Bang & Olufsen announced BeoVision 12-65, a 3D 65-inch Plasma HDTV with integrated center channel and 7.1 surround sound designed by David Lewis Designers. BeoVision 12-65 has a very thin and light appearance that truly innovates the heavier plasma concepts seen so far. Besides using an ultra slim NeoPDP panel with the latest and greatest in plasma technology, two aluminium profiles bent inward in a V-shape — one in black and one in natural high-gloss polished aluminum — create an optical illusion giving the TV a thin, light and extremely elegant visual expression.
The actual frame is a very thin (almost foil-like) black aluminium sheet of only a few millimetres thickness that gives an impression of one uninterrupted glass surface with no visible joints. Actual dimensions are 161 x 96.4 x 6.4 cm/68 kg (W x H x D/Weight).
The integrated center speaker is placed below the screen and consists of five custom made speaker units covered by a soft curved natural anodised aluminium grill with an intricate organic shaped hole pattern. Attention to detail is a must in this TV concept. Even the hole pattern in front of the speaker units is made according to certain acoustic specifications. The front plate of the integrated centre speaker is placed as a small protrusion adding a few extra mm to the thickness in the lower part of the TV, while maintaining a certain lightness in the overall design.
The center channel performance of the integrated loudspeaker matches the powerful BeoLab 5 loudspeakers in a surround sound setup. By means of sophisticated Digital Signal Processing, B&O’s acoustic engineers have lifted up the center channel so you will experience that speech is coming out from somewhere mid screen, not below the TV. This gives you a more natural sound experience when e.g. watching news or broadcasts with a lot of speech.
Since the amount of space is limited in this speaker design, highly sophisticated and powerful amplifiers are needed. Bang & Olufsen’s ICEpower technology is used for the BeoVision 12 speaker design. It contains 4 x 80 watt ICEpower amplifiers for the midrange and 1 x 40 watts for the treble.
The highly sophisticated video engine, handling all sound processing and picture technologies, includes as standard a full 7.1 surround sound module, which allows you to connect a vast number of speakers, almost any sound configuration you may want is possible.
The TV comes with the latest in plasma technology offering an even greater experience in both 2D and 3D. The panel is a so-called NeoPDP panel, which includes new phosphors with a very short retention time giving improved 3D performance and a much better motion performance in a 2D viewing situation.
BeoVision 12-65 also comes with Automatic Color Management to compensate for the effects of ageing that is common for the plasma technology. For BeoVision 12-65, the robotic arm featuring a camera is located underneath the screen, hidden behind the loudspeaker grill.
Bang & Olufsen’s Automatic Picture Control feature senses the level of incident light from the room and dynamically alters the picture adjustments accordingly, so that the picture quality is maintained day and night. Automatic Picture Control makes sure you get just the right balance of light from the screen when you watch TV in either bright or dark surroundings. The light sensor is placed in the upper right hand corner and is designed, so it picks up the lighting conditions of the room in a 360 degree angle. This is to achieve a measurement of the light conditions of the room, which is similar to what the human eyes see.
The entire TV is offered in one placement alternative only, directly on the wall. The design of the wall bracket is quite unique as it is partly integrated in the rear cabinet, which means it hardly adds to the thickness of the TV at all.
Price and Availability
Bang & Olufsen’s BeoVision 12-65 is sold exclusively through authorized B&O dealers in March 2012.
