Technology tour gives student a buzz

Students at Cal State Long Beach became guinea pigs last Wednesday and Thursday, as it was the first campus visited by the BuzzNet 2000 tour.

The tour invited students to take part in the new wave of sound technology with demonstrations of the latest equipment that enhances listening enjoyment.

The items on display included mini-systems and speaker systems, which run from about $500 to $1,100.

"None of this is cheap, but it is not expensive in terms of quality equipment," said Tim McNamara, communications manager for Consumer Electronics Association, the company that sponsored the tour.

McNamara said that the CEA is not expecting students to run out and buy the equipment, they just want them "to get excited about the technology."

"We're not here to sell anything," McNamara said. "We're just here to showcase the wave of the future."

The tour featured "The Ultimate Dorm Room, which displayed how to take advantage of the limited amount of space allotted to dorm residents and those with small apartments.

The room showed ways to improve the sound quality coming from computers and video game consoles with new systems that provide surround sound.

Christine Ma, a graduate student in public health, was interested in the system for the personal computer.

"It's relatively a good price," she said. The whole package, which includes a subwoofer, a speaker and a receiver, is priced at $600-700.

The PC receiver is similar to that of a stereo, McNamara said. It utilizes the power of the PC to enhance it, he said.

McNamara, who found that there was a good response from the CSULB students, noted that as the quality of these products increase, the prices will eventually decrease.

"Once they're out of school they'll be buying them," he said.

Sophomore Ezra Flom, who was admiring the products with sophomore mechanical engineering major Jackson Russo, found the products at the tour to be pretty cool.

"They're nice to look at," he said, adding that one day he will own it all.