Bang & Olufsen: Technology with nice design

Bang & Olufsen: Technology with nice design

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As visitors enter a room in the hifi outlet that is designed
as a living room and sit casually on the sofa, Arief Hadianto
presses a button on his remote control.

Within seconds, a wide screen rolls down from the ceiling,
covering the wall in the front. At the same time, a section of
the ceiling right above the sofa descends, exposing a projector.

Then, scenes from the spy movie Die Another Day appear on the
wide screen.

"Welcome to BeoLiving. With one press on this remote control,
we can transform this living room into a movie theater within
seconds," said Arief, the general manager of the Bang & Olufsen
(B&O) outlet, at the relaunch of the outlet at the Plaza Senayan
shopping mall here recently.

The home theater -- consisting of Denmark's B&O audio set,
U.S.-made Stewart screen and a Korean-made Samsung projector --
produces incredible sound and picture.

This BeoLiving room is part of the new design to provide
customers with full access into B&O products. From this room,
customers can experience the high-quality picture from the LCD TV
or the wide screen as well as impressive sound from the audio
system.

The impressive sound results from the B&O audio set -- a
combination of two BeoLab 3 rear speakers, two BeoLab 6000 front
speakers, a central speaker and a subwoofer.

A full sound spectrum, from the roaring jet engine to a
clanging metal, can be heard from BeoLab 3 speakers.

Just 16.2cm x 13.5cm x 22.3cm in dimension, BeoLab 3 proves
that it does not take a big box to produce 250 watts of
astonishing sound. Besides, it is compact enough to fit in
anywhere.

This incredible sound is made possible with the adoption of a
built-in ICEpower amplifier and acoustic lens on top of it.

Meanwhile, Arief boasts that BeoLab 6000 is a speaker designed
to be lived with and listened to.

Standing 110 cm tall and 10 cm in diameter, the slim
column appears as a thin line in the air that assimilates neatly
into any space.

What differentiates BeoLab speakers from others is that the
heat released from BeoLab speakers is transformed into power to
drive the amplifier.

"It is like the turbo system in a car engine. No other
electronic brands have it, only B&O does," he boasted.

After watching the movie for a while, Arief then demonstrated
another "attraction".

He said that B&O not only offered high-qualified sound, but
also other advantages to customers. Users, for example, could
watch movies from the living room, the library or the kitchen.

With only a smooth press on the remote control, the monitor of
our computer in the library can display the same movie. The
remote also enables us to watch the movie from a TV monitor in
the kitchen.

According to Arief, the B&O can connect about 16 rooms without
reducing the quality of the picture or sound.

Fueled with advanced technology, B&O has produced a wide range
of home appliances, from television sets, CD players, radio,
speakers and telephones.

Generally, the present product is a modification of the
products from the past. The compact disc player called BeoSound
9000, for example, is a modification of a stereo set from the
1970s.

Having unique features, the BeoSound 9000 is an extraordinary
CD player.

For example, the CDs always stop in exactly the same position
as they are loaded. The control panel is changeable to best suit
the chosen direction.

BeoSound 9000 can memorize the titles of up to 200 CDs and
display them as they are played.

With all these features, people have to dig deep into their
pockets. To bring home a 32-inch LCD television, customers have
to lay out S$13,900 (the firm sets prices of its products here in
Singapore dollars).

Meanwhile, the BeoSound 9000 CD player and BeoLab speaker cost
S$8,575 and S$6,350 respectively.

Despite the expensive prices, Arief said he believed more
customers would come and purchase B&O products. Moreover, the
newly-design outlet would attract more customers.

So far, B&O has seen a steady growth of sales since it opened
an outlet in 2001.

"Principally, with this new design we want to give customers
more information and to show the performance of our products
optimally," he added.