Wizards of Sound
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The charm of a magical act is in its illusion. Knowing the secret behind the sleight of a magician’s hand destroys that illusion and with it, the charm of the act. Yet, in a small corner of Denmark, a small team of magicians are constantly conjuring up magical objects, without much thought about the illusion. Their belief in their kind of magic is absolute and they call themselves Bang & Olufsen.
“Magic means giving our audience something they cannot get anywhere else in the way the product looks, feels, sounds or in the way it surprises,” says Tue Mantoni, B&O’s CEO. So, they’ve swirled their wands to put orchestras in cars. Televisions swivel, remotes are reinvented and speakers read spaces to envelope the listener in beautifully engineered sound.
B&O’s Scandinavian sensibilities inspire sharp, honest designs that are stripped of all frills. If it looks like aluminium, it is aluminium, not plastic. “There are no gimmicks or decorations that distract,” says Mantoni.
The minimalist design is apparent on entering the ultramodern Danish headquarters. A magnificent, yet simple construction of glass, stone and wood, ‘The Farm’ as it is known is a throwback to when Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen started out by tinkering with electronics in the attic of the latter’s farmhouse at Quistrup in 1925. Bang was the technical brains while Olufsen managed logistics and business. They survived initially on the money Olufsen’s mother earned by selling farm eggs.
By 1927, the duo established headquarters at Struer and started raising unmatched pedestals for innovation. While all other radios ran on batteries, their first product, the B&O 5 Lamper, was powered directly from the mains.
Today, Olufsen’s nephew Peter Skak Olufsen and his family still live at Quistrup Manor. He recalls their love for all things electric. “When I was seven, I wanted an electric train for Christmas,” reminisces Peter. He got one, but could only play with it the next morning after his father, Svend Olufsen, and Peter Bang had tinkered with it all through the night.
In the sunlit hall of their headquarters, musical notes trickle out of what appears to be an iPad encased in a thin pyramid. A closer inspection reveals three tweeters and a woofer hidden in its sides. This is the BeoPlay A3, the latest magical device from the B&O Play line of products.
BEOLIT 12
Portable music player speaker dock`67,800
BEOLAB 5
Hi-fi speakers`8.72 lakh
BEOPLAY V1
32-inch LCD TV (`1.63 lakh) 40-inch LCD TV (`1.90 lakh)
BEOPLAY A3
iPad dock`65,300
The company has moved on from integrated systems to wireless products. “It appeals to people who would like to buy a quality product, but may not have the commitment to invest in fully integrated system,” says Mantoni. Indeed their statistics show 60 to 70 per cent of people who buy a B&O Play device have never bought a full-scale B&O system.
B&O entered the television business one year after Svend’s death in 1949. Recently, they hired a psychologist who reported, after studying people, that excellent sound systems gave the impression of watching a bigger screen. “It’s how we re-devised our perceptions of making televisions,” says Mantoni.
B&O’s other big bet is the auto market, which contributes one-sixth of its revenues. When they scouted the Paris Motor Show in 2001, they were surprised to find poor-quality, yet expensive audio systems in luxury cars. “We thought this was a bit strange as we were developing speakers for $50,000 for homes,” says Jens Peter Zinck, vice-president of the automotive division.
B&O’s $7,400 price tag was rejected by nearly every car executive except Dr Martin Winterkorn of Audi. He ordered B&O’s acoustic lens technology—which created a ‘sweet spot’for sound throughout the car—for the A8. Since then, Mercedes AMG, BMW and Aston Martin have all signed up.
When it comes to luxury, Mantoni believes US and Asian markets will earn far more revenues for B&O than Europe. The concept of luxury is changing and growing,” he says.
In spite of the fleeting life technology lives, the company’s classic designs and futuristic thinking require little or no change. The logo, for example, hasn’t changed since 1932, when Svend Olufsen paid a painter’s apprentice 10 Danish Kroners for the design.
However, even as B&O’s technology changes direction, one belief will evade transience. Its magicians will always ensure that an little bit of magic lingers in each B&O artefact.