Does being a media star on a major-market landscape such as Chicago`s qualify one as an expert on all that is au courant in the field of home entertainment gadgetry?
Sometimes. But not always.
”Geez, all I know about any new electronic stuff is what my kids tell me,” says Bruce Wolf, the veteran WFLD-Ch. 32 and WLUP-AM and FM sports zany. Wolf was one of several media types we talked to about the home entertainment equipment they`d put on wish lists.
But wait. Wolf does have one request: An interactive CD game called
”Play It By Ear, Volume 2” by Rykodisc ($40 at FAO Schwarz, Rose Records and Toys R Us stores).
Play It by Ear is a compendium of pop music back notes and nosh that puts players` memories and knowledge to the test.
The sequel to last year`s hit game comes with one compact disc and 1,800 questions in 13 categories.
Speaking of interactive entertainment systems, we found the Phillips Compact Disc-Interactive System on our own.
On the market for a little more than a year, the pricey toy (about $699, includes player, thumbstick control and one CD-I title at Montgomery Ward`s Electric Avenue stores, Silo stores, Sears Roebuck & Co. stores and Musicraft stores) lets players ”bat” against Dennis Eckersley and Dave Stewart or lead armies in an epic samurai adventure.
Where`s the speaker?
Vicki Truax, co-host (along with Shawn Burke) of WJMK-FM`s morning show, has her well-trained ears set on one of the more innovative pieces of home entertainment equipment this season.
Jamo speakers hang on the wall inside what look like picture frames. The speakers` grill-coverings come in indigo, grass and rose, making the speakers look more like art than what they actually are.
Jamo speakers ($299 each for wall models) are available at Gold Coast Electronics, 1127 N. State St.; Sheridan Electronics, 5045 N. Sheridan Rd.;
Mills Recording Studio, 174 N. Michigan Ave.; Audio Video Center, Arlington Heights; QED Laser Entertainment, Westchester; Gill Custom House, Palos Hills; Kaiser Electronics, Westmont; all Douglas TV stores.
The firm also makes speakers discreetly housed in what appear to be hanging light fixtures.
”Invisible” speakers are in the forefront of a growing trend among first-cabin interior designers, according to Elgin-based designer Richard Bielefeld, who is currently converting a largeportion of Arlington
International Racecourse`s Million Room restaurant into a lounge.
”People are getting more and more clever in their efforts to make good sound a sort of hidden extra in a well-designed room,” says Bielefeld.
Picture that
A well-designed room for media critic Gary Deeb, of WLS-TV, Ch. 7, would include a video printer, ”a gadget that you hook up to your VCR, hit the
`still` button at a desired spot and get a Polaroid-quality print in a minute or so.
”It`s neat,” says Deeb, a self-described home entertainment hobbyist,
”and it`s only going to get better as the technology behind the quality of the reproduced still print improves.” The Hitachi video printer ($999) is available at Hammacher Schlemmer, 618 N. Michigan Ave.
WLS-TV`s anchorwoman Diann Burns is another wide-eyed watcher of home entertainment trends.
”I keep all sorts of electronic catalogs around my desk at the station in case anybody calls needing a gift idea, ideally for me,” says Burns.
”Two things fascinated me this year-one to the point that I already went out and bought it. That was a laser movie disc player,” says Burns. The Pioneer automatic laser movie disc player ($699 at Silo stores) and Sharp`s laser movie disc player, which requires the disc to be flipped manually ($400 at Douglas TV stores), are just two of the many brands and models available.
”Watching `Terminator II` on that thing is enough to kick-start a dead man`s heart,” says Burns. ”The downside is that there are only about 100 movie titles available right now, although that number will obviously go up quickly and soon.
”The other piece of equipment that I think is really cool is a tiny, tiny hand-held videocam that Mitsubishi makes ($850 at Douglas TV stores). The whole thing only weighs a pound-and-a-half, meaning that it literally fits into the palm of your hand, and it goes from stop to record in 0.3 seconds, which is unbelievable. To me, that would be a great gift.”
