A prolonged sojourn in our homes over the past two years has meant that entertainment spaces have changed. Nick Ross looks at how far we’ve come from a couch in front of a TV and how far we may yet go.

One hundred years ago, the home entertainment space experienced a revolution that saw the most-modern households organise their living room around a large, wooden cabinet to facilitate family listening to the radio. Three decades and a war later, radio would be usurped by television and the living room expanded to suit people sitting further back from a screen.

The subsequent growth of TV in terms of content, popularity, time-watched and screen size saw the living room grow to the point where lounge rooms possessed all manner of soft furnishings and were generally set-up so that people could comfortably live and sleep in one with the TV on.

Throughout that time, there hasn’t been a revolutionary change in the layout and function of a home’s entertainment space, but is there about to be?

Brave new world

While we don’t want to get bogged down in contentious views of what the new normal looks like, it’s fair to say that the olden days of a traditional family gathered to watch the channel that dad chose are long gone.

Television is almost irrelevant to younger people who favour streaming video over ad-riddled reality shows and movies plus news that barely relates to them. Young or adult children, couples or flatmates can be in different rooms with their own computer-based devices engaging with multiple screens at once.

Not surprisingly, questions are even being asked about whether new homes even need living rooms now. Ultimately, enormous, recent advances in media and the way we consume it, mean there are more options for more types of entertainment spaces than ever.

The classic TV-based space

Though it’s no-longer the de facto choice, having a lounge-room that’s based around a TV is going to be the expectation of an entertainment space for most adults for some time to come. But TVs aren’t what they were. They’ve undergone rapid revolution to the point where traditional broadcast television is almost a novel add-on. Built-in streaming services are now normal, major TV manufacturers are telling us that 75-inches is the new sweet spot, and you don’t necessarily need a large TV stand to house ‘set-top boxes’ and physically support the TV.

It’s a strange notion that the growth of TV sizes can free-up space, but here we are. TV manufacturers are well aware of it too and one of the industry’s latest focuses is what to do with the giant black screen on the entertainment room’s wall.

It’s arguably Samsung that has led the way here. The company itself says its TVs are now being created to suit the evolving needs of how they’re being used in Australian homes, with vice president of consumer electronics, Jeremy Senior saying its latest range: “allows Australians to have not just a TV, but a customisable and personalised screen that can be used to showcase and purchase art, experience content, work, play and connect with their favourite people.”

The ability to display artwork on TVs has been around for some years now but it’s been hampered by things like pricing, lack of availability and a lack of focus. Samsung’s The Frame range has arguably pushed hardest in this space. After initially launching as an overpriced, cheap-TV with a customisable (and expensive) wooden, picture-frame border, the latest iteration sports an impressive, ultra-matte, anti-glare finish that can display artwork that’s barely distinguishable from a regular painting. It’s also now available with a motorised, rotating wall mount (or artist’s easel-like stand accessory) to suit portrait art – and social media videos. Access to vast libraries of free, fine art has been granted and a new app enables you to display NFTs.

The ability to display art spans the range but a favourite feature remains Samsung’s Ambient Mode: before installing the TV you take a picture of the wall it will sit in front of. The TV then displays the picture but superimposes things like augmented reality, moving artworks and artistic, high-concept smart apps (like clocks and calendars). In short, the big black screen suddenly becomes almost invisible and a futuristic, ‘translucent’ smart display becomes part of your wall. We haven’t got tired of it, and it functions as a phenomenal centrepiece to any home entertainment space, when you’re not watching TV. The latest models’ excellent picture quality, thinness and thin bezel only enhance the futuristic feel.

Other manufacturers are focusing on other advances in entertainment spaces with Sony pushing forward with next-gen QD-OLED displays and LG launching an $18,000 Samsung Frame clone and a small, $130,000 roll-up TV!

The big work crossover

One of the many technological changes that COVID-19 has helped to drive involves working from home and for many this has impacted their entertainment space.

Whether it’s in a bedroom, spare room or living room, it’s not uncommon for someone’s domestic world to revolve around an increasingly ergonomic table and accompanying expensive chair and for this to be used for work, conferencing, general web tasks, play and entertainment.

Ergonomics are often the order of the day because many people no longer stand up or move around much at all, meaning high-quality furnishings and peripherals are in increasing demand. Also, manufacturers are recognising that many people use their screens (both TVs and monitors) for similar tasks and so they need to work seamlessly together. It’s now not uncommon for consumer screens of all kinds to offer some form of Unified Communications (UC) compatibility and be able to act as standalone conferencing devices for friends, family, colleagues and customers.

As for what these set-ups look like. They can range from a computer geek’s RGB-LED-based, elaborately lit battle station, through to tidy, minimalist, chic office or resemble a messy, food-strewn micro-hovel. Either way, for many it’s the new home entertainment space and more time is being spent there than ever before.

Innovations in audio

Both home and office audio have seen incredible refinements in recent years. This is partly thanks to luxury car manufacturers pushing for ever-increasing sound quality from increasingly smaller-and-lighter kits plus COVID-19 escalating the demand for improved UC and conferencing. Furthermore, voice-activated virtual assistants have become increasingly powerful and accurate and are more-commonly integrated into TVs and smart speakers. They, in turn, control proliferating types of consumer-grade, IoT-based, smart home devices and lighting systems while being protected by consumer-level WiFi routers that now have built-in cybersecurity.

Meanwhile, Netflix’s pushing of Dolby Audio means there’s now plenty of content to make use of ceiling speakers and intelligent, up-firing soundbars which cleverly add another dimension to surround sound.

Advance Audio’s Nigel Ng told us that there was ballooning demand for high-end audio products that are better at integrating with our lives. This might be through functionality (i.e. streaming from a smart device or phone) or aesthetics (many speakers now resemble objets d’art). He adds: “Just as we saw with the car industry, manufacturers are getting better at marketing their products to an associated luxury market. A lot of high-end entertainment audio is being sold into luxury homes as a statement piece.”

Nigel adds that the move to ‘wireless everything’ has meant there’s never been more need for a professional installer and that, “98% of troubleshooting calls have to do with the home network.”

Furthermore, because customers are better informed and products are increasingly versatile, he says: “It’s become quite freeing, as we get to talk about the fun stuff – aesthetics and performance!”

What about the kids?

With so many entertainment space innovations geared for adults, it’s worth paying attention to the kids who are increasingly being banished to their bedrooms where they lie twisted on a bed, for hours on-end, watching small, hand-held devices.

Strangely there are few innovations catering to this requirement, even after an extended bout of home schooling caused by the pandemic. Could an IKEA-like, entertainment space that includes a bed, desk, chair and small screen be the way forward? Could this be a vision for adults, too?

Gaming and the metaverse

While large and small rooms alike can benefit from the capabilities of modern, large screens, there are other evolving considerations. Games consoles still utilise forms of motion control for things like party games which involve dancing around in space in front of a TV and could factor into some demographic demands.

Meanwhile, the growth in Sim racing means enthusiasts are now building replica race-car cockpits in the middle of their entertainment space with professional-grade pedals and steering wheels which operate and feel like the real thing. These can also make use of multi-monitor displays, ultra-widescreen curved displays or even Virtual Reality helmets for improved immersion and the ability to turn your head and hit an apex. I still can’t imagine why vendors and installers aren’t selling these set-ups at Bathurst where surely every attendee would pay handsomely to race their favourite cars around a lifelike, virtual Mount Panorama in their own homes.

There’s also growth in the TV-sized (40+ inches) computer monitor space. While the differences may seem superficial, demanding gamers who want fast displays and PC-friendly inputs have led to a new category appearing in the past year. While use cases vary, the target market is gamers wanting top-tier gaming performance on a screen that excels at general computer tasks plus movie watching. With TVs embracing gaming more and more, the category may be short lived, but for some people it’s defining their entertainment space.

While VR itself has had many false starts, the latest push, which has been accelerated by renewed interest in the metaverse, could be the next big thing for entertainment spaces – of all sizes. If you’ve seen Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One you’ve seen an ultimate manifestation of the metaverse. It’s essentially a virtual world, that utilises VR and Augmented Reality to communicate with others, watch distant sporting events (and concerts) and play games. It’s being pushed heavily by Mark Zuckerberg and is surfing a large Web 3.0-based buzzword wave (the explanation of which is beyond the scope of this article).

In practical terms, it generally requires headsets and handsets which enable free movement and interaction with a virtual world. At a basic level this involves placing your phone in a plastic mask to act as virtual-world goggles and moves up to specialist headsets with dedicated UHD displays and head-tracking sensors bolted to the walls of the room for enhanced accuracy.

The technology is still in the early stages, but evolution is rapid and leverages relentless advances in computing power and battery performance. How far it will grow will be anyone’s guess though hopefully a futuristic dystopia of us sitting in a small space with just a headset and gloves isn’t realised.

Wherever we end up, the theme of increased multimedia immersion – for work, rest, and play – that’s adaptable to any sized dwelling, is the constant that appears to be the requirement for the future of the entertainment space.