It sounds like a neat idea. Triangular LED panels presenting a full palette of colours, solid or blinking, to mount on the wall. Even better, add a plug-in and the panels pick up the beat of whatever music is playing and sync with it. Pop and hip-hop work best, classical not so much. The panels are most sensitive to voices.

But Nanoleaf's Aurora is only neat if you ignore the customer experience. Mine was surprisingly, unfathomably frustrating.

Nanoleaf's Rhythm package provides nine equilateral triangle panels (25cm each side), the Rhythm sound-sensing plug-in and everything else necessary to get it pumping at an RRP of $349.99. The best discount I found was 99 cents. Open the box and there's a 'welcome' leaflet, its first three pages in English. The first tells you what a clever purchaser you are, the second is a schematic showing how to join the panels  — easy and intuitive — and the third is a troubleshooting guide that covers pairing to your Wi-Fi and phone or tablet (Android or iOS). That's it for instructions.

Nowhere could I find an explanation of the buttons on the plug-in controller. The on-off button is obvious but I still don't know what the capabilities of the other one are, or what it means when the LED power telltale is slow flashing, fast flashing or solid. There's a button on the Rhythm too. It also has a light that's solid or flashes.

The 'welcome' directs you to YouTube for set-up videos. Hello? Why aren't these on the Nanoleaf website? I wound up with a cat-loving Canadian guy explaining how to unpack the box. Duh.