It all began with the sound of pencil on paper. To develop the first ever audiophile sound system for a car, Bang & Olufsen had to go back to the drawing board, and create something completely new.

"The car is actually a new creative field. We need to think of the car as an entirely new space that we can play with, and create something entirely new and different for. There are plenty of opportunities in there," says Natanya Ford, the sound designer responsible for fine-tuning automotive sound systems from Bang & Olufsen.

As people spend more and more time in their cars, it is only natural that this has also become the perfect venue for listening to music. But until recently one key element was missing: a quality sound system developed especially for and perfectly integrated into this distinctive acoustic environment.

So when Bang & Olufsen entered the automotive sector, the goal was not only to create the best car sound system in the world, but to raise the bar even higher by combining superb sound with complete born-with-the-car integration of both the sound and the visual design.

Moving the experience

One of the challenges we took up was that normally the more people you have in a car, the more you have to compromise on the experience. We solved this by making it possible to preset or change the sound image, optimising it according to how many people are in the car and where they are sitting: Driver-focused, front or rear seat focused or focusing on all seats. In this way, we were able to make the listener - wherever he or she was seated - the centre of the experience.

Bang & Olufsen sound systems also use a microphone integrated between the two front seats to measure changing noise conditions, and automatically adapt the volume accordingly. At the same time, the intelligent loudness system ensures that the perceived balance of bass, mid-range and treble information remains constant at all volume levels. Combined these two technologies work to let you experience pure, authentic sound at any volume and at any speed.

Surround sound to go

As our automotive sound systems have 12-14 loudspeakers distributed around the interior of the car, it seemed only natural for our acoustic engineers to turn the car into a perfect surround sound set-up. The True Image up-mix algorithm, developed and patented by Bang & Olufsen, turns 2-channel stereo signals into perfect 7.1-channel surround sound.

True Image uses all loudspeakers in the car to provide the proper soundstage, and is specifically tuned for each system. Instead of simply sending the left and right channels to the associated loudspeakers, both channels are distributed to all loudspeakers in the car, each with its own particular delay and level, to surround you with pure sound.

All loudspeakers are active speakers with integrated ICEpower amplifiers that are characterized by a unique combination of audiophile sound quality, high output power and ultra-compact design that breaks down previous performance barriers in car audio. As each loudspeaker is powered by its own integrated amplifier, the tonal characteristics of each loudspeaker can be accurately tuned for ultimate acoustic performance.

Thanks to this proprietary technology, it has been possible to develop a complete in-car surround sound system without taking up unnecessary space and without adding any significant weight to the car.

A tsunami of sound

For Bang & Olufsen, the philosophy has always been to reproduce sound as authentically as possible. To produce pure sound that is true to the original, we have to master the knowledge of sound processing from the source to the ear. Consequently, hundreds of listening hours go into each car as each car is different and the acoustics in the car need to be adapted to that specific car.

In the Automotive Department, Tonmeister Natanya Ford is the expert listener who knows how to bridge the gap between technical specifications and the listening experience. Her background is at once musical and technical, and as a Tonmeister her job is to make those two worlds map onto one another and produce pure sound. "I work with a team of acousticians, and it is their role to specify the hardware for a system. Once we have the physical components, it is my role to take over and try to get these components to work together and produce the ultimate listening experience," she concludes.

Due to this uncompromising approach, our sound systems have made Bang & Olufsen the most desirable brand for car-fi systems. Today, the company is a world leader in quality-driven sound systems for high-end cars, and in the industry, we are referred to as the "tsunami" that revolutionized car-fi.

For more information please contact:

Corporate Information

Bang & Olufsen a/s

Phone: +45 96 84 51 00

Fax:    +45 96 84 50 33

Bang & Olufsen a/s

Founded in 1925 in Struer, Denmark, Bang & Olufsen a/s is world renowned for its distinctive range of quality consumer electronic products that represent our vision: Courage to constantly question the ordinary in search of surprising, long-lasting experiences. The Bang & Olufsen Group manufactures a unique range of televisions, music systems, loudspeakers, telephones and multimedia products. The company has approximately 2,500 employees and the products are sold in more than 100 countries worldwide. The turnover for the 2006/2007 financial year was DKK 4,376 million (EUR 588 million).

Further information about Bang & Olufsen a/s is available from www.bang-olufsen.com