
Everyone knows how
to turn on a light - you just flick the switch, right?  But in the HA
house,
all bets are off.  The light may fade up slowly, or there may be a slight
delay, causing the guest to press the lightswitch again - the light goes
off, or worse, stops at a dim level (which it remembers for next time!).

Things get worse when the AV system comes into play.  It's hard enough to
get certain relatives used to using two remotes for the TV (one for the TV,
one for the cable box), along with explaining how to switch between inputs
when they want to use teletext etc.  Add a third remote for the DVD or hifi
and the nightmare gets worse!

Having experienced such pain, I'm determined to implement my HA setup so
that it is intuitive to a first time user.  For example, If they want to
listen to some music, all the equipment should turn on with one switch, be
controlled through a single, simple remote, and on-screen menus should be
easy to follow.

So, the question is, how do you guys deal with guests to your homes?  Do
they have a nightmare with your fancy controls, or have you found ways to
hide all the complexity from them and leave them with a good impression of
HA?

Mal