1980s home cinema

The development of multi-channel audio systems and laserdisc in the 1980s created a new paradigm for home cinema. The first known home cinema system was installed as a sales tool by Steve LaFontaine at Kirshmans furniture store 5800 Veterans Memorial Highway. In Metairie, Louisiana, in 1974 where he built a special sound room which incorporated the earliest quadraphonic audio systems with his video projection systems he invented and hand built by modifying Sony trinitron televisions for projecting the image. Many systems were sold in the New Orleans area in the ensuing years before the first public demonstration of this integration occurred in 1982 at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, Illinois. Peter Tribeman of NAD (USA) organized and presented a demonstration made possible by the collaborative effort of NAD, Proton, ADS, Lucasfilm and Dolby Labs who contributed their technologies to demonstrate what a home cinema would "look and sound" like.

Over the course of three days, retailers, manufacturers, and members of the consumer electronics press were exposed to the first "home like" experience of combining a high quality video source with multi-channel surround sound. That one demonstration is credited with being the impetus for developing what is now a multi-billion dollar business.