ChuckDoherty.com

“What is the sound of one button pressing?”

I am in the process getting a new business venture off the ground. I am calling this RemoteZen and plan to offer customized remote control devices for home AV systems. My idea is to offer some relief to the folks who find themselves overwhelmed by the equipment they currently have by providing simpler controls and to market them with a focus on ease of use rather than on features and performance.

Here’s what got me started down this road. I recently bought a new A/V receiver to replace my aging Carver stereo receiver from the early 1980′s. As nice as the new receiver was, I was overwhelmed by its complexity. Even though I worked in the consumer audio business for a number of years and am hardly a Luddite, I found this to be a daunting device. I can well imagine how intimidating it must be for most people to deal with a science project like this just to hear music or watch a movie.

I also had need to master yet another remote control, and this one turned out to be as confusing to learn as it was difficult to use. Plus, adding yet another to the collection pushed my pile of remotes even further toward critical mass, but still I needed them all since no single device in the bunch could everything I needed. After shopping around for a “universal” remote, I discovered that many of the devices on the market were confusing and unwieldy as well.

I started thinking that there is a real opportunity for someone who wanted to bring simplicity back into home entertainment, and that a well-designed and properly programmed remote control could go a long way toward making that happen. This led to the idea of my marketing a few carefully chosen remote-controls products with the goal of making complex equipment easy to use, and that’s what I hope to do through RemoteZen.

Stay tuned for more on this as it gets rolling.

What are the odds of this happening: I put up a little tent to cover the serving area for a cookout at my house, and push down some foot-long stakes to hold it from blowing away. In the 5,000+ square feet of my yard, one of these stakes happens to get rammed through a sprinkler supply line, making the ground a bit spongy the day of the cookout and then sending water gushing out of the ground ala Jed Clampett when I pulled it out the next day. I managed to find and repair the puncture, but I am still amazed that I happened to hit the exact spot where the line ran. I could not have found this line if I had been looking to do so, but by pure dumb luck I struck gold, or in this case, water.

Another lesson learned by this: if ever shot by an arrow, you are best to leave it in place and not remove it before getting proper medical attention.

It appears that I will be working in Rhode Island for the time being, and will not have to travel at all for the next few months. This could not be better. With a little luck I can stay busy locally until the fall at least.