BeoSound Essence

Announced at CES 2014 on 7 January 2014 by Tue Mantoni, Bang & Olufsen’s CEO, who explained the BeoSound Essence sound concept was to make listening to favourite music as easy as putting the coffee on in the morning. A single touch of the controller is all that’s needed, he said.

BeoSound Essence is a “simple, elegant one-touch sound system. An entirely new way to enjoy iconic Bang & Olufsen sound, at your fingertips”.

At its core the BeoSound Essence is very simple. The round controller can be wall- or tablet-mounted and has a rotational dial to adjust volume together with a four-way directional pad to jump between tracks, pause and play. The dial rotater is silky smooth and there’s good feedback to pressing the directional buttons.

The part that the user cannot see - the box - looks a bit like a wi-fi router in many respects and is made from white plastic. It is designed to be hidden away, out of sight, away from the main ‘button’.

Bang & Olufsen has its own BeoMusic app to handle DLNA, Internet radio and all available sources.

The spring 2014 cost for the BeoSound Essence was 5.999 Danish Kroner ($995; £610).

BeoSound Essence was designed by the consultancy company Frackenpohl Poulheim.

BeoSound Essence technical specifications

Dimensions: Wall mounted: 6.6cm (diameter) x 2.2cm (height) / 114 g

Table stand: 11.5 cm X 8.7 cm X 2.8 cm / 240 g

Hide-away box: 31 cm X 10.5 cm X 3.5 cm / 608 g

Placement options:
Remote: Wall mounted or table stand variant Hide-away box: Anywhere near the speakers

Hide-away box connections:
2 X Power Link sockets (RJ45) with two channels in each for connection of speakers.
1 X RCA for line-in connection
1 X Ethernet
1 X IR (for future use) 1 X Mains for power

Three BeoSound Essence memotes may be connected to one system. BeoSound Essence is connected to a network either via WiFi or via Ethernet.

Connection between hide-away box & remote: Wireless, RF low energy

Connection between hide-away box & mobile devices: Wireless, WiFi

Connection between hide-away box & speakers: Wired. If wireless connection is required between the BeoSound Essence and speakers (featuring Immaculate Wireless Sound i.e. BeoLab 17 or BeoLab 18) BeoLab Transmitter 1 should be added to a home system setup.

Remote operations:‘
‘Play’: Start playing the last available source
‘Silence’: Pause/stop/mute the sound, based on the source context.
‘Next’: Skip track/station to the next one, with in the same sound source
‘Previous’: Go to the previous track/station, within the same sound source
‘Volume’: Control the volume