Small Business Strategies New technology means family room will never be the sameJerry SiebenmarkIn a nondescript, red-brick building on New York street, John Lee has set up the high-tech family room of the future. Visitors to John Lee's A+ Electronics Co., 343 N. New York, will see the kind of equipment usually found only in magazines geared to fanatical lovers of audio and video equipment (admit it, you're sort of that way yourself). This also is the kind of stuff most people can't afford -- it would cost more than $40,000 to set up a home theater the way Lee has. Still, if you want to see what's in store for the family room of the new millennium, this is the place. Start with the lighting system by Lutron and Grafik Eye. The system enables users to preset the amount of lighting they want for different occasions -- entertaining, for instance, or TV viewing. It's controlled remotely, so don't bother getting up. What are those curious looking panels mounted on the walls and corners of the room? Lee calls them "acoustic room treatments. "Available in nearly any color, the fiberglass panels serve to enhance the sound of the 22-foot by 14-foot room. He says the panels will make even the most mediocre audio system sound like it's a studio-quality one. On to the big attractions. You've already heard about high-definition television, or HDTV, which promises such clarity that you'll feel like you are there, not just watching. Well, it's true. The $13,000, JVC digital image light amplifier projector delivers a picture so clear and with colors so vivid that it truly makes you feel as though you were right in the middle of what you're watching (that's more true with programs that have been filmed with an HDTV camera). An 8-foot screen that retracts from the ceiling provides the backdrop for the picture. A McIntosh audio/video center and amplifier, along with NHT speakers, makes for theater-quality sound. But this room isn't just about watching TV and listening to CDs, it's also about interactivity. That part comes by way of the RKR Video's Cassini, a progressive-scan DVD player that Lee says is also a Pentium 3-class computer. By way of a wireless keyboard with a computer mouse mounted on it, users can surf the Internet, send e-mail or work on spreadsheets -- all without getting off the couch. The entire system is topped off with the Philips Pronto, an LCD touch-screen remote. The Pronto, says Lee, can be configured to operate all of the home theater's components and serve as a regular remote for flipping through the channels of the RCA high-definition satellite receiver. Watching television and listening to music hasn't been the same since my visit to Lee's business. While I'm not sold on combining a PC with a home theater system, I'm convinced the family room of the future will be a cool place, and watching movies and television from home will never be the same. There's something I'm wondering, though: How will you ever get the family to leave?
© A Plus Electronics, Inc. 2002 |