I ran across this image earlier this morning. Damn, does that bring back memories…
In the early 1970s, the biggest consumer TVs were 27-inch direct-view CRT sets, so I was blown away the first time I saw TV projected on an Advent VideoBeam 1000’s 7-foot screen. The first Betamax videocassette recorders were still a couple of years away in 1972, and broadcast and cable TV were the only viewing options. I knew I’d never own one, but that didn’t mean a boy couldn’t wish—and designed every subsequent dream home living room to properly accommodate one.
While Advent was already known for its founder Henry Kloss’ incredible speakers, he was more interested in pioneering home-video projection technology. The technology was developed in house, with the projector’s CRTs manufactured at the Advent factory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Audio came from a speaker mounted in the VideoBeam 1000’s projector base, and its sound was bounced off the screen.
What’s so amusing fifty years later is that we now have a Jetsons-inspired screen the same size (with a proper 14:9 aspect ratio) that hangs flat against the wall in our living room that is more reliable, doesn’t require constant adjustments, and cost significantly less than what this Advent was selling for (even adjusting for inflation).
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