Bang & Olufsen whose top end business is struggling Vs the rampant success of their B&O Play business whose products are being sold by mass retailers is determined that there is still value in delivering premium TV’s despite limited success in the past in Australia.
At IFA 2017 the Danish company delivered a combination of their beovision eclipse audio system with an LG OLED TV and while it looks the part the OLED TV and Eclipse sound system is expected to be priced at over $20,000 in Australia, which is a bit rich when you can buy the LG wall TV complete with a 24bit soundbar for $13K. The TV will be available in two sizes 55″ and 65″.
the Eclipse is the first B&O television to feature OLED. In the past, the Company bought third part display screens from Fujitsu during the plasma era and LG during the LED era.
Now they are buying LG OLED displays which are the same panels found in the Panasonic and Sony OLED TV offerings.
Rather than being minimized and hidden from view, a large B&O sound bar runs across the lower portion of the screen and extends past the sides of screen.
Available with an aluminum or colored-fabric faceplate, the sound bar’s stereo channels comprise two full-range drivers, while its center channel is composed of a tweeter and three midrange-woofer drivers, the only problem is that it is not 24bit audio capable.
The Eclipse features a built-in surround sound decoder and can support up to eight compatible speakers, however it has been specifically designed to work better with the Companies new BeoLab 50 towers.
The Eclipse comes with a motorized or manual wall mount, it is also available with Bang & Olufsen’ s motorized floor stand. When activated, the floor stand can pull the television out from the wall and rotate it up to almost 90 degrees in either direction for the perfect viewing angle.
B&O claims that what makes it distinct and different from LG’s own OLED offerings is that it integrates Bang & Olufsen’s proprietary three-channel SoundCentre – a 450W soundbar at the bottom of the screen with left, right and centre channels. Despite this the system does not deliver High Res audio capability.
You can also add extra speakers to create a surround sound experience, due to the integrated surround sound decoder. B&O claims that the centre channel performance of the SoundCentre matches the high-end performance of its own BeoLab speakers.
Glass has been mixed with coloured fabric or aluminium to create a unique design for the 4K OLED TV, while the motorised floor stand can move the screen nearer or further away from the viewing position at the touch of a button.
the Eclipse uses LG’s own WebOS 3.5 smart platform to let users manage content and connect to music and video streaming services like Spotify and Netflix.
