X10… So Easy… It’s Difficult?
I received a call last week from an affiliate, and we were discussing setup of X10 items. The one thing that kind of perked my interest was a quote he made that “setting up X10 products was so easy that it seemed difficult.“ I asked him to explain this to me in further detail.
In a paraphrase he was telling me that in reading the Community forums, sometimes people tend to have a tough time setting up their equipment and have problems because they expect it to be difficult. This leads to frustration on their part and uncertainty as to if they set it up correctly. He then mentions that sometimes things truly are as easy as they seem and that you really don’t need to question further or look more into detail.
He tells me that he is a person who could be considered tech-savvy, so he has a good understanding of how electronic things work. So I asked him if he felt that since he had better abilities than most who attempt to setup their equipment if that played a role? His answer… No.
I tried to put myself in the shoes of a new customer, one who was excited to receive their product but had no idea what to expect. What I did was open the package of a 1-camera kit and think to myself “If I had no knowledge of how this stuff works, would it make sense to me?”
In this kit I saw roughly 6 to 7 pieces consisting of wires, cables and devices. I thought wow this can seem intimidating for a person new to this stuff. But as I started to piece things together, in the end I ended up with two separate objects each comprising of two to three attachments of cables. So I went from a box full of seven items to two – a wireless camera and a video receiver.
The next thing I thought was what do I have to do to make these two devices work? Now all of a sudden if I had no knowledge of how to proceed what would be the next step? I looked at the devices and realized I needed to plug in the camera to an electrical socket on the wall. As for the receiver, this seemed a little more difficult. However, since it used a standard RCA-Video jack, it seemed appropriate that it be plugged into a device like a television, and of course the electrical plug into an outlet.
I then changed the input on the television to where the RCA port was and I had a picture of what the camera was viewing. Although it seems logical as to how to set it up, I can see why it may seem so difficult. There were still a bunch of questions I had thought about such as what happened if I didn’t do this right, or if there were no picture? What do I do next? I also tried to think about how were these two devices connecting?
I then thought about this gentleman’s comments again. Well, things worked the way they were supposed to. But sometimes this isn’t always the case – what about those poor forum posters experiencing problems?
I know that sometimes the problems they experience are a few simple adjustments or even having an understanding of what the devices are doing. But then sometimes there are other serious issues such as possible defective pieces and such.
If anything, talking to this gentleman really made me think. Are X10 products really that easy that they can be difficult?
Check back to the Community site on occasion, as I plan to add more tutorials in the tutorial section over time.