Automating Sibling Rivalry

October 3, 2012

Control4-audio-automationIn my house growing up, automation took sibling rivalry to a whole new level - from an all-out immature brawl, to an intelligent, though probably still immature, battle of strategy and wits. I don't remember how the fight started (who does?) but the bottom line was we were fighting and we were going to make each other miserable as a result.

My opening move was to turn the TV off on my brother, so I went to the touch screen in my room, and turned off the TV in the family room where he was watching. He at first assumed it was just a power outage or something and turned the TV back on, and I promptly turned it off. After two or three go-rounds, he figured out my game and began his own attack. He turned the lights off in my room, child's play really, so I turned on the home shopping network for him. He then blasted Backstreet Boys in my room at 80% of the volume. Every time I turned the TV off or changed the channel on him, the volume in my room went up. I turned the volume on the TV up to max and he ramped the music in my room to 100% - at that point everyone else in the house came charging towards us yelling and furious.

We were banished to our rooms and sent to bed - no music, no TV, couldn't even turn on our lights due to some adjustments my dad made to our system. Unfortunately that was not the last time the "isolation scene" was used.