The Simple Doorbell
Goes High Tech

Arriving at the home of Robyn Nelson, visitors get serenaded by a range of musical sounds, from Eastern-inspired tunes to space-age lounge music.

But the welcoming notes aren't being piped out through an outdoor sound system. They're emanating from a set of $135, silver-and-black doorbells Ms. Nelson recently installed. A third option: The sound of the doorbell's designer knocking on an old wooden door.

"It's the ring tones that sold me," says Ms. Nelson, a real-estate broker in Washington, D.C. "The Oriental music is perfect with my décor -- it's like a musical snapshot of my home."

Struggling to compete with increasingly popular video-security systems, doorbell makers are upgrading their offerings. Some are focusing on the latest sounds in music, while others are adding new-age designs to coordinate with a home's exterior. Seattle-based manufacturer spOre has four models illuminated by colored LED lights that retail from $29 to $89. The latest doorbell introduced by the Conran Shop in New York is by Danish designer Jacob Jensen and features five different ring tones. Habiform, a maker in Carlsbad, Calif., recently started selling indoor door chimes that look like high-end stereo speakers.

Doorbell or Coaster?

The new products are primarily geared toward design-conscious homeowners whose taste would run to squares of satin aluminum with brightly colored push pads, coaster-sized models in anodized metal or even old-fashioned hotel desk-bell shapes.

Three firms -- Heath Zenith, Dimango and Broan-NuTone -- dominate retail sales, an approximately $150 million business, according to industry executives. But the Internet has allowed a few niche players like Hannets Design Shop in Germany to get in the business. Graphic designer Peter Gumeson, for example, started Habiform after being frustrated while renovating his own home.

So far, most of the earliest adapters have been design professionals who are discovering the bells while researching new products. Seattle architect Suzanne Zahr recently bought an illuminated, amber-colored, square doorbell for her own home after spotting one in a product catalog from a lighting firm. She liked the first one so much she bought a second for the back door "so people coming that way wouldn't miss out on the doorbell experience," says Ms. Zahr.

Of course, not everyone thinks their entryway is the place for a trendy conversation piece. Broan-NuTone says it's seeing a growing interest in door chimes that are flush with the wall and can be painted over.

"Designers tell us all the time that they want the doorbell to be heard but not seen," says NuTone marketing manager Karen Collins. "A chime can be a design statement, but sometimes you just want it to completely disappear."

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