It started in the 1970s, when made-for-television movies debuted on the home screen, and one didn't have to venture to the local Odeon to view a first-run film. The momentum increased with the proliferation of television miniseries. Now, the latest best-selling books are quickly converted to electronic images, and video-cassette recorders can play back any tens of thousands of movies old and new from a constantly expanding library available for rental or purchase.
Due to laser-based technology and the invention of the compact disc (CD), classical and pop aficionados can relish the concert-hall quality of recorded music.
While the lavish promises of its advent are still unfulfilled, cable television has certainly increased the range of viewing choices and may still developed more of its vast potential. Giant television screens were perhaps also ballyhooed a bit prematurely, but there are some still around, and the second, new-and-improved generation, is no doubt on the way.
What all this means to the average consumer is a bewildering number of choices in equipment and gadgetry in the marketplace and overwhelming options for staying home once the choices are made. Whether for private viewing, family gatherings, or sheer entertainment, the viewing room has become the center of many homes.
For some people, the media room has additional importance. It has become a necessity for entertainment professionals who now have at their fingertips all the tools for viewing their work with ease and flexibility the mightiest movie moguls never dreamed of. For performers, producers, and critics, taking work home has never been so easy or so luxurious.
Maxine Smith and Celia Cleary are a Los Angeles-based decorating team with a clear philosophy of design that they apply to the client's needs and not to trendy whims. Because so many of their clients work in the entertainment business, Smith and Cleary are among the pioneers in integrating media rooms into the overall design of the home. Not only have they designed whole houses and specific media spaces for stars such as Barbara Streisand and Henry Winkler, but also, because she is married to producer Gary Smith, Maxine had to incorporate a media room into her own home as well.
The solution that Maxine and her working partner came up with was to design a charming sun-room that converts to a media room at night. There Gary can review work on such Smith-Hemion projects as the televised "Liberty Weekend '86," the festivities surrounding the unveiling of the newly restored Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
A project they didn't design, but are frank and quick to admit is in their combined opinion the best media room of any, belongs so columnist and critic Rona Barrett. Designed by decorator Steve Chase and architect Hal Levitt, the room is a dramatic sweep of space that can accommodate as many as twenty-four people in lavish comfort. It is at once a return to the style of the powerful studio heads and an incorporation of the very latest in viewing equipment.
An even more thought provoking combination of previous power and today's technology is the room created several years ago by Katherine
...
Read Full Article
|
