Entertainment center
Encyclopedia
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, which houses major electronic items, such as a television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
, a VCR and/or DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
, stereo components (such as an AM/FM tuner, multi-disc Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
changer, record player, one or more cassette players and graphic equalizer), and cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
or satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
receivers. A stereo console would contain components built into a cabinet, as was popular in the 1960s. These would be replaced by high-fidelity component stereos by the 1970s which offered much higher performance without being attached to furniture, or being tied to one brand of equipment.
Entertainment centers may be attached to high-fidelity stereo or quadraphonic
Quadraphonic
Quadraphonic sound – the most widely used early term for what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of the listening space, reproducing signals that are independent of one another...
speakers. By the 2000s, the best sound systems were designed for home theater and movie sound. It typically includes more than just the left and right stereo channels. Television and VHS typically encodes extra channels onto the two main channels, while digital modes encode this information into the digital DVD source data, with center, two rear, and a subwoofer
Subwoofer
A subwoofer is a woofer, or a complete loudspeaker, which is dedicated to the reproduction of low-pitched audio frequencies known as the "bass". The typical frequency range for a subwoofer is about 20–200 Hz for consumer products, below 100 Hz for professional live sound, and below...
speakers. The difficulty is usually in wiring and placing the rear speakers and the necessity of buying a receiver which can decode the sound. As the size of video monitors has increased, rather than having a 20 inch TV surrounded by massive stereo equipment, it is common to have a very large flat or projection screen with a small and integrated DVD player / receiver and satellite or digital cable receiver underneath, with small remote speakers and a moderate sized subwoofer.
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...
s are available that can learn or are programmed with most common equipment.
The term home entertainment center may also refer to the complete package – the electronic components and the unit in which they are housed. The unit is often either an armoire or a self-contained unit (usually of wood and glass); they often contain dedicated areas (either drawers or other spaces) for storage of records, videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
s, CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
s and/or DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s.
In many homes, an entertainment center is often placed in the living room
Living room
A living room, also known as sitting room, lounge room or lounge , is a room for entertaining adult guests, reading, or other activities...
, family room
Family room
A family room is an informal, all-purpose room in a house similar to a living room. The family room is designed to be a place where family and guests gather for group recreation like talking, reading, watching TV, and other family activities. Often, the family room is located adjacent to the...
or recreation room
Recreation room
A recreation room is a room used for a variety of purposes, such as parties, games and other everyday or casual use. The term is common in the United States and Canada, but is less common in the United Kingdom where the preferred term is games room...
. Perhaps the first example of a built-in entertainment center was created by Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
at his 1917 Hollyhock House
Hollyhock House
The Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House is a building in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a residence for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, built in 1919–1921...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Custom cabinetry and speakers may be built into or added to an existing house at some expense over free-standing furniture, and video and / or audio signals wired or wirelessly sent to other rooms in the home by dedicated cables, or over a local area network.
The term home entertainment center was widely used in the 1980s. It is being replaced by home theater system
Home cinema
Home cinema, also commonly called home theater, are home entertainment set-ups that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood with the help of video and audio equipment in a private home....
for large rooms. While high fidelity previously required large turntables, tape decks and speakers, the changing technology of music formats have made small bookshelf systems, Bose desktop radios, and iPod based speaker systems which can also produce music of high quality and serve as music entertainment systems, making large component systems again a niche high-end market.