BANG & OLUFSEN BEOVISION 8800 TYPE 3321 YEAR 1981.

(1980-1983) 26” colour television, remote control, 1x14W, optional teletext decoder, optional A/V interface,

The BANG & OLUFSEN  BEOVISION 8800 TYPE 3321 Was first  BANG & OLUFSEN tv color set featuring a method for correcting the blocking voltage of an electron gun or guns of a cathode-ray tube and to a corresponding apparatus. The invention finds its most useful application in the automatic correction of the blocking voltage of the three electron guns of a color television tube.

In an electron gun of a television tube, it is known that the intensity of the electron beam which is generated by the gun depends upon the potentials applied to the electrodes of this gun. The video modulation signal with which it is intended to vary the intensity of the beam is applied to one of the two electrodes of the gun. It should be noted that the invention relates in particular to systems in which the modulation signal is applied to the cathode. The signal applied to this electrode is provided by an amplifier and it comprises a continuous component of constant value, upon which the video modulation signal per se is superimposed. The continuous component, correctly regulated, is also called the blocking voltage, because it is this voltage which enables the production of a black image at the limit of the gray (that is to say, a cathode current whose intensity is effectively zero) whenever the video modulation signal is zero. In other words, this continuous component, which is developed by the amplifier, must be equal to the suppression voltage of the electron gun, which is precisely that voltage which is required for the image to be black but at the limit of the gray scale.
Now, it is known that the suppression voltage of the electron gun, a value which is characteristic for the gun, may gradually change over the service life of the cathode-ray tube.
 Furthermore, the generator means for the blocking voltage in the amplifier may exhibit drifting tendencies, and the image may become too bright or too dark. In a color television receiver, this phenomenon has serious consequences, because the slow drifting can affect the three electron guns in different proportions, which translates as an imbalance in the dosage of the three primary colors.
An automatic correction system for the blocking voltage of an electron gun has already been proposed, specifically in a prior patent application by the present applicant, permitting a periodic reevaluation of the continuous component provided by the amplifier, no matter what may be the causes of the drifting. In brief, this system comprises a feedback loop of the amplifier acting thereupon in order to correct the continuous polarization of one of its amplification stages and whose input magnitude was not different from the cathode current itself, measured during successive measurement periods during which it was supposed to be theoretically zero. The measurement or scanning period was selected at the end of the frame return in order to be able to maintain a zero modulation signal at the input of the amplifier.
 Because the feedback loop could not be permanently linked to the connection established between the output of the amplifier and the cathode, a commutator means was provided in order to activate this loop solely during the successive measurement periods, a memory being meanwhile connected to the control input of the amplifier in order to maintain the assigned value (defining the polarization of the appropriate stage of the amplifier) between two successive measurement periods.
This system functions satisfactorily so long as certain leakage currents in the gun are weak. However, certain cathode-ray tubes, by virtue of their structure, exhibit a permanent leakage current, particularly between the cathode and the filament, which is likely to distort the functioning of the feedback loop in stabilizing the continuous component of the amplifier to a value different from that of the blocking voltage required.

- It's using a PHILIPS 30AX CRT Tube.The 30AX system, which Philips introduced in 1979, is an important landmark in the development of colour picture systems. With previous systems the assembly technician had to workthrough a large number of complicated setting-up procedures whenever he fitted a television picture tube with aset of coils for deflecting the electron beams. These procedures were necessary to ensure that the beams for the three colours would converge at thescreen for every deflection. They are no longer necessary with the 30AX system: for a given screen format any deflection unit can be combined  with any tube to form a single 'dynamically convergent' unit. A colour-television receiver can thus be assembled from its components almost as easily as a monochrome receiver. The colour picture tube of the PHILIPS 30AX system displays a noticeably sharper picture over the entire screen surface. This will be particularly noticeable when data transmissions such as Viewdata and Teletext are displayed. This has been achieved by a reduction in the size of the beam spot by about 30%. Absence of coma and the retention of the 36.5 mm neck diameter have both contributed to increased picture sharpness. Coma has been eliminated by means of corrective field shapers embedded in the deflection coils which are sectionally wound saddle types. The new deflection unit has no rear flanges. enabling uniform self-convergence to be obtained for all screen sizes. without special corrections, adjustments, or tolerance compensations. Horizontal raster distortion is reduced and no vertical correction is required. One of the inventions in 30AX is an internal magnetic correction system which obviates static convergence and colour purity errors. This enables the usual multiple unit to be dispensed with. together with the need for its adjustment !  New techniques have been employed to achieve close tolerance construction of the glass envelope. In addition, the 30AX picture tube incorporates two features whereby it can be accurately adjusted during the last stages of manufacture. One is the internal magnetic correction system. The other is an array of bosses on the cone that establish a precise reference for the axial purity positioning of the deflection unit on the tube axis and for raster orientation. During its manufacture, each deflection unit is individually adjusted for optimum convergence. The coil carrier also incorporates reference bosses that co-operate with those on the cone of the tube. ' Since every picture tube and every deflection unit is individually pre-aligned, any deflection unit automatically matches with any picture tube of the appropriate size. The deflection unit has only to be pushed onto the neck of the tube unit it seats. Once the reference bosses are engaged, the combination is accurately aligned and requires no adjustment for convergence, colour purity or raster orientation. With no multiple unit and a flangeless deflection unit, there is more space in the receiver cabinet. Higher deflection sensitivity means that less current is consumed, and consequently less heat is produced. This increases the reliability of the TV receiver again. 30AX means simple assembly. Any picture tube is compatible with any deflection unit of the appropriate size and is automatically self-aligning as well as being self-convergent.
Now that the new Philips 30AX tube has put in an appearance, some details can be filled in. The new tube has been developed from the 20AX, which has been in production since 1974, but brings with it several important advances. First, no dynamic convergence, static convergence, purity or raster correction adjustments are necessary. Secondly the new yoke design gives improved deflection sensitivity, a straight NS raster, and reduced EW raster distortion. Due to the close mechanical tolerances and the inclusion of positioning bosses on the tube bowl, the tube and yoke can be aligned simply by being pushed together - any 30AX yoke will automatically match any 30AX tube of the appropriate size. Thirdly the newly designed electron gun gives a sharper spot, with greater focus uniformity over the screen area. An internal magnetic ring is used to give correct purity and static beam convergence, in place of the multipole unit used in previous in -line gun tube designs. This results in a strikingly compact assembly. The automatic yoke/tube alignment does away with the need for preset mechanical tilt and shift adjustments which, Philips point out, correct one error by introducing another. The new tube is being produced in the 26, 22 and 20in. screen sizes. The power consumption of a set fitted with the 30AX is typicaly 100W compared to 120W with the 20AX system, at 1.2mA beam current and with an e.h.t. of 25kV. This compares with 88W for a set fitted with a 90° narrow -neck tube and hybrid yoke, under the same conditions.
The well-known 20AX features of HI-Bri, Soft-Flash and Quick-vision are maintained in the new 30AX systern.  In their work on the design of deflection coils in the last few years the developers have expanded  the magnetic deflectionfields into 'multipoles', Thisapproach has improved the understanding  of the relations between coil and field and between field and deflection to such an extent that  designing deflection units is now more like playing a difficult but fascinating game of chess than  carrying out the obscure computing procedure once necessary.

It has a Transistorized horizontal deflection circuits  made up of a horizontal switching or output transistor, a diode, one or more capacitors and a deflection winding. The output transistor, operating as a switch, is driven by a horizontal rate square wave signal and conducts during a portion of the horizontal trace interval. A diode, connected in parallel with the transistor, conducts during the remainder of the trace interval. A retrace capacitor and the deflection yoke winding are coupled in parallel across the transistor-diode combination. Energy is transferred into and out of the deflection winding via the diode and output transistor during the trace interval and via the retrace capacitor during the retrace interval.
In some television receivers, the collector of the horizontal output transistor is coupled to the B+ power supply through the primary windings of the high voltage transformer.

The set is a first in featuring  a new set of PAL decoder chips which has been introduced by Siemens, the TDA2560/TDA2522/TDA2530. The first two of these second -source the latest Philips/Mullard decoder i.c.s, with the TDA2560 as luminance and chrominance signal amplifier and the TDA2522 as the reference oscillator/chrominance demodulator. Interesting features of this set up are the fact that the burst signal passes through the chrominance delay line and the fact that the reference oscillator operates at 8.86MHz, a digital divider providing exactly 90° phase displaced 4.43MHz outputs without the need for a phase shift coil. The first UK produced chassis to use these i.c.s is the Tandberg CTV3, the larger UK setmakers staying for the time being with the TBA560C/TBA540/TCA800 combination. The third i.c. from Siemens is the TDA2530 which supersedes the well known TBA530 luminance/colour-difference signal matrix- ing i.c. The TDA2530 contains a negative feedback driver amplifier and internal clamping in addition to the matrixing network.

Beovision 8800 marked a brand-new generation of televisions with significant technical improvements. One of the most important enhancements was probably the remote control, which now worked with infrared light instead of ultrasound, and had practically all the same functions we use today. Thus, it could also operate text-TV, a brand-new service offered to viewers, introduced in 1983. The remote control took on something of a cult status. Being cast in zinc, the remote control was much more pleasant to handle; as zinc conducts heat, you didn't get clammy hands from handling it for an extended period.

Beovision 8800 had remarkable sound compared to other televisions. The engineers had managed to incorporate a built-in two-way loudspeaker system driven by a 14W amplifier. The energy consumption was only 75W, which is in fact on a par with today's standards. But, back then, a television used more energy if you turned up the volume or increased the picture contrast. These factors are no longer very significant.
This system concept was new. It was now possible to use the same remote control for both the TV and the video recorder. Bang & Olufsen blazed new trails by fusing two remote control units into one. The technology should exist for the sake of people - not the other way around. This philosophy has been pervasive from the very beginning. And it is refreshed at regular intervals. For example, quoting a sales brochure from the 1970s asserts: "There is something that distinguishes Bang & Olufsen radically from everybody else. We are just as interested in what our products are used for as we are in their technological capabilities.
To us, coming up with a technically satisfying design is not enough. It also needs to be satisfying to use. It should operate intuitively. Knobs, buttons and dials need to be positioned logically and consistently so they can be understood and operated by children and adults alike. This might make people think the technology is less advanced. Nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, well-thought-out operation makes heavy demands on ingenuity, often requiring unconventional, sometimes radical solutions.
The objection is frequently heard that people quickly become accustomed to operating technical equipment even if it is complicated and illogical. We do not believe that this is necessarily so. In fact, people often find complicated things annoying - and give up trying to make sense of each of the functions they have paid for. There is simply no excuse for not thinking through the functions and their operation. Even when we're talking about the most advanced high-fidelity equipment, the technology is there for the sake of the people - and not the other way around."
Beovision 8800 became a classic, remaining in production until the launch of the Beovision LX family.
(1980-1983) 26” colour television, remote control, 1x14W, optional teletext decoder, optional A/V interface

Type numbers: 3309, 3311, 3312, 3320, 3321, 3331, 3332, 3342, 3351, 3361, 3371, 3372, 3409, 3411, 3412

Description

The Beovision 8800 was the key model in a new series of Beovision sets that would remain in the range for a good part of the 1980s. Based around the new Philips/Mullard 30AX colour tube, the Beovision 8800 set new standards for performance and reliability.

For such a large set, the Beovision 8800 was remarkably slim. The 30AX tube, like most colour tubes used by B&O, had a scanning angle of 110 degrees and a short neck, allowing a really shallow cabinet to be built around it. The cabinet was constructed from quality materials at both the front and the back and well styled from all angles so the set could be placed in the middle of a room without becoming an eyesore.

The sound performance also exceeded expectations. Two loudspeakers, a quality 4” woofer (with rubber roll edge) and a 1” cone tweeter, were fitted, the woofer in a resiliently mounted bass reflex enclosure. The amplifier could provide no less than 14W, a massive figure at the time and certainly far more than any other colour television of the period. A headphone socket was also fitted, a new feature made possible because the power supply unit and chassis were fully isolated. Picture performance was not neglected, for as well as B&O’s automatic “permanent colour truth” system the Beovision 8800 featured a light sensor which enabled the contrast to be adjusted automatically as the light falling on the screen changed, making for comfortable viewing under all conditions.

16 programmes could be pre-tuned using rotary controls concealed behind the upper loudspeaker grille.

The Beovision 8800 used a chassis that came to be known as the 33XX. This reference came from the type numbers of the sets that used this chassis, most of which started with “33”. The chassis was fully modularised in construction and could be repaired by replacing plug-in units with no soldering being necessary. This design philosophy also allowed upgrades and updates to the design to be made easily as technology changed. One example of this was the receiver panel, which was initially very similar to that of the Beovision 4402 et al but was soon redesigned to take advantage of new integrated circuits and special filters. Another was the colour decoder, which in later sets was revised into an advanced single-chip design.

The Beovision 8800 used a new type of remote control called the Beovision Video Terminal. This was B&O’s first infra-red remote control for televisions and offered a full set of features including channel selection (direct or step), sound and picture control, control of a teletext decoder and control of a video cassette recorder (such as the Beocord 8800 V). The remote control circuits in the television also displayed the programme number on the screen. This feature had been an option on the more expensive models in the previous range.

The Beovision 8800 was the most popular model in the 33XX series and sold well. It was replaced in 1984 by the Beovision 8802.

BANG & OLUFSEN BEOVISION 8800 TYPE 3321 BeoVision 8800 Product Specifications:

Specifications:
Picture tube size 26" - 66 cm
Cabinet Wood
Features Infrared cordless remote control
Number of programmes 16 VHF - UHF
Range VHF 2 - 12
VHF 46 - 130, 130 - 300 MHz only for type: 3325, 3323, 3321, 3373, 3374, 3371, 3372
Picture tube 30 AX 110° in line self converging
Start time Approx. 5 sec.
Aerial impedance 75 ohms coaxial
Speakers Woofer 4" - 10 cm
Tweeter 2" - 5 cm
Log line system
Sound power output 14 watts.
Harmonic distortion < 0.3 %
Intermodulation < 2.5 %
Frequency range +/- 1.5 dB 40 - 20,000 Hz
Power bandwidth 10 - 35,000 Hz
Signal-to-noise ratio > 55 dB
Bass control +8 -5 dB / 100 Hz
Treble control +9 -6 dB / 10,000 Hz
Power supply 180 - 265 volts
Power consumption 75 (65 - 130) watts
Stand-by < 2 watts
Dimensions W x H x D 77 x 49 x 45.5 cm
Weight 39 kg

Connections:
Headphones ouput Max. 7.5 V / 200 ohms
External speaker Min. 4 ohms
Tape output 30 mV / 470 kohms
Amplifier output 700 mV / 1 kohms

Bang & Olufsen Holding A/S (B&O) is a leading consumer electronics firm, manufacturing a complete line of technologically sophisticated, sleekly-designed hi-fis, speakers, televisions and telephones. The company sells its products in 40 countries through a network of more than 2.000 stores that are partly owned by the company. Renowned for its attention to design and leading-edge technology, the company represents a singular force in the multibillion-dollar consumer electronics industry.

Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen grew up in era of swift technological innovation. Both were born around the time Guglielmo Marconi made his 1901 transmission of long-wave radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean in a historic achievement that set the stage both youths’ experiments with radios. At the age of ten Peter Bang read about the world’s first live radio transmission and Enrico Caruso’s performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1910. Soon after, he began his first experiments with radio, eventually leading him to pursue an engineering degree at the Electrotechnical School in Århus, Denmark. After earning his degree in 1924, Peter Bang moved to the United States, where the flourishing radio industry had 600 commercial broadcasting stations and so presented fertile ground for exploring his interests. In the USA Peter Bang worked at a service station and at a radio manufacturing plant, but he soon felt entrepreneurial urges again. After six months he returned to Denmark, intent on starting his own business.

Back in Denmark, Svend Olufsen was busy building his own radio. Olufsen also liked to experiment with electricity and chemistry and had attended the Electrotechnical School at the same time as Bang, also earning an engineering degree. Olufsen began his radio experiments at his family’s Quistrup estate, occupying a room in the attic where he started building a mains receiver, a radio that required neither accumulators nor the batteries needed to recharge them. While he was away at boarding school and later at the Electrotechnical School, Bang had written frequently to his father asking for money to pay for more batteries. Bang’s mains receiver would be the prototype upon which Olufsen’s experiments would be based.

At Quistrup, Olufsen’s mains receiver was half finished when Bang returned from the United States. Olufsen needed help, and his former classmate was uniquely qualified to provide it. Bang left Copenhagen and traveled to the countryside in the west to the Olufsens’ Quistrup. There, in the attic that would serve as B&O’s first laboratory, Bang and Olufsen worked together on the mains receiver, a nest of thick copper wire and insulated cables that stretched from one side of the room to the other. The pair used the money Olufsen’s mother received for selling the farm’s eggs to finance their endeavor. Before long, Bang achieved his entrepreneurial dreams. In 1925, Bang and Olufsen, with the backing of their fathers, formed a limited company funded with DKK 10,000.


After traveling to Copenhagen, where the necessary papers were drawn up, naming Bang’s father, Camillo Cavour Bang, as B&O’s first chairman of the board, the two radio aficionados returned to Quistrup. Bang moved into the attic, putting his bed in the same room as the mains receiver. Bang and Olufsen hired the cowman’s daughter as the company’s sole employee, whose first task each morning was to wake up Bang 15 minutes before the company’s day officially began. The company’s first product was the B&O Eliminator, a device–an aggregate–that connected a battery receiver to the mains to produce noise-free current.

B&O grew quickly. By 1927, the activities in the attic had spread throughout the estate and spilled onto the lawns, where B&O Eliminators were assembled by a staff of 30. Quistrup could no longer accommodate the growth of the company’s payroll and the sprawl of the manufacturing operations, forcing Bang and Olufsen to establish a new site for the company’s headquarters. Their fathers, who together owned 20 percent of the company, remained unconvinced that radio would last, so they stipulated that the new factory be designed as a school building in case radio proved a fleeting fancy. In 1927, B&O moved into its new factory, and the company soon began development of a new radio.

By 1929, the company had completed the design of its breakthrough radio, the Five Lamper and its peripheral “Type D” loudspeaker. Powered from the mains, the Five Lamper only required connection to an electrical outlet for operation. It was the company’s first signal success, embodying the two characteristics that would define B&O’s success in the decades to follow: style and technology. The Five Lamper was a technological marvel, displaying what would become a signature trait of B&O’s products. The Five Lamper was also the first radio encased in a walnut cabinet, exuding elegance in design that drew its inspiration from the Danish furniture industry. For B&O, the combination of style and technology would prove to be a potent formula for success, becoming the foundation upon which all of its subsequent products were based.

The Five Lamper established B&O in the Danish market, securing a leading and lasting position for the West Jutland company, far removed from the hub of activity in Copenhagen. Strong sales and a sleek design at a time when radios were clunky and cumbersome set B&O apart, establishing a reputation that the company would solidify during the 1930s. During that decade, B&O introduced new products, including a radio gramophone in 1930 and several new radio models (Radio 5 RGF, Hyperbo 5 RGF, and Beolit 39). These products notwithstanding, the years preceding World War II were most notable for less tangible results. The 1930s saw B&O strengthen its image as a design-oriented, technology-driven company. It was a company that proclaimed itself as “The Danish Hallmark of Quality” registered as the company’s slogan in 1931, and a company that bore a “pregnant B” inspired by the Bauhaus school of design as part of its corporate logo, trademarked in 1932.

The outbreak of World War II cast a pall over the future of B&O just as the company had taken a firm hold on the Danish market. Denmark was largely defenseless against the onrush of the German Blitzkrieg, and within seven months of the war’s start, the country was occupied by German troops. Not surprisingly, raw materials became hard to come by, particularly radio tubes, but Bang and Olufsen had anticipated the war’s arrival and had begun increasing their stock of essential parts as far back as 1935. Consequently, B&O was able to retain its full workforce during the first few years of the war, a rare feat for Danish manufacturing companies. Ultimately, however, B&O paid a price for its resilience and, specifically, for its resistance. In January 1945, the Germans bombed B&O’s factory, targeting the building because the company had refused to collaborate and because a number of B&O employees were suspected Danish Resistance members. Construction of a new factory began the day after the bombing and was completed in early 1946, but it took another year before full production was resumed.

As B&O recovered from the turmoil of the 1940s, it enjoyed a brief respite before another portentous event clouded the company’s future. After introducing electric shavers into the market in 1946 - a diversification spawned from the scarcity of raw materials during World War II - B&O started manufacturing televisions and tape recorders, fleshing out its product line as it honed its skills in design. Beginning in the 1950s, the company began soliciting the help of Denmark’s renowned architects and designers, drawing from the pool of talent that had made the Danish furniture industry an influential force in design. The effect of the company’s collaboration with the country’s leading designers became evident during the latter half of the 1950s, as B&O radios, televisions and tape recorders earned high praise for their aesthetic appeal. At the same time, by the end of the 1950s, the company’s prospects for survival appeared grim. A little more than a decade after rebuilding its factory, the company again faced the considerable might of the Germans, a face-off that few industry observers believed B&O could withstand.

B&O’s concerns stemmed from the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which spawned the European Economic Community. Tariffs, duties, and customs were relaxed between member countries, leading to the consensus that the Danish radio industry, comprising approximately 20 small companies, would be subsumed by the superior strength of the much larger German manufacturers. The looming threat of much stiffer competition forced B&O to rethink its strategy, prompting the company to leverage its esteemed design expertise and its experience selling semiprofessional, high-fidelity equipment to the United States as the basis for its new approach. The company decided to sacrifice its leading market position in Denmark in order to concentrate on the much larger European market, forsaking dominance in a small market for a small share of a bigger market. In accordance with the new business focus, the company began to develop an entirely new line of stereo products that catered to the high end of the market, an approach evident in the slogan adopted during the 1960s: “B&O - for those who discuss taste and quality before price”.

B&O’s efforts to penetrate the European market bore fruit with the introduction of the Beomaster 900. The Beomaster 900 did to Europe what the Five Lamper had done to Denmark 30 years earlier: the transistorised radio became a success throughout Europe, and despite the company’s fears, its share of the Danish market did not diminish. The Treaty of Rome had forced many of the Danish manufacturers out of business, leaving B&O in a position to strengthen its domestic lead. By the time Beomaster 900 was introduced, B&O was ready to secure a presence in the then-developing market for high-fidelity systems. The company wanted to establish the standard by which all stereo systems would measured, an ideal that was realised with the Beolab 5000 series. Featuring a sensitive tuner, a powerful amplifier, and linear controls instead of knobs, the Beolab 5000 became B&O’s second European success, spawning more affordable versions, Beomaster 1200 and Beomaster 3000.

Having established itself as a genuine contender in the vast European market, B&O spent the late 1960s restructuring its operations to conform to its new market orientation. The company established subsidiaries that replaced a network of agents that had previously carried out the international distribution. The reorganization included the formation of Bomark in 1970, which created an international marketing department responsible for coordinating all of the company’s marketing activities. Previously, the company had taken whatever advertising it had created for the Danish market and used it to support its foreign marketing efforts, changing it only slightly to reflect cultural and market differences. The new system regarded the Danish market as only one of many markets, driving the company’s evolution toward becoming a multinational concern. B&O marketing adopted the company’s new perspective, as advertising campaigns became specifically tailored for the nuances of individual markets amid divergent cultures.

After the success of Beolab 5000, B&O next prodded its engineers and designers to develop a complete array of stereo components. The first product to make its debut was Beogram 4000, a turntable introduced in 1972 featuring a tangential arm that reproduced a recording in the same way in which it had been made. The record player was designed to target a different, much larger market segment, music lovers rather than the more exclusive retinue of technology-focused customers. Advanced technology, always an integral aspect of B&O’s products, was not forsaken, but hidden beneath the surface, as the company’s products earned a new distinction of exterior simplicity. This quality was first evident in Beomaster 1900, a system introduced in 1975 that market a turning point in the evolution of the B&O product line. For the next 20 years, Beomaster 1900 would be the company’s best-selling product.


Problems in the 1980s resolved in the 1990s

This success notwithstanding, the 1980s proved to be a difficult decade for B&O, as the company struggled to beat back fierce competition from its Asian rivals. Although external pressures played their part, the company also fell victim to internal problems, problems of its own making that B&O’s management was slow to acknowledge. The company’s distributors lost faith in the B&O product line, and revenues began to slip. Initially, B&O tried to arrest its slide by narrowing its market focus on its wealthiest customers, but in the process the company’s products lost some of their integrity, as substance was sacrificed for style. The company also tried to restore loyalty within its distributor ranks by staging seasonal product launches in exotic locations, but the effort failed. B&O’s fundamental problem had to do with the decentralization that followed the company’s full-fledged foray into international markets. The subsidiaries, by the 1980s, had become separate fiefdoms, which led to overspending, high costs, and superfluous bureaucratization. At the same time, the company had lost the ability to react nimbly to changing market conditions.

Before the end of the decade, B&O became a cash-strapped enterprise. The need for capital led to a strategic alliance with Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., the Dutch consumer electronics conglomerate, but the capital gained from the investment was soon drained. Rudderless and ailing financially, B&O entered the 1990s in crisis mode.

Salvation arrived in May 1991, when B&O’s board of directors installed a new management team, led by Anders Knutsen. Knutsen’s first task was to cut costs, an objective fulfilled by laying off employees, streamlining operations, and paring away excess layers of management. Knutsen also implemented a new strategic plan known as “Break Point 1993″ which addressed the problems born of the company’s earlier decentralization. Knutsen reintroduced centralized management and made the company more responsive to the demands of its customers. Stocks of finished products and parts were removed from many of B&O’s subsidiaries, as Knutsen transformed B&O from a company geared for mass production into an enterprise organized to fulfill customers’ orders. The changes sparked a turnaround, refreshing the spirit and resharpening the focus that had predicated B&O’s success.

At the end of the 1990s, B&O approached its 75th anniversary as a unique competitor in the consumer electronics industry. The company’s attention to design and its long record of technological advancements remained the qualities that set the B&O name apart. With sales nearing the half-billion-dollar mark by the century’s end, B&O promised to figure as a prominent force in the years ahead, as a new generation of high-technology stereos, speakers, and televisions and telephones continued the legacy established by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen.


Principal Subsidiaries

Bang &Olufsen Medicom A/S; Bang & Olufsen Telecom A/S; Bang &; Olufsen Technology A/S; Bang & Olufsen PowerHouse A/S; Bang & Olufsen America, Inc

Principal Competitors

Bose Corporation; Harman International Industries, Inc.; Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd

Further Reading

Baeb, Eddie, “Bang & Olufsen Marching to Its Own Drummer,” Crain’s Chicago Business, October 30, 2000, p. 9

“Bang & Olufsen Divest Shareholding in Baan NV,” M2 Communications Ltd., January 4, 2000

Bang, Jens, From Vision to Legend, Denmark: Bang & Olufsen, 1999

“Business Diary: Agreements: Visteon Automotive,” Crain’s Detroit Business, June 21, 1999

Carnoy, David, “Bang for the Buck,” Fortune, May 1, 2000, p. 362

“Harvey Electronics, Inc. Announces Opening of Bang & Olufsen Showroom in Greenwich, Connecticut,” Business Wire, October 18, 2000

“Toys for the Ear,” Boston Herald, December 5, 1999, Sunday Magazine Section

Company Perspectives:

At the threshold of a new century, Bang & Olufsen’s reputation remains second-to-none in the global market for leading-edge audio & video products. Little wonder that New York’s Museum of Modern Art arranged a 39-piece special exhibition of Bang & Olufsen products in 1978 - an honor only given to three other companies during the 20th century.

Key Dates:

1925: Bang & Olufsen is formed as a limited company

1929: Introduction of the Five Lamper secures the new company

1962: Concerted push into European markets begins

1975: Beomaster 1900 becomes best-selling product for next 20 years

1980: Company revenues drop due to Asian competition and worldwide recession

1991: New management team spearheads recovery.

A brief note about on Television sets reliability and durability..........................

ANYONE with even the smallest experience of television engineering is bound to come up against that embarrassing question which is always so difficult to answer-"which TV shall I get?" The questioner is usually concerned about obtaining the cheapest and most reliable receiver that is available, and this same approach generally governs the choice between buying when new - restoring in this time. This is perfectly reasonable and often applies to other consumer products apart from TV. 

What does seem a little strange however is that no one ever seems to ask "which TV set gives the best picture?" Why not? Doesn't anyone care, or is the question too complicated to discuss? 

Yet the average person spends five and a half hours a day, every day, watching TV garbage:

The Propaganda TV Machine a.k.a. The Ministry of Truth delivers The Truth from The Government to the people.
At least, that's what they say. In fact, a Propaganda Machine is only employed by The Empire and used to brainwash people into Gullible Lemmings who believe that everything is all right when in fact, it isn't, and that the very people who could help them are their enemies..............

................... so the quality of the picture must be important........................ 

expecially for those football idiots so the they have the motivation to glue their assface on the screen all day long to discover better somewaht in their ignorance.

........Now................It is high time that people began to realise this simple fact, and to take an interest in the quality of the product that absorbs so much of their spare time. There are of course plenty of people who are genuinely interested in good picture quality. It is unlikely for example that so many readers of this Blog would be taking part in the magnificent TELEVISION colour receiver project, but more likely restoring  monochrome receivers or adapting old color ones, if they were indifferent to the quality of the picture obtained at the end of the day. But today times seems changing, the trend started by many readers of Obsolete Technology Tellye !  have had a significative rise up in recovering and restoring old CRT's TV's and started to build up collections by people in many lands worldwide.

 Good CRT  picture quality cannot however be achieved merely by connecting together the appropriate groups of circuits. Sometimes in fact even well established designs can present problems if they are assembled in a different way to the original or with non-standard components. 

So what constitutes good picture quality and what do you do when things go wrong? 

It is not much use delving into the textbooks because they are strangely unhelpful about this sort of thing.

  At least however we can here at Obsolete Technology Tellye !  establish some basic principles to use as a starting point. There is a difference between the kind of picture quality defects that you would expect to find in a manufactured receiver compared to one made by a home restorer / constructor. 

A CRT manufactured receiver usually has only minor faults and one wants to'assess how well it compares with the products of other set - makers.

Todays trade, threw a rather different light on matters however. Briefly, we found that during CRT boom periods for the setmakers reliability increased whilst during periods of diminishing sales a fall in the standard of reliability became evident, so you will find excellent sets from the 70s/80s. I had tended to think that a boom meant an attitude of anything goes to get as many sets out to meet the demand, with consequent corner cutting and use of whatever alternative components could be got hold of if necessary. The overriding point seems to be however that in boom conditions with a seller's market prices can be maintained and quality standards kept up whilst in flat market conditions there is overwhelming pressure on prices and reliability tends to fall. It is difficult to be too sure about this since the worst trading period coincided with the era of dual standard analog TV sets which may eventually but not certainly inevitably less reliable than the single -standard chassis which preceeded and succeeded them. It would however tie up  about the comparative reliability of colour and monochrome sets, since the era of colour boom coincides with a very flat period in monochrome set production and sales, that in talking about reliability means overall dependability rather than initial statistics for unboxed set condition. 

That all said is very applicable to todays times, with completely different technically means, reality where unfair market conditions focibly applied to European firms by an elite which has only the will and target to destroy European eritage at all levels with the main  point in destroying local economy.

It includes:

- A number of areas of law involving acts by one competitor or group of competitors which harm another in the field, and which may give rise to criminal offenses and civil causes of action.

- Trade libel, the spreading of false information about the quality or characteristics of a competitor's products, is prohibited at common law but still high present and unstopped.

- Various unfair business practices such as fraud, misrepresentation, and unconscionable contracts may be considered unfair competition, if they give one competitor an advantage over others expecially all from the so called ASIATIC MARKET.

Therefore:

All of todays apparates are literally absolute GARBAGE when new and resulting often broken when out of the box after purchase. Poor engineering, manufacturing and materials in the main part, combined with unfair massive import to Europe of such DUMP goods, at cheap prices in closed hard tight market (so they can be the only 2 3 competitor in foreign lands and all locals firms brought to death by heavy taxations, troublesome difficulties at all levels) and sold with medium to high prices respect to initial build costs !!

For that there can't be a comparation of reliability between a CRT TV SET and any one of todays sets, which often are resulting in a SCAM mainly under the technological part, emerging, even, from the first repair attempt !

......  And  in the end you will NEVER SEE a  restoring of ANY of the Actual todays electronic GARBAGE !

R.I.P.  EUROPE !

Some of References:

"Annual Report 2013/14: 01 June 2013 – 31 May 2014" (PDF). az498215.vo.msecnd.net.


"HARMAN Completes Acquisition of Bang & Olufsen's Automotive Audio Business". HARMAN Newsroom. Retrieved 2019-02-24.

"B & O Sells Czech Factory to Tymphany". Retrieved 2019-02-24.

"Global Operations". Tymphany. Retrieved 2019-02-24.

"The true story behind Bang and Olufsen", William Schwark, Scanorama, November 2007

Walker, Rob (September 27, 2011). "Can the Cult of Bang & Olufsen Last?". Wired.

Bang & Olufsen rolls out strategy plan bang-olufsen.com

"Denmark's Bang & Olufsen would listen to bid approaches", Reuters, 5 January 2015

"HP makes Bang & Olufsen its new audio partner". CNET. Retrieved 21 February 2016.

Holt, Julie Ring-Hansen (25 October 2006). "Seks ud af ti nye Audier fødes med B&O-anlæg" [Six out of ten new Audis are born with Bang & Olufsen system] (in Danish). Mediehuset Ingeniøren A/S. Retrieved 6 November 2014.

Krøyer, Kent (13 March 2005). "Audi med indbygget koncertsal fra B&O" [Audi with built in concert hall from B&O] (in Danish). Mediehuset Ingeniøren A/S. Retrieved 6 November 2014.

"Audi Glossary". Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2011.

"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2013-04-21.

Mercedes AMG S-class"mercedes-amg.com

Abuelsamid, Sam. "B&O Play Audio Systems To Replace Sony In Ford Vehicles In 2017". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-09-17.

"2018 Ford® F-150 Limited Truck | Model Highlights | Ford.com". www.ford.com. Retrieved 2017-09-17.

Bang & Olufsen - Business to Business bang-olufsen.com

"10 classic jacob jensen gadgets".

"Elegant Design of Sound Equipment Focus of MoMA Show" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. March 1978.

Apple's Inspiration For The iPod? Bang & Olufsen, Not Braun, fastdesign.com, Nov 2013

"ICEpower – Class D OEM audio amplifiers".

Bang & Olufsen Medicom Archived 2009-04-04 at the Wayback Machine medicom.bang-olufsen.com

Beocentral - the definitive Bang & Olufsen reference site Collectors reference site beocentral.com

Simonsen, Torben R. "ICEpower in all active speakers", (in Danish) Electronics Business, 28 September 2010. Accessed: 9 March 2011.

"Bang & Olufsen's Edge speaker can be rolled to adjust the volume". The Verge. Retrieved 2018-08-29.

Further reading

Bang, Jens (2005). From Spark to Icon. Denmark: Bang & Olufsen. ISBN 87-980814-5-4.
Jarman, Tim; Jarman Nick (2008). Crowood Collectors' Series: Bang & Olufsen. England: Crowood Press. ISBN 978-1-84797-068-8.