Trouble-shooting Tips for Christmas Home Automation Failures

So it’s Christmas morning and like most Home Theater and Home Automation companies, Technospeak will be closed.  It’s early, and you are just about to start all the craziness of Christmas from new gifts to open and be played with, to large dinner parties with friends and family, to football on the TV.  Yes, Christmas Day is a wonderful day, but it can go south quickly if some or your Home Automation or Audio/Video Electronics are not behaving as they normally do. With no one to call and lots of entertaining to do, what other options do you have? Well, don’t worry, Technospeak has come through for you.  How is that you ask? Below we have listed emergency trouble-shooting tips for the most common Home Automation and Audio/Video electronics issues that we have seen in the past. Our hope is that this will help you get through any Christmas Day Electronics disasters you might encounter.

ISSUE #1 – MY CHRISTMAS MUSIC STATION JUST WENT OUT. So you are 15 minutes away from your Christmas Dinner party and the Christmas Music Station you are streaming just stopped playing.  The guests will be arriving soon so you only have a few minutes to resolve. What to do? Well the first step is to make sure the music service hasn’t just stopped playing on its own.  Pandora, SiriusXM and other streaming music services will periodically stop their online streaming feed to make sure you are still listening. They do this by pausing the audio and prompting you to give them some feedback that you are still there. When you are listening to these audio streams through a Sonos speaker, Audio/Video Receiver, Apple Airport Express, etc. you cannot see this prompt so you don’t know that is what the app is asking for to resolve, simply press play on your Universal Remote, touchscreen, iPhone, iPad or whatever else you are using to control the audio and you should resolve the issue. If this does not resolve your issue, the second thing to do is make sure other devices like a computer or Apple TV are still connected to the internet by trying to surf the internet or watch a movie trailer.  If those devices are connected to the internet, your problem is isolated to your music source.  Thus, you can solve most general issues by turning off the audio source you were listening to using your Universal Remote/iPhone etc and then rebooting that audio source. Wait about 3-5 minutes for it to boot up again and then try playing the audio source again. If you find that your computer, Apple TV and all other network connected devices seem to have lost internet access, your issue is mostly likely at your router and/or modem.   To resolve, turn off your audio source like you did in the previous step.  Then unplug your modem and router from power.  Wait 1 minute. Plug your modem back into power and wait 2 minutes. Plug in your router and wait 5 minutes more. Then try your audio streaming source again to see if that fixed the issue. If it does not, Make a note to call Technospeak or another Home Automation company in the area to schedule a service call to resolve.

ISSUE #2 – I HAVE LOST CONTROL OF MY DIRECTV DVR.  So you watched DirecTV as you normally do each day with your Home Theater system and had no issues. However, on Christmas day you realize that although your TV turned on and you can control the volume just fine, you can’t change channels, pull up the guide or get any info on any station. Football games start at 1pm Christmas day so you are under the gun to resolve quickly.  What to do now?  Well if you have an IP based Control system like Control4 or RTI, this issue is pretty easy to resolve. The most likely cause of your loss of control is that the DirecTV box likes to randomly switch IP addresses. This is the case even if you reserve the IP address in the router or set up a static IP address within the DirecTV network menu.  Your IP based control system uses the IP address to communicate to the DirecTV box so if that address changes, your control system doesn’t know where your box is anymore.   To resolve, grab the DirectTV remote that came with the DirecTV DVR. If you get your IP based control system installed by Technospeak, look for it in the finish box.  Hit the Menu button on the DirecTV remote and scroll through the DirecTV menu to get to Network settings. Select view network settings and write down the current IP address of the DirecTV DVR. Example of common IP addresses will 192.168.1.45 or 10.0.0.215. Then send your Home Automation company owner a quick email or text (as they will be the only ones to respond Christmas day) and let them know the IP address of the DirecTV box changed and needs to be reset. On their end, the Home Automation company can reset the IP address remotely and quickly. Once they do control will come back instantaneously and you will be good to go for football. Then make a note to call Technospeak or another Home Automation company to review the issue and resolve.

ISSUE #3 – I GOT MY KID AN XBOX FOR CHRISTMAS AND HE CAN’T WAIT UNTIL DECEMBER 26TH TO USE IT.  If you have a traditional 5.1 home theater system and a Universal Remote, the solution is a fairly easy one.  Unbox the Xbox and plug in the supplied power cord to the back of the Xbox.  Look at your Universal remote for a Video source such as an Apple TV, Roku or Blu-ray player that has as few wires connected to it as possible.  Select that source (i.e., Apple TV) and let the TV, Audio/Video receiver and other components turn on as they normally would.  Reach around the back of the device (i.e, Apple TV) you selected on the Universal Remote and unplug the HDMI cable from the back of the device.  Hold on to that HDMI cable and reroute it so you can plug it into the back of the Xbox.  Turn on the Xbox and verify that you can see the Xbox home screen.  Pair the Xbox controller reading the directions included or just let your kid do it for you as they probably know how already.  The volume for the system will still work on the remote, you will just lose your ability to watch that source that you unplugged (i.e., Apple TV). Make a note to call Technospeak or another Home Automation company in the area to schedule a service call to permanently program the Xbox into the system.

ISSUE #4 – I GOT A NEW IPHONE FOR CHRISTMAS AND I WANT TO CONNECT IT TO MY CONTROL4 SYSTEM.  So your significant other splurged and get you the iPhone X but once your are done playing with the face ID you realize its not connected to your Contol4 system.  Can’t wait for us to schedule a service call to do it for you? No worries, just follow the steps below and you will be good to go:

• Download the Control4 app from the iTunes Store
• Open the app and select the Settings Icon
• On the top right of the app you will see a “+” icon; select that
• Select Next
• Type in the Name you want to give your system, such as “My Home C4 System”
• Type in the Control4 registered Username and Password for your system; if you don’t have it try searching through your emails from your dealer and you might find it
• On the next screen, you will see a big “Connect” button; press that button and your Control4 system should load on your new phone

For those of you who have the misfortune to have an Audio/Video electronics issue on Christmas Day, we hope you have found this information useful.  If you feel the need to reach out to us for any Wi-fi, Security, Home Theater, Home Automation or New Construction needs, please do so at 855-832-4775 or find us on the Web at www.technospeakco.com.

And last but not least, Merry Christmas to you and yours and remember we will be open from December 26th through December 29th to resolve your Home electronics woes. At Technospeak, we take the “Tech-y” out of electronics, leaving you with the knowledge you need to enjoy your electronics.