New York – Bose entered the video
display market with a VideoWave entertainment system that combines a 46-inch
1080p LCD monitor with an outboard console/source switcher to deliver virtual surround
sound and Lifestyle-system-like bass response from the monitor’s 16 built-in
speakers.
VideoWave goes on sale in Bose’s more
than 120 U.S. stores on Oct. 14 at $5,349, which includes “white glove”
delivery, setup, connection to video sources, training and removal of an old
TV.
“Consumers will tell us if we will
expand” the concept to additional screen sizes, said Phil Hess, product
marketing VP in the home entertainment division.
For now, the system will be displayed
and demonstrated only in Bose stores because “it requires a fair amount of
education and demonstration,” Hess told TWICE. The system “is not what it looks
like,” he explained. “It’s a TV, home theater system and music system.” The
company, he noted,” has a lot of hard work in front of us to make sure the
consumer understands the value.”
Typical 46-inch LCD TVs
with fluorescent backlighting like the VideoWave start at around $1,000.
Because of the demonstration and
education needed at the point of sale, the company has no plans to market the
technology on an OEM basis to TV manufacturers, president Bob Maresca added.
Consumers also need a demonstration of
the system’s handheld RF “click pad” remote to understand its simplicity, Hess
continued, although “anyone can pick it up and operate the basic controls.”
The remote features six buttons for
often-used functions, four-way navigation keys, and a rectangular touch-sensitive
click pad that surrounds the navigation keys. Consumers use the navigation keys
to select among one of five HD video sources and an included iPod/iPhone dock.
Users then press the click pad to display an on-screen control frame that appears
around all sides of the display to control the chosen source’s major functions.
Moving a thumb around the click pad’s surface moves the cursor around the
control-frame menu, which is customized to different source types, including
Blu-ray players, cable and satellite set-top boxes, DVRs and the iPod dock. The
four-way navigation keys can be used for such functions as selecting individual
iPod-stored songs and videos and navigating a cable box’s channel guide.
The RF remote controls all connected
sources via the console’s IR blaster and embedded database of IR codes of
thousands of devices, including Apple TV. The console also automatically identifies
which brand and model codes to use when the owner aims a connected component’s
IR remote at the console’s IR eye and presses several remote buttons.
The console connects to the 1080p display
via a proprietary cable.
The display, which is about 5.75 inches deep,
lacks TV tuner and is not 3D-capable, but it features fluorescent backlight and
120Hz refresh rate. It comes with included table stand but can be mounted to a
wall using standard VESA mounts.
The monitor chassis also incorporates audio
amplifiers, 11-band electronic EQ, and 16 drivers, including six woofers that
fire into a new wave guide in such a way that they cancel out one anothers’
vibrations. The woofers deliver bass extension and SPLs “comparable to
Lifestyle systems” that use an outboard subwoofer, said Hess.
The display’s seven midrange drivers
fire up from the top of the monitor. The midrange driver in the top center is
used for the center channel. Three other midrange drivers to the left and right
sides of the center midrange are used for the left and right channels and for
the side- and back-surround channels. Bose uses DSP technology to steer the drivers’
sound around a room, directing sound to reflect off the walls.
For high frequencies, Bose uses one
tweeter on the bottom of the chassis for the center channel and two top-mounted
tweeters, each firing into their own Phase Guide to direct sound around the
room.
The system’s console features non-3D 1080p HDMI
inputs and ADAPTiQ audio room correction.
The console is “virtually the same” as
the Lifestyle V35 console, said Tim Saeger, product development VP for the home
entertainment division. That console features Dolby TrueHD decoding,
multichannel PCM playback, and proprietary decoding of Dolby Digital Plus,
Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1
