The idea behind Beovox Red Line speakers was one of flexibility. A Red Line speaker was so flexible that it could be placed anywhere. On the ceiling, the wall, or on the floor.
You could hang them semi-permanently on the wall, and if you had a party you could place them on the floor and thereby add extra emphasis to the bass. The different ways of placing them accentuated different frequencies. You could also tilt them if you chose to hang them on the wall. This allowed you to adjust the sound image and direct the sound right at your listening position. However, Red Line was more than merely flexible. It was an impressive bass reflex speaker with a revolutionary new cabinet that ‘curved’ round the sound thereby eliminating irritating resonance because there were no parallel surfaces.
Music that never stands still
Red Line loudspeakers followed your music tastes right up the wall if you wanted! All models except the RL35 could be hung on the wall or be suspended from the ceiling; and, if your dancing feet wanted to make the most of the bass notes, then Red Line could be positioned on the floor, supported by the built-in floor stand. By using Red Line speakers, you weren’t plagued by cables that wrapped themselves around your feet like spaghetti either; Red Line’s flexible spiral cables provided the decorative and practical answer.
The shell was cast in a hard synthetic material and the shape that was devised for the range was characterised by the fact that it allowed for practically no resonance whatsoever.
With BeoCom 6000 you are able to combine the extended possibilities of a cordless phone system with the most advanced answering machine in the world – BeoTalk 1200 – and put yourself in command of all your daily communication needs. With BeoCom 6000 is B&O’s first digital and cordless phone. There is also an ISDN version.
BeoCom 6000 is the complete digital telephone system with up to 6 cordless handsets for each member of the family to use. it is a direct challenge to the traditional concept of how a telephone should look and function. In setting new standards in design, BeoCom 6000 offers individuals a flexibility and freedom never-before experienced. The use of DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) technology allows the telephone to form a complete, internal telephone system for the home and office.
Up to six handsets, needing only individual chargers, can be linked to one base unit. ‘Cordless freedom’ may be obtained as no cables are needed to link the individual handsets, and only one telephone socket is required. Each unit has a display with access to a 200-number memory with Caller ID shown by name if it’s already stored in the telephone book. Entries made in a handset are automatically reproduced in other handsets within the system, which will also remote control the volume of Bang & Olufsen televisions and music centres.
Cordless
With an eye-catching form that just invites you to pick it up, BeoCom 6000 is everything you could ask for in a cordless telephone and then some more
Multifunctional / Easy Operation
BeoCom 6000 is also much more than just an exercise in shape and innovative design. It’s easy to use, comfortable to hold and offers a sound quality that can only be Bang & Olufsen
Easy Access, The Wheel
There’s no point in filling a telephone with useful features and functions if they’re difficult to access and complicated to understand. The wheel at the centre of BeoCom 6000 is designed to put everything directly at your fingertips and bring unrivalled simplicity to everyday communication
Volume Control A/V
Adjust the sound on your Bang & Olufsen audio-video products directly from your BeoCom 6000 handset. Simply press ‘A’ for audio or ‘V’ for video and rotate the wheel to turn the sound up or down
Caller ID
Caller ID lets you see the phone number, date and time of the latest 24 calls made to you – and lets you return the call with a single press of a button
Phone Book
The Phone book holds up to 200 name and number entries and is built up automatically as you make and receive calls
Redial
The redial function gives you instant access to the details of the latest 24 numbers that you have dialled. Telephones are used a lot more than other electronic equipment and sometimes under tougher and more hazardous conditions. Design and technological features mean little if your telephone lets you down when you need it most, so the anticipation of what can happen to a telephone has been turned into a fine art at Bang & Olufsen. B&O telephones are exposed to extremes of heat and cold, they have coffee spilled over them, dust blown at them, they’re stepped upon and subjected to a whole series of bumps, vibrations and falls. And it’s not only the unexpected that’s tested for; a robot assesses daily wear and tear by methodically lifting and replacing the handset of a telephone 100000 times, while a mechanical finger dials telephone numbers over and over again. In a space of days, the life of a telephone and everything the modern world may throw at it is simulated many times over!
Loudspeaker Quality
‘Earphone coupling loss factor’, ‘receiver loudness rating value’ and ‘acoustic leakage’ are technical terms that mean little to most telephone users. They are just some of the things that Bang & Olufsen test for to determine the sound quality of a BeoCom telephone. The enhanced sound of the BeoCom telephone range is the result of Bang & Olufsen’s long-standing specialisation in the miniaturisation of high-performance loudspeakers. Every BeoCom handset contains a built-in pressure chamber loudspeaker that ensures optimal natural sound reproduction while minimising distortion and sound leakage. But Bang & Olufsen telephones are not only the result of theoretical calculations and complicated acoustical analyses, the final test is the human ear itself. A listening panel made up of people with an extraordinary sense of hearing provides the most crucial evaluation of BeoCom telephones.
Colours
Whether it’s a matter of business or pleasure, you will always find a Bang & Olufsen telephone that matches your needs when it comes to intelligent features and placement options. But why stop there? Bang & Olufsen want to make sure that the telephones that bear the B&O logo are just as much a pleasure to look at as they are to use. That’s why a whole new range of living colours has been developed that span from a cool blue and grey to a bold red and terracotta.
Regardless of whether you’re looking for a telephone to match with your surroundings or one that will stand out and make a statement, the choice is yours. With seven strong colours to choose from, BeoCom 6000 spoils you for choice. Mix the colours of the additional handsets so that they blend in with the decoration of your home.
Complete telephone system for the family or a small business, with up to 6 cordless handsets, each has a wheel with access to a 200 number memory with caller ID, shown by name if it’s already in the directory. It also gives you remote control of the volume of the latest Bang & Olufsen televisions and music systems.
BeoCom 6000 Press Release – Spring 2002
” BeoCom 6000 – New Colours For Success
BeoCom 6000, Bang & Olufsen’s most successful telephone concept to date, makes a more colourful expression this season in new colours including yellow and blue. On the technical side, additional degrees of flexibility in placement are added with the introduction of new charging station possibilities.
After less than five years on the market, BeoCom 6000 has been sold in over 375,000 examples, making it far and away the best selling telephone from Bang & Olufsen in Struer, Denmark. The popular cordless telephone concept, characterised by its striking form and innovative “wheel” operation, features a built-in electronic phone book, which may be shared by up to six handsets. BeoCom 6000 provides you with four opportunities to add a splash of colour to every conversation. Regardless of your preference for the subdued hues of the new yellow or blue, the understated elegance of light grey or always fashionable black, the choice, as always, is yours.
Two new charging stations also see the light of day, both highlighting Bang & Olufsen’s highly developed aluminium competences. A stylish triangular wall charger, available in brushed aluminium, complements the distinct pyramid-formed table charger, which made its entrance already with the introduction of the telephone concept in 1997.
Both chargers may be freely placed around the home, requiring only a mains connection. The transmitter / receiver functions found in the original base station have been repositioned in a separate, third component, which may be placed near the telephone outlet.
“BeoCom 6000 is a proven success, be it employed in the home or office sphere. This new colour palette and charger programme will undoubtedly give our customers additional degrees of flexibility when choosing the solution which best suits their personal needs, states Peter Eckhardt, Managing Director of Bang & Olufsen Telecom. “
The crowning glory of Beolab 20 is the Acoustic Lens that delivers smooth high-frequency sound in full 180 degrees. The results are uncompromising listening experiences across your room and much greater freedom in terms of where you place your speaker for optimal sound.
Good business is also about good communication. The telephone and the computer are important work tools for any business. As they sit side-by-side on your desk anyway, it makes sense to connect them and extend the capabilities of both. With BeoCom 2100, when a customer calls your business, his file on your computer’s database is automatically displayed. (The phone was not available in the UK).
BeoCom 2100 has a capacity for up to 250 individual entries, dependent upon the length of the telephone number and name. These can also be accessed and edited directly via the computer screen. The Caller ID function requires connection to a direct line
A matter of choice
BeoCom 2100 is a telephone for the home office, the small business or anything in between. It’s the first telephone to be built specifically around the services offered by the telephone companies and gives you one-button access to the services and functions you use the most
Functions and options
But it’s not only the improved access to external services that makes BeoCom 2100 a special telephone; it contains its own 250 name and number electronic telephone book and includes a headset connection and the opportunity for hands free operation
ISDN enhanced by Beoline 1200
The role of BeoCom 2100 in an office setting is further enhanced when it’s combined with a Beoline 1200 adapter. This makes it possible for traditional analogue equipment to communicate digitally via an ISDN connection Available in: Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden (2001) – Not available in the UK
BeoCom 2 is a visually provocative response to everything looking alike in today’s telephone market. Its curved shape is very reminiscent of telephones used in the 1960’s, particularly in ‘The Prisoner’ TV series on the UK’s ITV network.
The release of BeoCom 2 in March 2002 was undertaken in its basic form. It was not a ‘system’ telephone in the first instance in that only one BeoCom 2 base could support one BeoCom 2 handset. This means there was no data exchange with other BeoCom2 handsets or BeoCom 6000 handsets or bases.
However, October 2002 saw BeoCom 2 become a full system DECT telephone, becoming part of the same 3-component solution that BeoCom 6000 uses. With this software update, customers can now ‘mix and match’ up to six BeoCom 6000 or BeoCom 2 handsets and chargers, using either the PSTN or ISDN base. This free software upgrade – to be carried out in dealers’ showrooms – will be necessary on existing BeoCom 2 phones in order to make them fully functional as a system phone.
Ringing the changes
The unique ringing tone of BeoCom 2 was created by musical composer, Kenneth Knudsen. Born in 1946, Knudsen is a self-taught musician and since graduating from the School of Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1974, he has chosen music as his profession. Over the years he has appeared on more than one hundred records with groups and soloists including Svend Asmussen, Miles Davis, Shubidua and the Indian violinist L. Subramaniam. He has been a member of, and recorded with groups like Secret Oyster, Coronaria Dans, ANIMA, Entrance, Bombay Hotel and Heart To Heart Trio. His list of compositions includes music for ballet, film, TV productions and jingles, as well as works for string quartet, solo guitar, solo cello, cello and piano, and choir.
In recent years Kenneth Knudsen has composed and recorded music for sound installations in various architectural and artistic contexts. As a soloist Kenneth Knudsen has released a number of CDs in his own name, most recently Sounds and Silence (dacapo DCCD 9419) and Music for Eyes (dacapo DCCD 9433).
Ringing the tune
The old-fashioned bell is nowadays rarely used in modern telephones. Like other bells, the sound from it contains a lot of overtones.
This is why you can both hear it at the bottom of the garden as well as close-by, and still experience the ringing of the bell as a pleasant sound. However the bell takes up too much room and it is too expensive for modern telephones. The technology that replaces it is both cheaper and more compact, but quite different to listen to. The design group found that this development was not exactly a positive one for the user. Therefore Bang & Olufsen turned to the Danish composer Kenneth Knudsen and asked him to compose a different ringing tune.
The Beocom 2 ring sounding like like cow bells is apocryphal! As visitors to Bang & Olufsen’s Struer headquarters know, there are no cows outside the Farm… only sheep! The ring of the BeoCom 2 was based on the sound of a piece of tubing falling on the floor. David Lewis was carrying a piece of metal tubing which he accidentally dropped to the ground. He thought the sound so interesting that a composer was called in to sample the sound and make a ring tone!
Knudsen chose to compose his tune as part of the design for a special telephone – the BeoCom 2 – rather than choosing an isolated, general tone, applied to all telephones. He therefore asked David Lewis, the chief designer of BeoCom 2 to make the final choice to ensure that the ringing tune was in harmony with the rest of the telephone. In this way the qualities of the ring became a harmonic part of the entire aesthetical experience of the new telephone.
To give the new ringing tune full justice the company’s acoustic department developed a small loudspeaker system in its own sealed enclosure within the handset of BeoCom 2 playing through a well defined slim opening within the phone’s aluminium tube.
Calling for attention
During the development of ideas for BeoCom 2, the design group expressed a wish that the ringing tune should call for attention in a polite way: a polite offer to make contact with the user, rather than a dominating, insisting demand.
But what is polite and what is not? How is this determined?
Bang & Olufsen asked the composer Kenneth Knudsen to solve this problem. Kenneth Knudsen came up with a number of solutions, from which designer David Lewis could choose.
Nearly each week of every year David Lewis drives in his car from Copenhagen to the B&O factory in Struer – a trip of 750km. During these long hours he would listen to Kenneth Knudsen’s pre-recorded tunes and discovered that in heavy traffic situations, where he was under pressure, he could clearly distinguish the pleasant call for attention, from other more annoying, ‘insisting’ tunes. He had therefore found the right tune for his new phone!
BeoCom 1600 was a tabletop telephone which combined a modern design with ease of use and was the same telephone as the BeoCom 2400 but without the alpha numeric memory functions. It however, did have the normal numeric memory functions. Using this phone was easy.
As with all other Bang & Olufsen telephones, BeoCom 1600 was equipped with a bass reflex speaker giving clear and easy recognisable voices. An infra-red module was available as an optional extra, giving the user the ability to control the volume on other Bang & Olufsen audio and video products. It was designed by the Swiss industrial designer Martin Iseli.
The vertical placement of the BeoCom 1600 handset made it easy to answer a call. Making a call was equally simple due to the position and curved surface of the keypad. The ultra light handset ensured that even long telephone conversations never seemed tiring.
Design
Reach out to towards BeoCom 1600 and enjoy a telephone that was simple to understand and easy to use. The ultra light handset weighed only 115g – which made it comfortable to hold even during the longest of conversations. The intelligent layout of the sloping keypad also ensured that your fingers moved intuitively and easily from button to button and from function to function.
Features
With BeoCom 1600’s built-in memory you could store the 10 telephone numbers you used the most and enjoy quick one-button access to them. As well as a volume control that allowed you to adjust the sound level during a call, BeoCom 1600 also offered a built-in loudspeaker function and the possibility to mute the microphone in the handset.
Colours
There was a choice between black, blue, red, yellow, green, terracotta, and grey.
A/V Control
With an optional A/V volume control incorporated into BeoCom 1600, you could adjust the sound on your Bang & Olufsen audio-video products directly from the telephone.
BeoCom 1400 and BeoCom 1500 were the first in the ‘new’ series of Bang & Olufsen telephones after the classic BeoCom 2000. The 1400 and 1500 series had a keypad integrated into the handset and not within the base like BeoCom 1600 and 2400.
This made the phone very compact. However, the sound quality was just as high as the more expensive phones because the two phones featured the same type of bass reflex speaker. Since everything is integrated in the handset, Bang & Olufsen offered no less than five different holders. Three different holders for wall mounting, one simple, and one with a built-in notebook.
There was also a version with an infra-red module to control the volume on main Bang & Olufsen equipment. Two table bases were also available, with and without the above-mentioned infra-red module. The main difference between BeoCom 1400 and 1500 is that the 1400 didn’t have memory capabilities or volume control.
BeoCom 1401 is an easy-to-use telephone with simple functionality. Choose between a wall-mounted version and a table top model offering optional volume control for recent B&O products and from a wide array of strong colours. It’s also a no-nonsense telephone. The range is simple, straightforward and functional and at the same time offering incredible flexibility. It’s possible to combine different colours with both a wall and table holder and to incorporate a volume control for Bang & Olufsen’s audio-video products.
Features
Memory for 10 numbers, redial function for the last number, adjustable volume control, microphone mute and optional AV volume control
Flexible
With its wide range of colours and unlimited placement options, BeoCom 1401 offers a level of flexibility that makes it just as easy to live with as it is to use
Colours
Do you want your telephone to match with the surroundings or to stand out from the crowd? Take a look at the different colours you can choose for your BeoCom telephone and decide for yourself. Choose between black, blue, yellow, red, terracotta, green and grey
A/V Control
Have you ever tried to hold a telephone conversation while the television or loud music is blaring away in the background? With the optional AV volume control in the tabletop version of BeoCom 1401 you can adjust the volume on your Bang & Olufsen audio-video products directly from your telephone
General keypad
The keypad is built directly into the handset of BeoCom 1401 offering easy access to all functions.
BeoCom 1400 and BeoCom 1500 were the first in the ‘new’ series of Bang & Olufsen telephones after the classic BeoCom 2000. The 1400 and 1500 series had a keypad integrated into the handset and not within the base like BeoCom 1600 and 2400.
This made the phone very compact. However, the sound quality was just as high as the more expensive phones because the two phones featured the same type of bass reflex speaker. Since everything is integrated in the handset, Bang & Olufsen offered no less than five different holders. Three different holders for wall mounting, one simple, and one with a built-in notebook.
There was also a version with an infra-red module to control the volume on main Bang & Olufsen equipment. Two table bases were also available, with and without the above-mentioned infra-red module. The main difference between BeoCom 1400 and 1500 is that the 1400 didn’t have memory capabilities or volume control.
BeoCord V8000 video tape recorder matched the Beovision MX range of Bang & Olufsen televisions in looks as well as performance.
You could store a channel on the Beovision MX TV and it was automatically communicated to the V8000. Recording was a simple matter of selecting the programme directly from Teletext using the Beo4 remote control. It could be positioned by using one of the stands as part of a Beovision TV.
BeoCord V8000 rewound a three-hour tape in 95 seconds and it shifted from fast forward to play in a split second.
Other features included NTSC stereo playback. Looks-wise it embodied a black fascia with a choice of cabinets in pearlescent shades of blue, green, red, grey and black, plus glossy grey and glossy white.
