Bang & Olufsen Home Cinema
Home Cinema
Creating the perfect illusion
"Cinema sound on video meant that, in order to create Dolby Surround Sound, the television had to be fitted with four additional loudspeakers in a previously unheard-of design"
Bang & Olufsen has had a very long association with the silver screen. Right back to the days of silent movies in fact! Sound movies have made enormous technological strides since then and if someone were to travel into the future from these embryonic years they would hardly recognise the progress which has been made.
The company launched the ultimate combination of the qualities of the cinema and the theatre for the home, with the Beosystem AV 9000 in 1991 (as pictured). This could be done because it was possible to buy video tape with Dolby Surround. This was a complete break with the television of the past. Cinema sound on video meant that, in order to create Dolby Surround sound, the television had to be fitted with four additional loudspeakers in a previously unheard-of design. The clumsy, square loudspeaker cabinets were gone and people marvelled at the audacity of designer David Lewis when he laid an organ pipe on the table and challenged the technicians to create tall, slender loudspeakers that were rounded into the bargain.
It had become increasingly difficult to explain the kind of picture quality that the company was producing. The public wanted explanations and these became difficult to give when the technicians constantly create new standards. Accordingly, the concept of VisionClear arose as an overall Bang & Olufsen definition of high-class picture quality: Dynamic luminance Peaking, Wideband CTI, Black Line and, of course, Automatic Cut-off Control.
"We created the perfect illusion of a cinema. The curtains gently parted aside when the viewer activated the TV or video." These technicians were the only ones ever to get the idea of having the television turn towards the viewer, using the motorised base. Just stay in your seat. The television turns towards you! They integrated sound and picture with the words "sound makes the picture" and what a picture!
Created: 12th January 2007
Modified: 5th February 2007
