ZiVA doesn't smell like that! Do you have a Communications Room in your house??????????????????????
usatoday.com
11/17/97- Updated 01:23 PM ET
Home theater changes living areas
The growing popularity of home theater - expected to get a further boost from digital TV - is already altering many aspects of TV viewing.
"The whole home-theater concept has brought changes," says Linda Lentz, an editor at HOME, a magazine focusing on remodeling and decorating.
"You used to be able to put TVs in corners, but when they grew up they became more important in a room. Now, with the whole concept of audio and video meeting, it really matters where you put your speakers and your television and how you position everything."
Nearly gone are the days when you could easily move your TV from room to room on a flimsy metal cart with wheels.
"TVs are going to be plugged into too many different things," Lentz says. "You can't just wheel your TV around and plug it into a wall because it's plugged into an audio-video receiver, speakers, a VCR, a CD player and whatever else you have. That home entertainment area is going to be very important to the room."
Communications rooms
The digital era will dramatically change the way we use our TV rooms as well. Most significantly, they'll double as communications centers.
"This is a huge change in the way people use televisions," says Bob Perry, director of marketing for Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America. "What you're really broadcasting is a data stream so TV is no longer just an audio and video receiver, it is actually a data receiver and there are a variety of things you can do with it."
Televisions will become interactive. "Not only will you be able to receive information," Perry says, "but future TVs - two or three years from now - will include modems and those modems will let you use your remote control to type something into your TV and your TV will send it out on the modem back to the game show you're watching or perhaps back to the online catalog you're browsing.
"The relationship between the computer and the TV will become much closer."
Wiring will be key
To handle TV's extra duties, homes of the future are going to need to be wired in a way that will make it easy for consumers to adapt. "Rooms where we watch TV need to be closer to phone lines and will require more and better wiring," Lentz says. "I think that's something consumers should really be aware of when they're buying a new home. You really should talk to a media specialist, someone who will understand wiring and how to pull everything together."
The move to home theater is already having an impact on home design.
Donna Vining, owner of Vining Design Associates in Houston, says her clients are opting for windowless TV viewing rooms and installing digital audio systems. "They want to get more of that theater feel," Vining says.
Home theater aficionados are throwing out their recliners in favor of seats similar to those found in movie theaters complete with cup holders and matching ottomans. In some TV rooms, Vining says, the chairs are placed in tiers "so the back row can see over heads in the front row."
A short shelf life
If you opt for the floor-standing first generation of digital TVs or the limited number of early direct-view models, your current entertainment center's days may be numbered. "Depending on the kind of entertainment center you have, it could be obsolete," Lentz says, "because the shape of the television will change. It's going to be more rectangular and less square."
In addition, manufacturers will eventually offer flat-panel digital TVs, similar to some rear-projection nondigital models already on the market.
Just a few inches thick, they can be flush-mounted on the wall like a picture. They free up floor space for consumers with small living areas and allow placement of TVs in rooms where a larger floor unit can't fit.
Modular may be best
"I think the best thing for people to think about if they're buying furniture now is to get modular," Lentz says. "Get something that you can put together. Maybe that big entertainment center that fits one size TV is not what you really want."
What's a family to do with an obsolete entertainment center? "We can at least turn them into armoires," Lentz says. "A lot of what they have out there were actually armoires that they outfitted for TVs."
By Carol Memmott, Special for USA TODAY |
