Home entertainment evolving to house new electronics
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, March 31, 2003
High Point — Entertainment figures to be one of the most vital of product categories this market.
Driven by the changing shape and style of consumer electronics, especially home theater, furniture makers are developing new solutions that can accommodate larger projection televisions and flat-screen plasma TVs.
Home theater is an electronics concept that has been around for a full decade. The wall units of today are not all that different, in appearance, from the models that were introduced to much fanfare 10 years ago, often in marketing alliances between furniture factories and electronics brands.
But the category has certainly evolved.
For one thing, the price has dropped — perhaps as much as 66% for large walls with two piers flanking a center unit. In 1993, big furniture names were rolling out sprawling units that carried price tags approaching $6,000. This spring, it won't be hard to find these big rigs, made from solids and veneers, for less than $2,000. As with any furniture category experiencing falling prices, imports deserve credit — or blame — for this trend.
But the bigger issue may be the prices of the electronics, which also have dropped precipitously and may be in for further declines. Televisions and monitors have not only been getting larger but cheaper, too. It's pretty easy these days to put together a home theater electronics system with the monitor and all the necessary peripherals for $2,000, although it's also easy to spend much, much more.
The point is that the electronics are both sexy and attainable. As more and more consumers take the plunge for the electronics, more decide they need furniture that supports the electronics' function while also providing some style to support the décor of their homes. Thus, entertainment is a hot category for furniture.
But one size no longer fits all. Where once producers had to worry only whether their cavities were big enough for 32-inch, 36-inch or 40-inch direct-view sets, those are just a few of the dimensions that furniture makers now have to accommodate. In addition to the traditional direct-view set, consumers buying a new tube today are confronted by plasma televisions, rear projection sets, wide-screen formats, digital and high-definition.
Several top producers of entertainment furniture expect plasma to make the biggest splash this year.
"Plasma TV sales should take off this year," said Kim Shaver, director of marketing communications and brand manager for Hooker Furniture. "In fact, if you visit your local Circuit City or Best Buy, they are displaying at least four models, and selling them. We have recently surveyed consumers about their television purchasing plans, and found that a solid percentage of them have plans to buy plasma TVs this year."
In response, Hooker has developed consoles to support the wide-format plasmas as well as all the associated electronics peripherals. The contemporary design, at $1,499 retail, is targeted at the "early adopters" who are leading the way into plasma technology. Hooker has also developed home theater walls to accommodate plasma TVs, with a new shelf and an adjustable-depth back panel for mounting the thin-profile monitors.
Several other furniture makers are joining the flat-panel fray, some with gee-whiz style solutions. Among them, Sharut has a mechanized wall unit that allows consumers to adjust the viewing height of their flat screens. In fact, several factories have been experimenting with motors that raise and lower plasma monitors into and out of a console.
Not surprisingly, the ready-to-assemble majors are already plugged into the plasma trend. Sauder Woodworking and Bush Furniture are making a big push with wider stands and wall units with wider cavities to support plasma screens. Their flat-pack furniture solutions, also contemporary in design, will retail for less than $500.
Encore, a division of APA Marketing, will have a dozen new imported home theater walls, all of them capable of satisfying either rear projection behemoths or flat-panel monitors. According to Rich Serlin, vice president of sales for Encore, plasma is getting all the headlines, but rear projection is generating the unit sales.
"We have had to adjust our buying and our ordering," Serlin said. "We have video stands that aren't moving, which means that rear projection is selling. The big shift right now is toward rear projection units, especially digital models. Those sales are going up and up and up, which can only be good for entertainment wall units."
In the cyclical furniture business, the sales pendulum may have swung away from home office, but many producers are compensating with a new emphasis on entertainment. Buyers at the market should expect that many home office specialists will have entertainment introductions. Studio RTA, for instance, has developed its first coordinated entertainment group, rather than individual pieces, in several years.
And while the furniture and electronics industries are rejoicing over the new shapes of things, the old standby analog TV continues to sell at a steady clip, even if the technology is slated for obsolescence in just a few years when digital television standards will take over. This means that the furniture industry still has a market for television stands, armoires and wall units that are proportioned for the familiar dimensions of direct-view screens.
Recognizing that things are scheduled to change, at least a couple of producers are allowing consumers to hedge their bets.
Hooker and Riverside are introducing armoires that are designed to work for either entertainment or office uses. And Hooker has "future proofed" one of its entertainment centers, with a cavity to fit existing 36-inch TVs and also newer, wider models in the 16:9 HDTV format and even some of the 42-inch plasmas.
The home-theater phenomenon is finally reality, with dozens and dozens of electronics choices, and that's a good thing for companies that make and sell entertainment furniture.
-
Consoles thrive, walls survive in entertainment
May 15, 2012 -
Entertainment evolution
Jan 9, 2005
Featured Company
-
Wright Labels
Bill and Tom Wright founded Wright of Thomasville in 1961 on the idea that printing was a creative medium and the belief that "a promise made is a promise kept." The Wright brothers focused their attention on providing exceptional printing for the... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
