Electronic housekeepers coming to take over

Press, 9 November 1983, Page 21

Electronic housekeepers coming to take over

PETER McGILL

of the London “Observer”

reports from Tokyo on the latest in consumer gadgetry.

A whole new range of electronic hardware for the domestic user — from teletext and satellite receivers to microcomputers that can run the . home — made its debut last month at trade fairs both in Tokyo and Osaka. For those who feel neurotic about leaving the house, for example, Toshiba has introduced the Home Control System, retailing in Japan early next year at between $636 and $3lBO depending on functions.

It enables the householder to check the gas, door, air conditioner, lighting, and windows from outside; a secret number on an outside phone calls up a computer voice which will tell you what is on, off, closed of open, and you can also adjust the equipment in your home from outside.

Inside the house, bells will ring if windows are left open, doors are unlatched, or if gas is leaking, and a message is automatically sent to a neighbour if you fail to respond and secure your home. However, the biggest interest is still in the television tube, whether the input is from video tape, cable, satellite, or old fashioned broadcasting systems. And competition in the viedo market appears to be getting tougher in the country where last year’s electronic wonders are only too quickly forgotten. The area of strongest growth is in combined video camera-recorders, stereo VCRs and ultra lightweight, high performance cameras. Sony, once in the van of innovation, is now faced with an unpleasant experience familiar to European manufacturers — that of having its new ideas copied and improved upon by competitors. Its Betamovie video camera-recorder

created a sensation when it went on sale in Japan in September at $1709. It weighs 2.48 kg without battery and Sony says that it will be launched in Britain in December.

However, arch rival JVC turned up at the same show with the latest Victor Movie, which is both lighter (at 1.9 kg) and does not need a separate video-recorder for playback. JVC has yet to produce the model commercially, but the Japanese price has been set at the equivalent of $1895. Sony still leads in the mini video camera league with a device that fits snugly in one hand and weighs only 1 kg, though a separate Betamax recorder will add another 2¥2 kg without batteries. Introduced this month in Japan for $1449, the CCD-G5 camera, as it is called, is also a significant technological advance. The CCD chip is a digital image sensor that is highly sensitive to light and starts working in a fraction of the time ordinarily needed. Sony has a black and white CCD camera, priced at about $953, that weighs only an astonishing 115 grams and fits into the palm of the hand. Beside it, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) “mini” cameras of other makers, such as Hitachi, JVC and Mitsubishi Electric, look embarrassingly plump. The stereo-video craze sprang to life with Sony’s Beta Hi-fi, selling in Japan for $l9OO. This incorpor-

ates two special “audio heads,” allowing the user to pick up FM stereo. But Matsushita (National) has already brought out a cheaper version at $1523, while Sanyo’s model is being plugged as a “portable” hi-fi to be taken on picnics. Several makers have now licensed JVC’s VHD videodisc system, which plays up to an hour of colour video, or shows 54,000 still pictures per side, with the help of a diamond needle. But while trade fair visitors were getting hot under the collar at the sight of two pneumatic American girls in hot pants (from JVC’s soft-porn VHD flick “California Girls”), a much more interesting demonstration of JVC’s hew “audio high density” (AHD) disc prototype was under way. The technology of this is digital, unlike all other videodisc players, which means that the sound quality is the same as that from compact disc players. JVC believes that it is on to a winner, in that the disc can hold up to 3000 stills, plus 20 hours of narration, digitally “shortened” and then decoded into the normal version. The sales talk has it that AHD is an “electronic encyclopaedia” that would be invaluable in libraries or as a teaching aid. Several firms have . teletext adapters for the launch of teletext on the State-owned NHK channel. The cheapest seems to be JVC’s at $7OO.

Japanese manufacturers are also

turning to satellite dishes and receivers in preparation for the launch of NHK satellite broadcasts next May. The incentive in Japan is the mountainous terrain, which makes ordinary reception difficult. Sharp has a clever new microcomputer television, whose modest three “bits” allow for colour graphics, “TV messages” with an impressive memory of Japanese writing characters, and maths lessons, all controlled by a small punch pad. The software, comes in cassettes fed into the TV console. A snip at $590. Consumers in Japan are already benefiting from fierce competition and price cutting among a growing army of CD makers. Sony has a model at only $731, and Matsushita one at S7OO, both with the same sound quality as more expensive models. But Yamaha is in the lead with a $633 model.

Sony subsidiary, Aiwa, and Matsushita’s grandchild, JVC, are meanwhile running neck and neck to squeeze the last ounce of innovation from the old cassette deck. In September, Aiwa launched its ADWX22 deck, able to record both sides of the cassette at the same time, cutting dubbing time by a quarter. It costs $539 in Japan. Now JVC has unveiled its KDWR9O double cassette deck, which allows not only simultaneous recording, but three continuous hours on two C9O cassettes, as one can start automatically when the other stops. Smelling victory, a JVC spokeswoman said that it also allows the user to record on one tape while listening to the other being played back. The JVC deck has been given the same price as the Aiwa one.