The New Age of Flat Screen Television

Everything changed on Nov 4^th 1964. That was the night America was introduced to the Beatles as they performed on the Ed Sullivan Show. I was moving and grooving in Dallas, Texas to the rhythms of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” while staring at a small, boxy, black and white television with rabbit ears. It was the same black and white television my family watched I Love Lucy and The Marx Brothers on years before.

Over the next decade, televisions got larger, and after Dorothy landed in Munchkin Land, we all had to make sure those larger TVs were in color.  In the nineties, characters like ‘Tim the Tool-man Taylor’ displayed their masculinity by disappearing into their garages to watch portable televisions as they tuned-up old hotrods.

Crowding around a small black and white TV with rabbit ears is a memory of the distant past. These have been replaced by a new generation of TVs and TV enthusiasts who choose to bring together whole neighborhoods to show off their big screens for sporting events.

Brian Perreault, General Manager of Barretts Home Theater Chicago, has witnessed the advent of many new technologies: “It is not as simple as plugging in a television anymore. There are some installation applications where older products such as CRT or DLP televisions simply would not work.”

According to Perreault, “Clients no longer want bulky TVs.  They want flat panel televisions that open up the room. In the past, if you wanted a big screen you were forced to look at a big box television, sometimes coupled with a chucky piece of furniture to accommodate it.”

Women, the central decorators of the home, are on the prowl to discover new ways to integrate televisions without making them the center of the room. Having once owned a big screen television, of course from Barrett’s Home Theater Chicago, my living space has increased and the room seems less cluttered with the addition of my LG flat panel. Even the electronic components including a CD player, high definition cable box, Blu-ray, and audio server are stored in the basement, nowhere to be seen in the living space. What a relief to get rid of all those wires!

Even corporate America seems to be having a love affair with electronics in the board rooms. Many offices that I visit have flat panel televisions mounted on the walls displaying digital art scenes, including my favorite: the Rocky Mountains. Soothing yes, but also serving a dual purpose, because with the switch of a remote on goes the television. Barrett’s Home Theater Chicago, also installs projectors mounted high over board tables for presentations.

Who knows what technologies will emerge in the next few years, but this I know, the manufacturers are making flat screen televsions and other products sleeker and more sophisticated.  Barretts Home Theater located in the Chicago suburbs of Naperville and Algonquin, have all these and more, including the latest offerings from Sony, LG, Samsung, and Pioneer.