General Forum

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

mobeyone — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:03:24 GMT

While I am a fan of the iphone... and nothing else.. other than the laptops.. I think apple may too find themselves looking for thier mojo as thier ideas will run dry and become dare I say boring and repetitive and in the same position as B&O.

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

Flappo The Grate — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:31:47 GMT

apple were the first company to produce a voice activated affordable desktop computer with the quadra 840av , i had one and it worked really quite well - for very basic stuff

i don't see the point of it in an audio/visual product as no doubt if you're listening to either a spoken word recording or god help us rap , the thing would probably self destruct at all the conflicting commands

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

beobilly1 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:48:48 GMT

Call me an old f**t but to me B&O mainly make the things I want and make them work in the way I want to. I hope they can find a way to continue to do that. I hope there are more old f**ts like me buying for the experience and simplicity and less really young whipper-snappers buying cheap and cheerful gadgets to keep them amused for the next five minutes as they are too old for Lego.

10%

I believe you have hit the nail square on the head there young fella...

B&O's "thing" was always quality linked with ease of use, the whole "man being the master of technology" thing that used to be their strap line back in the day. The trouble, as far as I see it, is they tried to change their product range to attract a younger customer base. Fine, but it seemed to be a total change over. In just a very short period going into a dealer changed from an exciting, allways worthwhile trip, to a gadget obssesed, iPod MP3 mobile phone nightmare! Most of these "develpoments" seemed to be based on, if not made by, outside companies.

As an old school B&O punter I am not interested in hooking an iPod to a pair of speakers or watching my mobile phone "erect" itself ... I think from what I read in the press B&O are a bit lost. They dont seem to have thei troubles to seek and I would like to see them return to their core values, if there is still time...

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

Mr10Percent — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:18:31 GMT

I would also like to add to this thread some of my own opinions regarding B&O and Mojo. Although many have said Apple is the best thing since sliced bread, I'm having real difficulty getting into it.

I consider myself relatively young (young to what you may ask?), and have been buying B&O for 15 years now. I don't want to get involved in pay-per-listen, pay-per-view, and subscription anything (but I might think differently if I could get decent download speeds at home - another one of those run-before-we-can-walk technologies).

I've seen the Apple TV and its integrated "systems" (I've had the misfortune of using one at a Manchester hotel for a week). The picture was lousy, downloads make the disk-start on the BC2 seem like "Quick-Fire McGraw" and it just feels so cheap and plastic-y. Moving icons feels real "thin" and just could not get in to it!

I despair at Windows Vista and all the garbage that comes with it, much preferring to have a totally trimmed-down XP with no bells and whistles and just enough functionality (and speed) to DO MY JOB! When I get home, I don't want to spend the next 8 awakening hours on the PC again playing with entertainment selections and choices.

I think David Lewis hit a very important point home in the interview with Adam Smith; somehow, we lose a great deal of interaction with our media...the love and care that goes into an LP, keeping it in pristine condition, reviewing the cover art and storing it.

We can argue that B&O has lost it's mojo but I think it is a case that the media industry has lost its mojo. Fully downloadable, fully connected soul-less compressed media. The only way to keep us interested is going to be countless new devices and formats every 30 seconds giving us something we want but really don't want.

Oh and when Apple et al rule the world and want more money or to continue the epic share-price trend, there will be the invasive adverts every 2 minutes for us to cough-up and pay for.

10%

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

moxxey — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 04:03:40 GMT

Mr10Percent:
However, there are some instances whereby the ability to design something unique is rather challenging - flat TV's being one

Completely correct. I think David Lewis mentioned that in a recent interview - people want their flat screen to be as flat as possible, but somehow they (B&O) have to design quality audio to complement their flat screen TVs. Dilemma. How do you make a screen completely flat, but at the same time give the user a great audio experience?

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

jk1002 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:46:56 GMT

>>I wouldn't want to perform an interpretive dance every time I wanted to change channels! <<

You would need 3 motions if there is s screen involved .... replicate what they do with the Beocom Wheel .......that would be far from beeing an interpretive dance ...... .... ahhh I managed not to mention the Fruit Company that release new products tomorrow .....

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

Mr10Percent — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:31:48 GMT

I do not think B&O have lost their mojo at all. I think the pure external design of any of their products is easily recognisable as B&O (bar the link equipment) from the 70's through to the current day.

However, there are some instances whereby the ability to design something unique is rather challenging - flat TV's being one and MP3 players being another.

If you look in terms of functionality and control, then there are products which stand-out more than others. All the ATL loudspeakers come to mind here - which is truly revolutionary. The BV7 in terms of its functionality is way better than the Avant (which the CRT had 40 years of development to rely on). Even the Serenata (which I absolutely love for what it is and does rather and what it does not do or pretend to be) has mojo. Then there is the BC2 which is fresh technology and not simply a reshaping of the BC9000 series products. In-fact, looking back from the late seventies to date, there are only one or two products throughout that a time that were revolutionary (i.e. at no greater frequency than today's revolutionary products). Many of the Beomasters, Beocords, Beocentres were reboxed over time with slightly different interfaces and with small incremental improvements or simplifications. The BC9000 for instance, is fundamentally the same control interface (and similar internals) from 1987 to 2000 over 5 products.

I guess ultimately, and as read this continually on this forum, people want B&O to be like this product or like that one or have a feature that is the same as Apple's etc... which no doubt leads to disappointment when B&O don't copy, don't follow the mainstream or do something in their own way and gives the perception of a loss of direction.

10%

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

TripEnglish — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:00:51 GMT

Good lord!

I'm chuckling to myself as I realized I just posted about the potential for thought controlled electronics! I think we should worry about getting a second HDMI input on the BeoVision 8 first!

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

Alex — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:58:55 GMT

I'm not a fan of these kinda interfaces, it's just a way of making it even more boring to do. All you have to do is think of it and it's done. There's no 'event' to it.

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

TripEnglish — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:54:18 GMT

Now we're cooking!

The voice activation concept for anyone who was ever a fan of Star Trek, has to be one of the hallmarks of "The Future." But excellent points are raised as to its inability to work in current conditions.

This is a bit like the wireless conundrum, in that the idea is certainly representative of a potential benefit, but the technology's real-world shortcomings prevent it from expressing its potential.

There's no question that the concept of the interface is going to be an exciting component to our ability to interface with a diverse offering of technologies. I can't imagine voice not playing some role in the house of the future, but when you think of the tremendous technological hurdles associated with making this concept viable, we can probably imagine you won't see it in Bang & Olufsen first.

The touchless remote was certainly an interesting concept (especially considering that Touch is the new buzz-word in interface). However, this too presents more of an obstacle than an affordance in terms of use. I wouldn't want to perform an interpretive dance every time I wanted to change channels! Interesting to see where this Gesture type interface could lead us.

Here's food for thought, though: if we look elsewhere in the wide world of tech, the most exciting interface to my mind has to be Thought. Look at the progress being made with prosthetic limb control and think to how this could generalize to interface in general. If I can think something on & off, up & down, that would certainly be a phenomenal experience! Of course this could be decades away from wider application, and I can imagine a great number of people would find being plugged in on that fundamental a biological level to be a bit too dystopian for them.

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

jk1002 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:24:13 GMT

Agree. I can see myself trying to yell louder then the BL5 at full power "DOWN" "VOLUME DOWN" "PLEASE" ..... I think that Remote Concept that we all saw .... That is Mojo right there .... even though a bit flashy ..... I like the understatement that BL3 and BC2 have ... its simple clean and by far not cheap looking ...... Same is true for BV4. Its not just the Alu frame but also the glas what makes that package different.

I think this is all a matter of personal taste ... The only thing that I hold against them is the 1st release of the BC2 .... the Go Go pushing to start a DVD ... something like this should not go to market .....

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

Alex — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:09:59 GMT

A voice activated system would be the most horrific, deadly dull thing I could possibly imagine in a HiFi/AV system. As if music didn't have enough event to it already, it could be made even more 'no-need-to-think-about-it' with a voice activated system.

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

expoman — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:33:13 GMT

It is rumored that Jacob Jensen stopped designing for B&O in the late 1980's for two reasons. First B&O refused to allow his name to be promoted as the product designer. B&O at that time believed the products were created by a team and the it was not considered proper in Danish society to promote the individual over the group. It is interesting how this changed later for David Lewis as Jacob's protege became the primary designer.

Second you have understand that in Denmark product designers are compensated by being paid a royalty on each product the manufacture sells usually paid as a percentage of the price. Jacob also wanted more money for each product he designed.

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

Russ — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:16:21 GMT

Not the thread to begin this discussion, I suppose...see Lee's remark to Trip above...but while the idea of voice activation keeps coming up, I wonder, really, if it is ever really thought out...simple example...spinning through my Motown collection, only to have it all come to a crashing halt when Diana Ross Sings 'Stop!' at the very beginning of 'Stop in the Name of Love'. And, OK, Casdave has started down the path towards a solution by offering 'voice keying' as the basis for the interface...what happens when I have a cold? What happens when my room mate wants to do something? What happens when the phone rings during the exciting battle scene in the beginning of 'Lord of the Rings' and I am shouting 'Mute!' instead of speaking in the calm tones with which I keyed the system?

As an example from real life...back in the exciting early days of the Cell-Phone business, Sony made an amazing 3-watt transportable phone, with a car kit that included 'voice keyed' operation. A colleague of mine was driving around one night, with 2 lovely young ladies in the car with him when the phone rang. He said "Don't answer it, it's probably my b#*&$ wife, and I don't want to talk to her." The phone heard 'answer' and the wife heard the rest.

Unintended consequences, my friends....

At least give the Danes a bit of credit for not giving usthings which might not work out in the long run.

Russ

Re: Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

casdave — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:16:05 GMT

I think a fully voice activated system might be quite interesting.

Something that you can set certain commands to certain recorded sound samples of your voice, and something that can recognise its you, only you, and no-one else.

I think there could be quite significant advantages to this when you imagine N-Music, imagine not having to enter numbers or scroll with your remote, just tell your system to play a certain media instead of having to search for it through folders and files.

You could even make this link over the phone - no need for a remote control any more too.You could have wireless link between your system and your mobile phone/mp3 player, no need for swapping memory cards, or connecting up to a port to swap your songs.

I also think B&O really need to look into a fully digital distribution system instead of its own proprietry system. B&O is having some difficulty reinventing itself for the digital age.