When Jerry's Audio/Video began operating as a television repair shop on Barrie's Yonge Street 50 years ago, TV viewers were marvelling at Lucy's red hair on their new colour sets.

Since then, Jerry built a boat, sold his business and sailed off to Europe. His business, however, continues to provide local television viewers with the latest technological wonders.

"The picture quality of the new ones make the old ones look like radio," says current owner Neil Harmer, who bought the company from an interim owner in the early '90s after a couple of years on staff.

"Plasma and LCD flat panel TVs are the hot items right now," he adds. "The prices have come down and the quality is getting better all the time."

To demonstrate the value comparison, Harmer explains a $5,000 purchase made 15 years ago would have taken home a 50-inch rear-projection tube set without high definition and with a lifespan of approximately 12,000 hours.

"The picture quality was very poor," he recalls. "The big feature was the remote control. Now, you get a 50-inch plasma TV with high definition and a 60,000-hour life expectancy. The picture quality is far superior."

Plasma televisions provide the best picture currently available, says Harmer, thanks to 1,080 rows of tiny gas-filled light bulbs. They also boast better viewing angles and a faster refresh rate.

But the hunger for new technology is never satisfied.

The Pioneer Elite 50-inch plasma television, which rolls off the manufacturer's line this summer, becomes a large-format monitor with the use of a simple cat. 5 patch cable connection to a computer. In fact, a household's entire network can be plugged into this set with relative ease.

"It has more lines of resolution, higher contrast and it's the only one with a three-year warranty," says Harmer of the $11,000 set. "It also has a 10,000-hour (brightness) half-life compared with everyone else's 60,000 hours."

And to optimize the picture quality on this new television, video processors are now available to "clean up" the incoming signal (regardless of the source), to "upconvert them to a higher resolution signal."

This equipment will be assigned wall space in the company's relatively new showroom location on Cedar Pointe Road. The sign is visible from Highway 400's southbound lane. At about 5,000 square feet, this store is about the same size as the previous upper Bayfield Street location, but with a better layout, according to Harmer.

But it's a long way from Harmer's first television sales and repair store in Hickson, Ontario (near Woodstock).

"I came up here and thought I'd do a semi-retirement thing," he says recalling his active family's desire to be near the boating, fishing and skiing in this area. "I worked for Jerry's and ended up buying it."

When the previous owner wanted to retire, he didn't want to see the company close. "It was too good a business to let die, so I took it over and kept it going. It was the only real audio-video store in Barrie that provided service."

That customer service is still key to distinguishing Jerry's Audio/Video from its competitors, he stresses. Especially since the big-box stores moved into town.

"When they first came in, they actually helped," he remembers. "People came in to compare and we could match the price. But we can't compete with the advertising - they bombard. But those who shop around see we're competitive.

"A lot of people buy there once but they won't go back because they don't get the support. (With our customers), if there are any problems, they call us and we arrange to have it serviced."

In the long run, the larger outlets did have an impact on Harmer's inventory. Although some items can be found on everyone's shelves, Jerry's Audio/Visual took over the high-end, higher quality products, says Harmer.

"We stopped carrying the smaller items, like the Walkmans, blasters and cameras. We concentrated on larger items and custom installations. We're the first store in the area to actually put in a theatre room, to make it look more like a room in a home. Now we have five of those rooms."

Home theatres continue to increase in popularity, he says, insisting that they are not only for the wealthy.

"An installed home-theatre system starts at three or four thousand and goes up," he cites. "You can buy a screen and projector for $2,000 and have an 80 to 100-inch screen. It's less money than a plasma."

More elaborate systems can be done in collaboration with builders, renovators and decorators, and can offer many options.

"There're endless solutions as far as speakers go," Harmer says, for example. "They can be large, small, in or on ceilings, floor standing, in or on walls, bookshelves or you can paint them."

Some systems even have the ability to self-balance and equalize the sound in a room based on where a person likes to sit.

"If people are buying a new house, it's better to come into a store like this to see what the options are," he says acknowledging the preference of wiring before the house is finished rather than retro-fitting it. "Even if they don't put it in right away, it's there for later."

The same consideration can be made for other hard-wired products - like the multi-room, multi-source system that can provide six different rooms with six different sounds simultaneously from as many sources as required, all accessed at the push of a button on a room's keypad.

Hard-wired or not, remote usage continues to get easier. Consider the programmable remote unit that renders all other household remotes redundant. Its display can show a photo of your family members whose faces are icons that, when touched, brings that person's preferences to the forefront of the menu. And it can be used to control every wireless device in the house.

By touching an icon on the screen, a home-theatre's components can be turned on, the lights dimmed and curtains drawn. All that remains is to put in a DVD and put up the feet.

As technology gets more complicated, neophytes can take comfort in two things: it also gets easier to use, and there's always a knowledgeable person available at Jerry's Audio/Video available to answer questions.

Call 705-726-0551.