I'm thinking about buying BeoPort for my out-of-home office and combining it (in one room) with my currently rather idle BL3500. I assume that it should work nicely as both the stereo speaker system and the IR-eye in one. The size of the BL3500 would fit my office just perfectly - I don't need a more powerful stereo then this in my office. Has anyone tried this combination, can there be any issues with this setup? Thanks for thoughts.

Having the Beolab 3500 in the same room as your PC and Beoport will be no problem and a very nice office environment.

The only thing to note would be as you would not have speakers connected to the Beoport box itself, your on-screen remote would not really need to be used for day to day activity as volume etc only effect any speakers or headphones connected directly to the Beoport box.

So, you would use your on-screen remote for arranging your music files and playlist etc, but day-today functions (Volume etc) would be via the Beo4 (or Beo5) remote via the Beolab 3500.

Thanks a lot Keith!

 When you said all this I realized that on B&Os official page I've noticed recently that they say they have upgraded the BeoLab 3500 speaker, giving it a Power Link socket ...  I wonder if this might 'close the loop': if one connected the BL3500 and BeoPort not only with MasterLink but also with PowerLink maybe the on-screen remote would be able to control the sound etc, too?

Now I would have to find out if my older BL3500 can be upgraded with the Powerlink - it's been 'shelved' for some time now and I don't think it has the PowerLink socket.

Also, further to Daniel's point, you cannot upgrade your existing Beolab 3500 to have powerlink sockets anyway.

You may wish to check what version of software is installed in your Beolab 3500, if it is version 2.0 or 2.1 then the display will show N.MUSIC or N.RADIO when selected. You can get full details of how to check from my FAQ HERE also how to upgrade the software if needed HERE

Actually you can transform any BeoLab 3500 as a true BeoLab speaker, all you need is a powerlink converter from this French company:

www.madsystemes.com

It will cost you EUR 200, and you simply connect a first Powerlink from BeoPort to that converter, then a second Powerlink from the box to the Lab 3500.. 

(I have to come back to my old thread in need of some info …)

I installed the setup mentioned above and it’s been working fine, almost* as Keith described it would, however, beside the fact that I’ll (have to) update the software, which is no problem, I’ve noticed:

Initially, after I set it up and switched it on, the clock (when the relevant display mode was selected) was not showing the right time: independent of the actual time it counted minutes towards the whole hour and then on again showing gradually eg 0<:05, 0=:35, 0>:07 etc. Then it started to show time, but a totally wrong one. I’m thinking, maybe BeoPort doesn’t receive/keep/pass on the clock information from the computer? That would be a bit pity, (though one can, of course,  always chose the NO CLOCK option on the BL3500 display)

Thanks for ideas.

* it’s a bit more tricky as to the right sequence in which one uses BeoPort and/or Beo4 commands when switching it on/off, but this is understandable …