For more information, phone Mark Luden at 614 218 5396.
The BackStreet Boys Have Five Of Them. Barbara Streisand Has One. So Does Vince Gill
And if a couple of Columbus entrepreneurs have their way, by next Christmas there'll be a ButtKickerÆ under every Christmas tree that featured a DVD player in 1999. The ButtKicker is the creation of a former music industry producer and songwriter, Ken McCaw, and engineer Marvin Clamme, two of the three principals of the Guitammer (as in Guitar and Hammer) Company, which markets the product. The device, about the size of small one horsepower electric motor, is a low-frequency, electro-magnetic transducer. What that means is this. Put one on stage with a singer and they can feel the beat and vibrations of the music without having large speakers blasting back at them. Better yet, put one in a seat or under a floor, and plug it into the DVD or digital receiver from your home theatre system and you are literally ""feeling"" the sound in perfect sync with the audio and video. The ButtKicker shakes and vibrates to the point that ""feeling"" becomes as important to the home theatre experience as seeing and hearing. While still in the prototype stage earlier this year, the device was sold to several key music performers and to the COSI science museum in Columbus for its 227-seat Domed Theater. The professional model, which is manufactured by the Eminence Loudspeaker Company in Kentucky, began shipping last fall. It sells for $799 retail. Company President Mark Luden quit his job in software marketing a year ago to take over the business end of the company and help launch the ButtKicker. He and McCaw are currently in talks with Dolby Laboratories to develop a version of the ButtKicker that will work with new Surround Sound headphones which go on sale this year. They are seeking $5 million in capital investment to speed up this year's introduction of the consumer version of the device which can be mounted on a floor joist under a room, or in a chair or couch to provide realistic vibrations synchronized with a home theater system. They have been selected to appear on the national television show, Money Hunt, where their company and product will be evaluated as a candidate for venture capital funding. They expect sales of approximately $25 million by the year 2002 and $100 million within four years as the consumer version, with an anticipated price tag of about $299, takes off.