Hi Tony,
I read about your problems there with sunlight -
and your dropping of your remote into the spa pool recently.

There is a learning remote control by the One For All people (at www.oneforall.com) called the Home Producer 8, which comes with a RF to IR 'base station' which may well be the answer to your problems.

Effectively, you teach the remote your IR commands from whatever IR devices you have e.g. Rio Receiver, then when you press buttons on the remote it sends out a RF signal to the RF/IR repeater box, which then turns the RF button signal into the IR signal you just selected.

This should let you control the Rio Receiver [or anything else it has learned] from 50+ feet away, and you could orient the Rio Receiver away from the window (heck it could even be in the house in the stereo rack where it belongs!) so gods flashlight won't affect the unit while the RF signal will get through to the repeater. And of course, being RF, you can probably seal the remote up in a nice waterproof bag (like maybe a Cellphone water proofing bag) and still use it - providing you can see the buttons that is.

The unit costs about $70 - visit this web site for the details on the various models, the model I'm about is the Home Producer 8, I know the remotes expensive by comparion, but nothings too much when you can use your toys from the comfort of the Spa pool now is it?

I'm sure you can find a local (to you) outfit that stocks it, or One For All will sell you one direct I guess.

Let me know if it works for you.

I got the initial specs on this from Remote Central