Richtige Fernseher haben Röhren!

Richtige Fernseher haben Röhren!

In Brief: On this site you will find pictures and information about some of the electronic, electrical and electrotechnical Obsolete technology relics that the Frank Sharp Private museum has accumulated over the years .
Premise: There are lots of vintage electrical and electronic items that have not survived well or even completely disappeared and forgotten.

Or are not being collected nowadays in proportion to their significance or prevalence in their heyday, this is bad and the main part of the death land. The heavy, ugly sarcophagus; models with few endearing qualities, devices that have some over-riding disadvantage to ownership such as heavy weight,toxicity or inflated value when dismantled, tend to be under-represented by all but the most comprehensive collections and museums. They get relegated to the bottom of the wants list, derided as 'more trouble than they are worth', or just forgotten entirely. As a result, I started to notice gaps in the current representation of the history of electronic and electrical technology to the interested member of the public.

Following this idea around a bit, convinced me that a collection of the peculiar alone could not hope to survive on its own merits, but a museum that gave equal display space to the popular and the unpopular, would bring things to the attention of the average person that he has previously passed by or been shielded from. It's a matter of culture. From this, the Obsolete Technology Tellye Web Museum concept developed and all my other things too. It's an open platform for all electrical Electronic TV technology to have its few, but NOT last, moments of fame in a working, hand-on environment. We'll never own Colossus or Faraday's first transformer, but I can show things that you can't see at the Science Museum, and let you play with things that the Smithsonian can't allow people to touch, because my remit is different.

There was a society once that was the polar opposite of our disposable, junk society. A whole nation was built on the idea of placing quality before quantity in all things. The goal was not “more and newer,” but “better and higher" .This attitude was reflected not only in the manufacturing of material goods, but also in the realms of art and architecture, as well as in the social fabric of everyday life. The goal was for each new cohort of children to stand on a higher level than the preceding cohort: they were to be healthier, stronger, more intelligent, and more vibrant in every way.

The society that prioritized human, social and material quality is a Winner. Truly, it is the high point of all Western civilization. Consequently, its defeat meant the defeat of civilization itself.

Today, the West is headed for the abyss. For the ultimate fate of our disposable society is for that society itself to be disposed of. And this will happen sooner, rather than later.

OLD, but ORIGINAL, Well made, Funny, Not remotely controlled............. and not Made in CHINA.

How to use the site:
- If you landed here via any Search Engine, you will get what you searched for and you can search more using the search this blog feature provided by Google. You can visit more posts scrolling the left blog archive of all posts of the month/year,
or you can click on the main photo-page to start from the main page. Doing so it starts from the most recent post to the older post simple clicking on the Older Post button on the bottom of each page after reading , post after post.

You can even visit all posts, time to time, when reaching the bottom end of each page and click on the Older Post button.

- If you arrived here at the main page via bookmark you can visit all the site scrolling the left blog archive of all posts of the month/year pointing were you want , or more simple You can even visit all blog posts, from newer to older, clicking at the end of each bottom page on the Older Post button.
So you can see all the blog/site content surfing all pages in it.

- The search this blog feature provided by Google is a real search engine. If you're pointing particular things it will search IT for you; or you can place a brand name in the search query at your choice and visit all results page by page. It's useful since the content of the site is very large.

Note that if you don't find what you searched for, try it after a period of time; the site is a never ending job !

Every CRT Television saved let revive knowledge, thoughts, moments of the past life which will never return again.........

Many contemporary "televisions" (more correctly named as displays) would not have this level of staying power, many would ware out or require major services within just five years or less and of course, there is that perennial bug bear of planned obsolescence where components are deliberately designed to fail and, or manufactured with limited edition specificities..... and without considering........picture......sound........quality........
..............The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of todays funny gadgets low price has faded from memory........ . . . . . .....
Don't forget the past, the end of the world is upon us! Pretty soon it will all turn to dust!

Have big FUN ! !
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©2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Frank Sharp - You do not have permission to copy photos and words from this blog, and any content may be never used it for auctions or commercial purposes, however feel free to post anything you see here with a courtesy link back, btw a link to the original post here , is mandatory.
All sets and apparates appearing here are property of Engineer Frank Sharp. NOTHING HERE IS FOR SALE !
All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within Fair Use.


Wednesday, April 20, 2022

BANG & OLUFSEN BEOVISION MX4002 YEAR 1998










 

 The  BANG & OLUFSEN BEOVISION MX4002 is a 21 inches (51cm) color television.

designed by David Lewis

The  BeoVision 4002 was introduced in the mid-1990s and possessed exactly the same functionality as the BeoVision MX4000 with the exception that this set was fitted with Beolink® which gave a user extended possibilities when setting up an around-the-house A/V system.


The colour range was exactly the same too, as well as the same type of wall, tabletop and floor-standing supports available.
Too large to be considered a portable set and too small to be a main room receiver, the BeoVision MX4000/4002 nevertheless fulfilled an important niche in customers’ lives and the TV was a great success in its altogether eleven year life. It was ideally placed in kitchen or in bedrooms when a variety of stands and supports were offered, including a wall mount with motorised base.


 Beovision MX 4002 was probably the most flexible television as far as placing was concerned. You could place it directly on a floor, and using the spring bar underneath the set you could tilt it in order to improve viewing angle. You could place the MX 4002 on the wall with an optional bracket, which also came as a motorised version. When on the wall, you could tilt the screen downwards, towards a bed, for example. Or you could of course place the TV on a stand on the floor, or on a stand on a table. Both stands were available in motorised versions and the floor-stand had an optional video-shelf available. The motorised stand was operated via the Beolink® remote control, that also operated the television and video  as well as all B&O audio systems and light control units.

 Beovision MX 4002 was the Beolink® variation of the MX 4000. This model gave you numerous options when you were setting up your Beolink® system and needed an extra television in your bedroom, study or kitchen. The MX 4002 was available in the same colours as MX 4000 and had the same placement possibilities as well.

A special version of the Beovision MX 4000 that was fitted with a built-in Masterlink interface. This special feature, unique amongst all sets that used this chassis, allowed simple and direct connection to a Masterlink multiroom system and allowed the set to form a complete link-room installation.

Despite being a very useful addition to the range, this set was easily overlooked as it was frequently listed in the “Beolink” section of the catalogue rather than with the rest of the televisions.

The Masterlink interface unit was fairly bulky, so its installation required that the special back cover that was normally needed to install a Beosat LM receiver in the normal Beovision MX 4000 was used to house it. This of course meant that the Beosat LM could not be fitted to the Beovision MX 4002, and furthermore the 7-pin Audio-aux socket did not work, so was fitted with a blanking plug.


The MX range was the first to bring the TV out into the open and it continues to show alternative ways of living with television. Beovision MX4000 was the little brother of the MX6000 having the same functions but with some minor differences when it came to sound and picture. The speaker was not a 2-way bass reflex as in the MX6000 but a 2-way Logline speaker.

Complete with a choice of colours, the specially-designed wall brackets of the MX4000/4002 gave you the option of placing the MX on the wall. The placement options of the MX 4000/4002 also included a motorised stand with room for your VCR/DVD player.

The TV had a 51cm screen, the same features as MX6000, but with conventional loudspeakers, optional wall bracket, available in pearlescent shades of: green, blue, red, grey, black or glossy white. With a Beovision MX 4002 as an extra TV in the bedroom, you could access the video and satellite options of the Avant in the living room or wake up to music from the radio and CD of the Ouverture or BeoSound 3000. Beovision MX4002 was replaced with the MX4200 in 2003.

Filling a television with every conceivable gadget that technology offers is easy enough. What's more difficult is identifying what really improves the overall experience of watching TV and eliminating the things that don't. That's the philosophy behind the MX range. In both form and function, it's a clear-cut case of less being more.

Complete with a choice of 6 colours that included green and white, the specially-designed wall brackets of the MX 4000 gave you the option of placing your MX on the wall. The placement options of the MX 4000 also included a motorised stand with room for your VCR/DVD player. The TV was controlled by the provided Beo4 remote control.


** Beovision 4000/4002 at the time of its introduction, was fitted with a plexi-glass (acrylic) screen. However, since the late 1990's, the model has a glass screen, the same as the rest of the model range.

(1995-2003)

Type numbers: 7840, 7841, 7842, 7843, 7844, 7845, 7846, 7847, 7848, 7849, 8730, 8731, 8732, 8734, 8735, 8736, 8739

The BeoVision MX4002 was subsequently replaced by BeoVision MX4200.

 

BANG & OLUFSEN BEOVISION MX4002 SPECIFICATIONS:

Terminal included: Beo4 
Picture tube: 55cm Black Line, Black Matrix (Visible picture 51cm) 
Contrast screen: grey glass 
VisionClear Auto picture adjustment, Auto cut-off, Wideband CTI, Dynamic luminance peaking 
TV tuner range VHF, S, Hyper, UHF 
CTV system Depending on type: B/G/D/K/L/L´/I PAL SECAM, NTSC on AV 
Teletext system Improved Teletext, FastText, 6 languages, 4 memory page per programme 
TV programmes: 59 
Sound: stereo 
Long-term max. output: 2 x 40 W / 8 ohm 
Stereo decoder/Bilingual: depending on type 
A2 + NICAM B/G/I optional 
A2 + NICAM B/G/L optional 
Speaker system: log line, full range speakers 
Power consumption/Minimum: typical 90 W / 2.5 W 
Dimensions W x H x D: 51 x 55 x 41.5cm 
Weight: 23 kg 

Connections: AV Link 1 x 21-pin EURO, Datalink 
Super VHS YC playback 4-pin socket 
ML ML socket 
Power Link 2 x 8-pin sockets 
External speakers 2 x 2-pin sockets 
Stereo headphones Jack socket 3.5 mm 
Motorized stand operation 4-pin socket 

Link compatibility: Master Link:

 Master Link perceived as an interconnection method offers some convenient benefits not available with the MCL system. An example is that whereas the interconnection in the main room previously had to be carried out with one type of cable (Audio Aux Link) and the interconnection between the main room and the link rooms with another type of cable (Master Control Link), the new Master Link connection offers a bustype connection that caters for all interconnections between the main room audio and video systems as well as connections to the link rooms.

Another benefit is the completely individual volume control and tone adjustments in each link room, due to the distribution of audio signals at line level and the application of power amplifiers in each link room. Contrary to the previous signal distribution system, Master Link signals are distributed as balanced signals, permitting distribution of CD-quality sound, even when the cable distances are fairly long. Finally, the distribution hardware has been improved, e.g. by the introduction of a reduced signal cable diameter and new cable termination methods. The benefit of this improvement is that installation has become simpler and more elegant. The simplification is most evident in smaller installations, e.g. the installation of an intelligent kitchen loudspeaker being intuitively and quickly accomplished, whereas larger installations still require some planning and installation skills - as implied by the presence of this booklet.

BeoLink is a Bang & Olufsen expression that covers:
1. The ability to create and operate audio-video systems, and
2. The ability to distribute sound and picture from a Bang & Olufsen main room system to other rooms in the home, and to operate the main room system from the rooms connected by means of BeoLink. BeoLink is not a product - it is a number of features that are the result of the intelligent interaction between products, a synergy effect. BeoLink may be obtained in different ways, depending upon the products that are used: basically either the Audio Aux Link/Master Control Link (MCL) system or the Master Link system. The latter is the most recent system, and the long-term objective is that it shall replace the other system.

 The concept of linking was founded with the idea of adding remote control to your music system in the late 1970ies. Remotes for TVs were known, but Bang & Olufsen was the first to introduce remote operation of HiFi systems. Bang & Olufsen wanted to actively engage and empower people by putting the choice of sound and picture in the palm of your hand. All with the intention of offering the utmost opportunity to immerse yourself in the experience – from the comfort of your sofa. Bang & Olufsen’s very first foray into designing a remote control was as early as 1957. But it was not until 20 years later that the remote really gained a foothold.

 

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..

  

Products of B&O:

 

B&O products often have a unique appearance and user-interface.Early models are collectible decades later.

 B&O uses a Beo prefix for the names of its product lines.

  • Beocord refers to tape recorders, both open-reel types and 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". The most famous Beomaster is the Beomaster 1900 from 1976. It was the first consumer electronics product with touch controls. Similar models were made until the end of the 1980s
  • Beogram refers to turntables and, later, CD players. Jacob Jensen's first Beogram design was unlike prior B&O designs; the company committed to only making 50 but went on to make thousands.
  •  B&O developed electronically controlled tangential turntables in the 1970s, starting with the Beogram 4000 of 1972. The last tangential tracking turntable was the Beogram 7000, which were taken off the production lines in 1995. B&O has also produced radial tracking turntables. The Beogram 6000 is on display in the Museum of Modern Art for its unique appearance and use of a tangential tracking tonearm.
  • Beolab refers to amplifiers and powered speakers (loudspeakers with built-in amplifiers), and as of 2011, all new powered speakers use ICEpower.
  • Beovox refers to passive loudspeakers (i.e., without internal amplification)
  • Beolit refers to the range of portable radios
  • Beosystem early refers to a line of components—e.g., Beomaster, Beogram, and Beocord—which matched one another in both appearance and operation. The first Beosystem were the Beosystem 1200 of 1969–1973, and the last were the Beosystem 7000 of 1992–1994. And now refer to the Audio/Video central processing unit (BeoSystem 2; Beosystem 3).
  • 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 "Beocentres"
  • Beomic refers to performance or recording microphones, such as the dynamic microphone DM-1, or ribbon microphones, such as the BM-2, BM-3, etc.
  • BeoCom & BeoTalk refers to the company's line of telephones and telephone accessories, such as answering machines
  • Beovision refers to a line of televisions.
  • Beosound refers to the current range of music systems and audio products. Since November 2010 the range has included an iPod/iPhone/iPad-Dock.
  • Beotime refers to the company's advanced alarm clock
  • Beoplayer refers to the company's media player for free download
  • Beoplay is a consumer-oriented brand marketing headphones, compact wired speakers and wireless speakers.
  • Beosound Edge is a speaker that can either be mounted on the wall or stood on the floor, it is designed on the simple accelerometer mechanism which makes essentially the whole speaker into a giant volume knob. It was first presented at the IFA 2018.
  • Serene and Serenata phones created in partnership with Samsung.
  • Beosound Shape is a customisable modular wall mounted speaker system that consists of hexagonal tiles designed to hide one of each hi-fi module—speaker, amplifier or acoustic damper—underneath its fabric cover.
  • Beoplay H95 is adaptive ANC headphones.

See also:



More Notes:


"Jensen designed 234 products for the company"

"His work for Danish company Bang & Olufsen (1965-1985)"

 

"The Beogram [...] was so strange and different from anything before it. There were no influences, no labels, it was simply my design, my invention, my idea. B&O were gobsmacked when they first saw it, but they were too polite to say no, so they decided to produce 50. In the end, many thousands were sold".
 
 

Further notes and some References:

"Annual Report 2020/21: 01 June 2020 – 31 May 2021". ml-eu.globenewswire.com.


"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 Archived 2008-11-16 at the Wayback Machine 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.


"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.


"Bang & Olufsen Struggles to Sell $15,000 TV Sets". Bloomberg.com. 2020-01-14. Retrieved 2020-01-16.


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


Bagner, Alex (May 2007). "Remote access". Wallpaper. IPC Media (99): 264–270. ISSN 1364-4475. OCLC 948263254.


"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". Archived from the original on 2008-06-12. Retrieved 2005-09-08.


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


"Bang & Olufsen - High-end Headphones, Speakers, and Televisions". www.bang-olufsen.com.


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


"Jacob Jensen. Beogram 6000 Turntable. 1974 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art.


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.


May 2017, What Hi-Fi? 30. "Hands on: Home review". whathifi.
 
 

More Further readings:

  • 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.

 

 

External links:

  • Media related to Bang & Olufsen at Wikimedia Commons
  • Official website
  • 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
  • Beomanuals – Free user and service manuals for Bang & Olufsen
  • BeoWorld – Everything Bang & Olufsen, community and forum for fans around the globe
  • BeoPhile.com (via web.archive.org) – Speaking the language of Bang & Olufsen: comprehensive Web site for B&O collectors.

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