B&O goes digital, stylishly

By PETER GRIFFIN

If you are passionate about hi-fi and home theatre you will no doubt know the name Bang & Olufsen - even if the price tags prevent you from owning their top-notch gear.

The 76-year-old Danish audiovisual giant has built its reputation over the decades as a designer of classy analogue sound systems, and is famed for the quality of its stereo speakers. But B&O has by no means been dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age.

Chief executive Peter Olufsen, a former pig farmer who took over as chairman of the troubled company in 1989, is enthusiastic about the digital revolution and the way it is changing the face of consumer electronics.

"What you are talking about is illegal!" he says incredulously at mention of the ease with which web surfers can these days amass music collections through file-sharing networks.

"There are a lot of copyright issues to sort out with the recording artists and we have to be mindful of them," he says.

Olufsen was in Auckland last week to open its new B&O store in Newmarket.

B&O has been selling its hi-fi and TV products in New Zealand for more than a decade, but has limited its retail presence to Auckland.

The product line-up is expanding as new technology emerges. B&O now sells portable mp3 players (in stainless steel finish, no less) and designer digital phones and will soon introduce a new hi-fi set-up incorporating a 40GB hard drive capable of storing thousands of songs.

B&O has also moved into software, building digital audio players that work in much the same way as Windows Media Player or Real Player (free download at www.bang-olufsen.com).

Central to B&O's philosophy is BeoLink, a cable system connecting all B&O gear. It allows you to pipe music throughout the house or change TV channels in a different room - all from one remote control.

B&O is not usually at the forefront of technological innovation. That's a conscious decision for the company.

It made a large investment, with Philips, in pushing the superior Video 2000 format in the video wars of the early 1980s. Eventually Matsushita's VHS standard won out, despite being an inferior format in many respects.

"It's a huge investment when you have a hand in developing a new technology," says Olufsen. "We won't usually be the first to introduce it."

But when B&O does come to market it's style all the way.