| Are you upsetting your neighbors with that | | | | |
| wireless surround sound system? Why not dial | | | | Today, wireless surround sound systems exist |
| the volume down, kick in a pair of | | | | to do exactly this in your home theater, |
| unobtrusive Bass Shakers, and still get the | | | | helping to reduce the difference between the |
| same effect. | | | | movie house and "in house" movie viewing. |
| | | | More exciting, however, has been the recent |
| Once upon a time, in the good old days when I | | | | development of an audio technology much |
| was a boy, you would head off to the cinema | | | | simpler than any wireless surround sound |
| in the weekend with your siblings in tow, | | | | system. I'm talking about tactile |
| allowing your parents a few hours of relief | | | | transducers, or Bass Shakers, as they are |
| from the highly stressful realities of | | | | more commonly known. Instead of depending on |
| parenting in the seventies. Or something like | | | | a wireless surround sound system to deliver |
| that. To be honest, I don't think my parents | | | | the sensation of "being there", tactile |
| knew how good they had it back then. We lived | | | | transducers generate very low frequency |
| at the edge of the world, or as close as you | | | | vibrational energy that can literally be felt |
| can get to it before falling off the map--in | | | | throughout your body. Bass shakers allow you |
| the trouble-free little city of Auckland, New | | | | to experience every thump, thrust and shaking |
| Zealand. Either way, off to the cinema we | | | | motion that the characters in your movies are |
| would go, every weekend. Like dutiful | | | | feeling. By attaching a transducer to a solid |
| clockwork children of the corn fields, | | | | surface, like the hardwood backing of a home |
| sunshine or rain, good movie or total | | | | theater lounger, these vibrations pack an |
| stinker. Actually, it's a wonder my | | | | emotional wallop when the storyline action |
| force-feed diet of Tarzan, Clint Eastwood, | | | | steps up. |
| and Bruce Lee did me no lasting harm. Somehow | | | | |
| I survived to adulthood, retaining my | | | | When that *thing* jumps out of the closet on |
| childlike indulgence for suspended disbelief | | | | screen, you'll be jumping out of your chair! |
| in a darkened viewing room, minus the | | | | When those naval guns start pounding in "Sink |
| mandatory box of chocolate-centered Jaffas, | | | | the Bismarck", or that T-Rex bellows in |
| which I have neither seen nor tasted now for | | | | "Jurassic Park", you'll feel it in your |
| perhaps thirty years. | | | | bones. Once you have experienced a Bass |
| | | | Shaker at play, that plain old home theater |
| Now, there's a reason people go to movie | | | | surround sound system simply will no longer |
| theaters, and it's one that likely factors | | | | be enough for you. |
| into why I remember that part of my childhood | | | | |
| so well. Watching movies in a cinema is | | | | If you are really adventurous, handy with |
| nothing like the experience at home. At | | | | tools, and have lots of time on your hands, |
| least, it was not back then. The big screen | | | | you can buy tactile transducers separately |
| was essential to "losing yourself" in the | | | | and install them any place where you might |
| fabricated reality of a big studio | | | | also hook up ordinary speakers, including |
| production. But, contributing just as much to | | | | inside your car, if you like. But for the |
| the success of this movie magic was the | | | | rest of us there is an easier option. |
| concept of surround sound--having the aural | | | | Wireless Bass Shakers are built into many |
| component of the experience assault you from | | | | models of home theater loungers, including |
| multiple directions at once. If I was an | | | | the Metro, Garrick, Este, and Rodeo models |
| engineer I'd probably tell you that, by | | | | found on No wires, no installation, no fuss. |
| combining the sound from a number of | | | | In fact, there's no need even to send your |
| separated speakers in a coordinated way, it | | | | kids off to the movie theater by themselves |
| is possible to create a spatial imaging | | | | anymore. Not when your family can share |
| component to the movie-going experience that | | | | together all the thrills, and now spills, of |
| your television just cannot reproduce. In | | | | modern day movie viewing in the comfort of |
| layman's terms: surround sound just pulls you | | | | your own home theater. |
| into the screen. | | | | |