Bang & Olufsen, in the mid-1980s equipped all their luxury Beovision models with an advanced digital tuner that had the capacity for receiving 100 UHF channels, 32 of which could be stored in the set’s microcomputer memory for instant recall at the touch of a button.

The real boon for most viewers is that you could locate, store and recall any of these stations without leaving your armchair. All you had to do was to touch a key on the Beovision Video terminal. So although B&O gave their “future-safe” luxury TV range more micro-electronics, more features and more connection possibilities than ever before, they had, at the same time, made all this complex technology even more accessible – instantly. To borrow a phrase from the computer industry, Bang & Olufsen’s ’02-Series’ TVs were “user-friendly” (1983 catalogue).

In 1985, to celebrate Bang & Olufsen’s diamond anniversary – 1925 – 1985 – a special edition of Beovision 7802 was released. The television was finished in a dark veneer (ivory-coloured) in place of the standard teak and rosewood finishes.

A small ’emblem’ was included on the top right-hand side to commemorate this special occasion.

Beovisions 5502, 7702, 8802 and 9002 all shared the same advanced chassis design and offered the same user-benefits. They were true “luxury” sets because all the features and facilities which, in other brands, were offered as ‘extras’ were standard in Bang & Olufsen sets.

The Beovision Video Terminal supplied with Beovisions 5502, 7702, 8802 and 9002 offered a plethora of operational benefits. In addition there was also an advanced ‘tune and store’ function that allowed you to operate the automatic tuning system from the comfort of your chair.

One touch of the ‘tune’ button started the digital tuner scanning the wavelengths of the UHF band. When it found a station, it stopped – giving you the opportunity to either reject or accept it. If it was an unsatisfactory reception from a distant transmitter you just pressed ‘tune’ again to continue the search. When you found a station on a channel that offered good, clear reception, you could instruct the set’s microcomputer to remember that transmission frequency by pressing ‘store’ followed by your own choice of pre-set programme number (e.g. for BBC2 you might designate pre-set number 2). Thereafter, whenever you wanted to watch BBC2, you simply touched button ‘2’ on your remote Terminal.

Up to 32 different TV stations could be located and stored in this way, so your Beovision really was ‘future-safe’ because it had plenty of spare capacity to accommodate new programme sources as and when they came ‘on stream’.

This latest type of Beovision Video Terminal also had a button marked ‘sound’. This was at that time only effective with Bang & Olufsen stereo TVs – Beovision 7802 and Beovision 8902.