Furniture takes stage at CES
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, January 21, 2008
Las Vegas — Sophisticated chairs for gamers, consoles for today's high-tech televisions, and a $20,000 bed that does everything but serve breakfast were the furniture stars of the recent Consumer Electronics Show here.
None of the furniture pieces generated a buzz comparable to the new electronic gadgets that are the show's main dish, but their role as an important supporting product was unmistakable.
Most furniture exhibitors said they got their fair share of traffic from the 140,000 who attended this massive event, and they generally were pleased with the response to their products.
"This is not just taking a product to market. It's putting something on the world stage," said Mark Quinn, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Leggett & Platt's bedding business. He was here to unveil Leggett's Starry Night bed, which is packed with high-tech gadgets that warm and cool the body, play movies and music, and alleviate snoring, among other things.
Starry Night was a key part of an exhibit called NextGen Home, which demonstrated how virtually every function in the home — from lowering the blinds to adjusting the oven temperature — can be integrated using a new software package called Lifeware.
"The fact that we were at CES says a lot about where we are headed as a company," said Quinn. "We want to be seen as the innovation leader in our business."
He noted that the bed also will be on display in the Fashion Bed Group showroom, World Market Center B-1326, during the first two days of next week's Las Vegas Market.
Starry Night, which will retail for $20,000 to $50,000 when it's available next year, has options that include disc storage for up to 400,000 songs or 2,000 hours of video.
Gamers won't need to spend nearly that much for a comfortable chair (unless they want the $14,000 gaming platform from D-Box that has a full-size seat, steering wheel and pedals), but the CES show floor did feature dozens of sophisticated high-tech models.
Virtually all had speakers and subwoofers built into the back of the chair, and most came with amenities ranging from headphone jacks to cup holders.
Most of the chairs had a low-slung design that puts the gamer nearly at floor level, but a handful of introductions were designed to resemble office chairs or cushy recliners.
"We're really trying to take luxury gaming chairs into the mainstream," said Jay Sorensen, president of Ace Bayou, which markets the X-Rocker line of gaming chairs.
Additions to the X-Rocker line include a model that looks like a medium-sized lounge chair that will retail for about $399. It employs a wireless technology, which means the chair doesn't have to be wired to the gamer's monitor.
Gaming chair distributor Pyramat, on the other hand, unveiled a model that looks like a typical office chair — except for the speakers on both sides of the headrest and the remote control unit built into the left arm.
And chair resource Repose won a CES Innovations Award for its newest gaming chair, the Bonerattler. It will retail for about $699 and features wireless audio, a device that vibrates the chair in time with loud sounds or music, and a USB charger for portable electronic devices such as an mp3 player.
In addition, longtime gaming chair distributor LumiSource unveiled several additions to its BoomChair line, notably a chair that can operate on battery power when needed.
Television console manufacturers didn't display products as sophisticated as the gaming chairs, but they didn't have to. Exhibitors said buyers were much more interested in features such as wire management and ventilation control.
Salamander Designs, for example, unveiled a console with a built-in fan that begins running when the temperature around the component shelves reaches a predetermined level. And executives of Kathy Ireland Home by Martin said they won positive response to the company's Easy Wire Access system, which was introduced last year and is now incorporated into many of its consoles.
Bell'O International's introductions included a console with a pair of shelves that swivel. The piece is suitable for a bedroom, office or den, said President Marc Schuller.
