Innovative entertainment systems gain popularity

INNOVATIONS HAVE
created considerable
changes in the home enter-
tainment market over the
past decade.

By Pamela Lang
Features Reporter

And interest in the high-tech
systems now being made has
gradually caught on with the buy-
ing public, explained Tom Dakin
of Epic Audio Ltd. in North Van-
couver.

**People are willing to spend the
money now; they are willing to
designate a room for their home
entertainment system.”*

Coasumers are now considering
the option of pre-wiring their
homes during construction to
create a room for their entertain-
ment system. And with the right
set-up, and about $10,000, a
home can have its own theatre
and multi-room access to the
stereo system, he said.

Infra-red remote control access
through in-wall speakers, or con-
trol via built-in keypads, allow
people in all parts of the home to
access the stereo’s CD player,
cassette player, or radio.

“You have ‘speakers in every
room and control in every room."

A multi-zone stereo system
allows different things to be heard
in different rooms but with just
One stereo system.

Standard television sets are be-
ing made quite large these days,
with very large boxes that hold a
40- to 60-inch screen, said Dakin.

The home theatre features a
projection television that can be
mounted on the ceiling, the floor,
or in the coffee table. It can also
be designed to be hidden away
while not in use so that the room
can be used for other purposes.

**It can be put on a power lift
and tucked away into the ceiling
when it’s notin use.”’

The projection is thrown onto a
wall or a screen, giving the viewer
a 100-inch image (that’s a diag-

onal width of eight feet). Viewers
can then listen to the sound
through surround-sound speakers
added to their stereo systems,
Dakin explained.

Why would anyone want a
100-inch projection television with
surround sound? Why not, with
the price of movies being what
they are? And with a home
system, you will never have to
worry about the guy next to you
explaining the movie to his
girlfriend.

Projection televisions range
from 30-inch to 150-inch screens.
A unit that projects a 100-inch
image selis for about $6,000 and
with about $700 more, surround
sound can be build into the
home’s current stereo system, he
said.

Five years ago the same system
would have cost the consumer
$15,000; two or three years ago, it
would have cost $10,000.

“Everything is so cheap in this
business it’s insane. I’m selling a
receiver for the same price I sold

not exactly as iustrated

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hali setting wth the built-in,
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it for 20 years ago, but it’s 20
years more advanced.”’

The house that receiver is going
into could be bought for $30,000
20 years ago, and now it will cost
several hundred thousand dollars,
said Dakin.

He said the sales of home
theatres have jumped recently. ‘I
used to sell two per year; this year
Til probably sell 20.""

And they’ve come a long way,
he added. ‘‘They are !0 times bet-
ter than they were five years
ago.”

The unit Dakin was showing
had a -700-line image, offering
much better clarity than the 400-
to: 600-line images available just
last year.

So what is the best system?

Dakin says there is no best.
“That would be $500,000.”

And while people don’t spend -
that mach on home entertainment,
they do spend $50,000.

But, he added, people don’t
necessarily need to spend that
much because the goal of a good
home entertainment system is to
get the optimum sound for the
rooms that it will be heard in.

The optimum range for the
average home is between $8,000
and $10,000 for a home theatre
and a multi-channel, multi-room
audio system. ‘*You don’t have to
spend more.”'

“In the audio business you can

See Best page 23

NEWS photo Moll Lucente

THE BEAUTY of technology is that it lets consumers sit back and
vei2x while they control their home entertainment system through

their remote control.

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