Sympathetic article and interview in Sunday Times Business section today. Usual inaccuracies from the journalist - the BS3 does not have AM! - but he comes across very well.

Thanks. Found a link:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/article3136566.ece 

 

The journalist is quite astute, pointing a finger at B&O's essence and challenge:

And that’s the thing with B&O, many still don’t know if the company is brilliant or barmy. Founded in 1925, tucked away in rural Denmark and revered in Scandinavia as a Rolls-Royce among brands, it does things in a way that few would copy. For starters, it has more than 700 standalone B&O stores worldwide, some owned, most franchised, and it’s opening more all the time. Yet the one in my local high street never has any customers. What’s it there for? 

Peter:

Sympathetic article and interview in Sunday Times Business section today. Usual inaccuracies from the journalist - the BS3 does not have AM! - but he comes across very well.

There's quite a bit of editorial, too. It does touch upon the BeoSound 5 and that it is definitely going to be a replacement for your PC in the living room - it states that it will bring you to music that you've not experienced, indicating they are working hard on recommendations, based on your existing collection. Also says that it will be out within 12 months from now (I'm guessing the article was written in December). 12 months?

I think the writer was a little disrespectful about Torbens appearance!

He's slim, immaculately groomed and sharply dressed (i've met him twice now) - but the guy makes him out to be some mad, wild haired professor shoe-horned into a Marks & Spencer suit !!  The 'childlike zest' bit is accurate though!!

I'd love to do another, longer interview with him again. Perhaps this year - i can only ask..

Lee 

Interesting article.  Torben sounds like a cool guy (heck, he drives a M5 and boats with a beer - what's not to like?).

After reading this article, I'm really interested to see what B&O is going to do with the BeoSound 5.  It almost sounds like they're going to set up a Kaliedescape-like system ( http://www.kaleidescape.com/ ) that incorporates some sort of software (ala Amazon.com) that makes suggestions to you regarding future music choices.

I've made my overly pro-Apple slant well known in these forums, but that doesn't mean that I don't want B&O to succeed in whatever way they can.  In fact, I want my current and future investments in my beloved B&O equipment to be somewhat future-proof. If B&O can do this on their own, then so be it, but please make it integrate well with other "players" so that I don't have to build more than one digital media library. 

Peter:

Sympathetic article and interview in Sunday Times Business section today. Usual inaccuracies from the journalist - the BS3 does not have AM! - but he comes across very well.

I thought he came across as somewhat complacent. What a great opportunity to promote products and future direction. An opportunity wasted in my opinion. 

 

BeoNut1:

After reading this article, I'm really interested to see what B&O is going to do with the BeoSound 5.  It almost sounds like they're going to set up a Kaliedescape-like system ( http://www.kaleidescape.com/ ) that incorporates some sort of software (ala Amazon.com) that makes suggestions to you regarding future music choices.

Here's the key quote from the article regarding your point:

“We have so many ideas, the difficulty is selecting them. The next thing we are working on is how to merge computer technology into your living room without an ugly PC in there. Within 12 months we will have a product you’ve never seen before which can navigate your entire collection of music, and you’ll hear music you’ve never heard, using neural intelligence to take you to music.”

First thing to note is that he's talking about a music only solution.  So, while Kaleidescape is an unbelievable product (I have had one for 4 years), it's a solution that I consider to be movies first and music second.  I say that because the music playback functionality, while very well done, doesn't offer many advanced features.  Other music server competitors are doing more at this point, but the Kaleidescape system will hopefully evolve to include some of that advanced functionality. 

What kind of "advanced features" am I talking about?  Well, one of them could be something directly related to what Torben talks about for this new product.  Navigating to music is something that every music server and streaming solution does - some better than others.  However, some advanced solutions help you discover your collection in unique ways.  Two such solutions are Sooloos (www.sooloos.com) and Qsonix (www.qsonix.com).  Both  are music servers with large touchscreen controllers used to navigate through and control playback of your music library.  That in itself is an attractive way to browse through your collection - a large touchscreen displaying your albums with their album art.  My gut feeling is that B&O will look to something like this for music browsing.
 
The other unique aspect to both of these solutions are the extra ways the give you to find music.  Sure, you can view by album, artist, genre, etc.  Sooloos goes further by including extensive metadata on albums from AMG.  We're talking about things like sub-genres, mood, album credits (who played drums, guitar, etc on an album).  You can then find (or Focus, as they call it) on albums using those additional pieces of information.  It's hard to explain, but you can get a gist from this recent review of the Sooloos system:

http://www.sooloos.com/press/Sooloos-ToneAudio.pdf

The Qsonix system takes a slightly different route.  Both Sooloos and Qsonix (as well as Kaleidescape) get their music metadata for albums from AMG.  AMG also offers a separate service called Tapestry.  Last Fall, Qsonix announced that they were going to be the first product with Tapestry integration.  So, what is Tapestry?  The idea is that if you examine various aspects of music and note those apects for songs, you can start to see commonalities between songs.  In this way, you may be able to show users these connections and use that information to build playlists (Pandora Radio does this with their own database, called the Music Genome Project).  So, with Tapestry, you can select a song and have it build a playlist of a length you set with songs similar to the one you chose.  You can alternatively choose categories like mood, themes (for example, road trip or dinner party) and tone (mood) to have a playlist built based on those criteria.  AMG has a demo of it online here:

http://tapestry.allmusic.com/

and here:

http://amgtapestry.com/radio/

Now, these tools currently help you explore your existing collection.  However, both Qsonix and Sooloos plan on expanding the usage of these tools to find music not already in your collection.  Qsonix already has integrated with MusicGiants' online music store and Sooloos will announce Rhapsody integration at CES.  This is the next step - help users discover new music that they might not have otherwise using these tools. 

If B&O is looking to do the same, that would be very cool indeed.

Jeff
 

Wow he must have alot of energy, seems to be a very busy person but also appears to be reasonably good at dealing with stress, i think the article was well written and interesting.

Interesting also to see that he is an Aquarian, they are said to be eccentric and ahead of their own time...

rgbyhkr - a very informative and insightful post - thank you!

Lee

 

Am I the only one curious why he does not drive an Audi? 

expoman:

Am I the only one curious why he does not drive an Audi? 

He probably got an A8 given and lets his wife drive it..  The M5 is much better than one of those barges!

However, i think an Aston Martin ought to find its way to Torben's driveway..  i'm sure the M5 might be used a little less then..

Lee

 

"...using neural intelligence to take you to music." - Could this be pointing to the use of voice activation for the BS5 perhaps? That might be quite interesting.

I am just not sure about this whole move to digital technology. I appreciate this is a natural progression but I wonder how quickly and how much people will want to adapt to it anyway? I suspect that I will be someone who moves into it quite late on. Mr Anderson is clearly excited about this transition and obviously the perfect customer for B&O judging by some of his comments. However, I need much more convincing and judging by B&Os latest offerings I feel fairly confident that the BS5 will disappoint me.

An earlier post suggesting that the Beo5 shows CD covers is an interesting take and I like that. Even if it were not designed to do that, it certainly has the capability to do so anyway, along with showing anything else that conventional screens do, although perhaps a little on the small side for too much of that kind of use. We'll see.

How is the BS5 going to stand out from the competition? Will it have anything about it that is unique and original? Something not thought of by existing manufacturers yet? Or, is it just another glorified iPod? The design is going to be similar to the BeoSound 3, that is quite clear to me from the giveaway photos in the Star of the Day competition. It will be some kind of portal that holds and connects you to all your media. OK, not new, but we'll see how they plan to do it. Will it be wireless? I assume it will be portable and something you carry around the home with you, so this means it won't be too big or too heavy in appearance; a modern day version of the Master Control Panel. How will it be different from AppleTV? What will it offer to justify its asking price?

One thing I do know is that if they get it wrong and this thing doesn't sell then they are in big trouble. They are just not coming out with enough innovative products. The few that they do come out with would still be OK if they were innovative enough, but they are not, at least not in my opinion and at the end of the day its my opinion that counts because I am the one who either buys the product or leaves it on the shelf.

Simon.

he certainly won't endear himself to apple with those comments

 

BIG mistake 

Flappo The Grate:

he certainly won't endear himself to apple with those comments

 

BIG mistake 

I don't think he could care less! - I rather got the impression he doesn't have a picture of Steve Jobs in his wallet when i interviewed him in Berlin!

Upon my current understanding of the BeoSound 5, I entirely agree with Simon. For now I don't think I really want to move into digital with my media entertainment at home. I am quite happy with my CD collection and CD player. Do others feel differently?

Henry:

Upon my current understanding of the BeoSound 5, I entirely agree with Simon. For now I don't think I really want to move into digital with my media entertainment at home. I am quite happy with my CD collection and CD player. Do others feel differently?

I can't speak for what B&O may deliver, but I can tell you that there are solutions out there that are doing digital music in a very satisfying way.  Lossless storage to retain full fidelity of your original CDs, user interfaces that just about anyone can figure out, multi-zone support so that your music can go with you throughout the house, integration with online music stores, so finding and buying new music becomes a very easy process, etc.  The simple way for me to identify if a solution is done right is if you find yourself and other family members using it more than your old solution.  When done well, the solution makes you want to use it more.  When I got my Kaleidescape, I watched movies more than I ever did with my large DVD collection before and greatly expanded my movie collection after.  The solution was so good that it encouraged me to acquire more content.  For many people, the iPod has done that with their music collections.  Hopefully these newer server/streamer solutions can encourage those who haven't jumped on the wagon yet to get onboard by taking things a step further.

Jeff 

rgbyhkr:

I can't speak for what B&O may deliver, but I can tell you that there are solutions out there that are doing digital music in a very satisfying way.  Lossless storage to retain full fidelity of your original CDs,

Actually this isn't hard at all anymore. I've seen 500GB external hard disks for less than 100 euros. This will hold around 750 normal CDs in uncompressed .wav format. How many of us have even half of that amount in the collection?

I don't see much point in mp3 unless a) you want to load the music from the internet b) you want to carry it with you, and both of these problems with bandwidth/storage will probably be gone in less than five years from now.

Henry:

Upon my current understanding of the BeoSound 5, I entirely agree with Simon. For now I don't think I really want to move into digital with my media entertainment at home. I am quite happy with my CD collection and CD player. Do others feel differently?

I'd be happy to have a BeoSound 5 (surely it be a 'BeoCenter'?), in addition to my regular collection. I don't download music any longer, as it's more flexible to grab the CD and then record the audio at the rate/codec I require and then on any computer I desire. However, I do use iTunes to store and manage my imported music, Airport Express connected to my BeoSound 4.

If there was a cool standalone B&O designed Apple TV-esque device - perhaps completely WIFI dependent - that enable me to link to my existing collection, whether this was on a PC or Mac, then I'd consider. However, whether I'd consider a purchase for 5000 EUR, is another matter. <£1000, yes.

The thing is, the Apple TV would enable any PC or Mac user to store their music and video collection on, say, an ultra-quiet Mac mini, almost as a home server, then stream it through the Apple TV to their B&O TV in their living room, with the Beo5 controlling the Apple TV.

I would suggest that the Global market for downloading media content is still very small and while technology itself may not have a long way to go, countries and cultures that adapt to it do. You are talking at least another 10-20 years. I can tell you that in Greece for example, you'd be lucky to get a reliable 512MB download speed/connection and if you did, you'd be paying 30 euros or more a month for it. OTE is the Greek government's telephone communications provider and they are unwilling and very slow to let competitors jump onboard, for obvious reasons. They are only now starting to give way under immense pressure from public opinion but implementation will be extremely slow.

This means you are extremely limited no matter how much you might want to use broadband and new technologies. When I was living their (2003-2006) I had a 384MB connection with OTE Net which was costing me 49 euros a month. Greece is typical of many countries and where they are up to with technology. In fact, you'll find that the USA, the UK and several other European countries are only a very small representative of countries that are actually ready to embrace such technologies so from a business viewpoint, not really worth it at the moment I wouldn't have thought.

Let's face it, the UK still has a very long way to go. The first thing we need to do is lay an optic fibre network and the cost of that is ridiculous, hence why they don't do it. The technology itself was developed many years ago but the cost of fitting it has always been the barrier. Twisted wire pair technology is outdated and even though it can handle quite high speeds for the moment it is not a long term solution.

I really do think that technology gets too far ahead of itself at times and there are many examples we can look at to see how slow people are to adapt: tape to CD, analogue radio to digital radio, VHS/Beetamax/Laser to DVD, tube tv to Plasma/LCD, SD broadcast to Digital, SD and digital to High Definition, Windows to MAC, petrol/diesel engines to electric/water based engines... These are only several of many examples where a newer and arguably better technology comes out but people don't take to it in a hurry for all sorts of reasons. I actually think that technology moves so quickly that people don't bother taking an interest anymore because what you buy today is outdated tomorrow. Of course in the case of engines, well that is down to the oil companies paying off the scientists who ave developed new engines that aren't reliant on oil - we have to use up that resource first. Anyhow, that's a different topic but serves well to illustrate the point.

Simon.

My connection generally runs at around 400kbit/s, and my sister gets along fine downloading music.

Yes we do need a major refresh of the phone network in the UK, but that's not stopping the music download business at the moment, but does seem to be affecting the movie downloads market.

People weren't slow to adapt flatscreen technologies, in fact it happened much quicker than any of us predicted it. I particularly remember Peter saying 'LCD won't become a dominant technology for at least another 5 years', just as the BeoVision 6 was introduced, look where things have gone from there. HD is also being adopted rather quickly in every way it can at the moment...

we ALL know he's desperate to use os-x but apple won't let him

look at the catalogues - featuring apple macbook pros - too funny

it's really rather sad that bno have all these wonderful ideas for home integration technology and they're presented to the world via the utterly naff disaster that is windoze 

maybe they should follow sony's lead with the ps3 and adopt linux ?  it's not like it'd cost a fortune and at least they'd be in total control of things

This is an interesting article.  However Mr Sorensen may wish to stop mentioning how B&O beat Apple to the market with the click wheel but didn't get a patent.  Apple is increasingly moving away from the click wheel.  The higher end iPods that don't use the click wheel are the iPod touch or the iPhone.

He should have an Audi A8 or at least pretend to have one.  He should always be on message.  People do notice.

Is the software development team for Beosound 5 the same group that developed the Beo 5 software?

Perhaps B&O should outsource this kind of work, like they do for the telephones.

 

 

linder:

This is an interesting article.  However Mr Sorensen may wish to stop mentioning how B&O beat Apple to the market with the click wheel but didn't get a patent.  Apple is increasingly moving away from the click wheel.  The higher end iPods that don't use the click wheel are the iPod touch or the iPhone.

He should have an Audi A8 or at least pretend to have one.  He should always be on message.  People do notice.

Actually I think it sends out a good message - telling the truth.

Like when you go to Dixons or whatever, asking the salesman about two 'equivalent' models from different brands, and the salesman actually recommends the cheaper one (even though they're on commission) saying it's simply better.

Alex,

It is not about the truth.  Its about marketing.  B&O products are in Audi cars not BMW.  Audi cars are on the B&O website.  Can you imagine Steve Jobs telling someone there are better products that should be considered other than Apple?

You are right.  I would expect a salesman to be more truthful if that's possible but I would always expect a CEO to be on message about marketing his company's products.

The bit about the car is silly and insignificant in the larger scheme of things.  However people notice these things possibly the CEO of VW/Audi.