Bang & Olufsen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is a Danish company that designs and manufactures upscale audio products, television sets, and telephones. The company was founded in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, whose first significant innovation was a radio that worked with alternating current (AC), when most radios then in use were run from accumulator batteries.
Their work with radios and loudspeakers led them to devise a principle: Their products should be capable of honest musical reproduction. ('Ærlig musikgengivelse' in Danish). They held as an ideal that the music you experienced through their sets and speakers should reach your ears uninfluenced by the limitations of technology. To this end, they rate the psychoacoustics of their products as more important than instrument-based testing of their products during design and testing.
Bang & Olufsen describes placing the original musical performance inside a "B&O Sphere" where it remains intact as it is conveyed through various items of hardware until it reaches the listener or viewer. This is best exemplified through their use of ears and eyes in determining the exact technical specifications of their equipment. To this purpose, the company maintains a panel of B&O "Golden Ears" as a part of the product development process. This panel attends a minimum of twenty-five live concerts each year, using their familiarity with live music as a benchmark to subjectively evaluate the sound of new B&O audio products. The findings of this listening panel are reportedly given considerable weight in the product development process.
Products from B&O are intended to reflect cutting edge industrial design, in appearance, function and operation. Bang & Olufsen does not employ any designers, preferring that they should be independent of the company. In fact, the company encourages the meeting of opposing viewpoints, with the goal of synthesis between design intentions and technological capabilities.
Many of B&O's products in the 1970s and 80s were designed by Jacob Jensen (reference Jacob Jensen Web Site), whose design firm is still in operation today. In recent decades, David Lewis has been B&O's chief designer, responsible for products that have been much imitated by other manufacturers of home electronics.
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[edit] Past products
B&O products often have a unique appearance and user-interface. As such, even early models are collectibles today. Information about prior B&O products can be found on "unofficial" or "fan" web sites (See External Links).
B&O used a naming nomenclature for many of its products.
- Beocord refers to cassette decks. B&O was a pioneer in cassette technology, having had design involvement with Dolby HX Pro.
- Beomaster refers to receivers. B&O's more recent receivers feature the ability to receive complex programming. The 5000 series through the 7000 series features two-way communication with the remote controller, called the "Master Control Panel."
- Beogram refers to turntables and, later, CD players. Many of the more recent Beogram turntables had tangential tone arms.
- Beolab refers to active loudspeakers (loudspeakers with built-in amplifiers), which are claimed to avoid the signal degradation which can occur when using an external amplifier.
- Beovox refers to passive loudspeakers (those without internal amplification).
- Beolit refers to the range of stylish portable radios
- Beosystem refers to a line of components—e.g., Beomaster, Beogram, and Beocord—which matched one another in both appearance and operation.
- Beocenter refers to one-piece audio systems. B&O, at one time, made elaborate products that incorporated receivers, turntables, and cassette decks into a single components called "Beocenters."
- Beocom refers to the company's line of telephones and telephone accessories, such as answering machines.
- Beovision refers to a line of televisions.
Many B&O audio components did not use the RCA connectors widely used in the U.S., instead using European DIN connectors.
[edit] Present day
In the 1990s B&O opened exclusive B&O stores selling directly to users, instead of selling through retailers. Production of audio separates was discontinued in favour of mini-type audio systems sold, as was usual for B&O, at a price much higher than the industry average.
Despite its decision to suspend the manufacture of separate components, B&O has remained an active player in the development of high-performance loudspeakers. Its flagship speaker, the US $16,000 BeoLab 5, uses digital signal processing to adjust its frequency response to the room and location in which it is placed. Its midrange and treble drivers use acoustic lenses to prevent the mid and high ranges of the sound from reflecting off the ceiling or floor before reaching the listener.
In addition to consumer products, B&O operates a facility for high-precision aluminium manufacturing (reference [1]) and itself uses aluminum in many of its products.
In 1999, B&O, with Dr. Karsten Nielsen, formed ICEpower A/S. This company is devoted to the development of switching type Class D amplifiers [2]. This type of amplifier has improved efficiency compared to the more usual audio amplifiers of types A, AB, and B.
One of B&O's most successful recent products is the A8 Earbuds (designed by Anders Hermansen), which gained popularity as the Apple iPod reached prominence and Apple Stores began selling them.
In the UK, one product in particular entered the public consciousness as a regular feature in Irish comedian Graham Norton's late night chat-show: 'So'. Every week the host would prank-call someone somewhere in the world on a provocative B&O banana-shaped telephone, the BeoCom 2.
Bang & Olufsen have also produced mobile phones in partnership with other companies. They have worked with Philips and Ericsson in the past and are currently working with Samsung to produce the Serene.
[edit] Television and Film
B&O's classic slim handset phone (1401) is used in many major motion pictures and television shows, typcially by affluent characters.
Mel Gibson's character Nick Marshall, a highly-paid Ad executive, in What Women Want has one in his apartment. The phone also appears in The Devil's Advocate in the apartment of a top-ranking partner in the law firm.
There is a Bang & Olufsen Beosound 3200 in the operating room of "McNamara & Troy" of Nip/Tuck. Various other B&O products can also be seen in the series.
A Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 3000 stereo can be seen in the right-hand background in the girl's apartment of the TV series Friends.
In the Film The Devil Wears Prada Andy gives Nate a Bang & Olufsen Beocom2 phone as a gift from her new job with Runway.
In the Film RV there is a Beocom2 on the desk of the president of the company.
[edit] See also
- BeoSound 2
- BeoSound 4
- BeoLink
- BeoPort
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Beoworld An unofficial web site devoted to B&O.
- Thogersen A collector's website with photos of B&O products throughout the decades
- Beocentral A reference site containing descriptions and photos of B&O equipment
