Beolab 5 speakers: Bang & Olufson
Dazzling technology is increasingly embedded in ordinary-looking devices.
Back in mid 1990s, I was incredibly lucky to receive an invitation from Grundfos, the Danish company that makes most of the best pumps in the world, to visit their headquarters in Bjerringbro, Denmark.
Frankly, I was very surprised to learn how much advanced technology could be employed in the seemingly simple apparatus called a pump.
But I learned a few other things during my visit to Denmark. All the media guests were lodged in a guesthouse. While I wandered from room to room, I noticed all the electronic appliances were Bang & Olufsen. Everything from the telephone the CD player and the stereo system were B&O branded.
The Danes are clearly very proud of their own products. Despite its small population of five million, the country has certainly asserted its clout in the world of global brands. Renowned Danish brands include Georg Jensen, Arne Jakobsen, Novo Nordisk, Lego and Maersk.
B&O has three outlets in Jakarta. I’ve never had the courage to step foot in any of them, knowing that I would not be able to buy any of the products that they offered. So, when I received an invitation out of the blue to attend a B&O press briefing in their Plaza Senayan store, I accepted it without a second thought.
B&O does not specifically make IT products except for a pair of PC speakers, but some digital technology exists in each of their audio video products.
Take the sound system they designed especially for the Aston Martin Rapide, for example. You can sit anywhere in this four-door sports car, and become the center of a musical sphere. The system, which was designed for the car right from the beginning, uses a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), for which B&O holds a patent.
Now, how does the sound system know you are being chauffeured and are sitting right behind your driver? Or whether you are at the wheel enjoying a solitary drive? Easy. The moment you buckle up, the system will know where you are seated. My question is, if someone can afford to buy such an expensive car, will he or she willingly obey the law?
Incidentally, B&O systems can also be found in the Mercedes AMG and some Audi cars. Many other high-end electronics makers are good at creating beautiful designs, of course.
A favorite of mine is Bose. But Bose is different from B&O. Bose focuses more on the technology and quality of the sound reproduced by its speakers, while B&O creates speakers that not only sound great but can be regarded as pieces of artwork. The pair of Beolab 5 speakers in the accompanying photo provides a good example.
By the way, Bose and B&O stores are right next to each other in Plaza Senayan. I am mentioning Bose because in the past I had the luxury of owning a Bose Accoustimass 5 for many years.
Interestingly, for all the exotic shapes that their products come in, B&O does not employ their own designer. “We have external designers coming to us with their ideas, and we decide whether we will use their ideas or not,” explained Stuart Tolliday, B&O’s training and product manager during his presentation.
So, what were the highlights of the event? First, Stuart showed us a universal remote control with an LCD screen. We can choose whether we want to control the TV, the DVD player, the amplifier, etc. using the touch-sensitive screen and then use the buttons to make our adjustments. This reduces the number of buttons that a universal remote control would have to have otherwise.
Secondly, there was the Beosound 5, a digital music player with an iPod-like control. According to Stuart, B&O actually used the wheel before Apple adopted it. That was quite possible, as rumors have it Steve Jobs was installing a B&O entertainment system in his house when the iPod was being designed.
The Beosound 5 can be connected to the amplifier — preferably the Beomaster 5 — through a USB, HDMI or DVI connection. Hidden behind the interface is a 500 GB device with its own operating system.
In case you are wondering how spacious the 500 GB hard disk is, it is large enough to hold 28,000 songs or 1,000 compact discs.
Another unique product is Beotime, an alarm clock plus remote control that looks like a flute. And then there is the gigantic Beovision 4, a 103-inch HD plasma TV that costs much more than my house and all of its content. It is so huge it would fill up my living room. Fortunately, B&O has no plan to let me borrow one for review purposes.
Back in 1990s, I was also enamored with the Beosound 9000 CD changer that can be placed horizontally or vertically.
“The mechanism of this changer is so complex and robust that nobody has been able to copy the design,” said Stuart in our conversation before the formal program started.
Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen created B&O in 1925. “Their passion was to create only the best products and to find better ways of doing things,” said Stuart. The company is perhaps the oldest audio-video maker in the world today.
One of the things the company has become exceptionally skilled at is shaping aluminum into anything they want. In fact, other companies — including BMW — come to them for help in making specifically designed aluminum pieces.
These are some of the works of techno-arts that only the fortunate few can enjoy. But, more importantly, they demonstrate what the combination of technological excellence and emotional appeal can bring. They also show how a tiny little country with the right work ethics can achieve global prominence in so many different areas.
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