Bang and Olufsen Part 2: Their Vision for Music on Flash Memory Cards

As promised yesterday, we have part two of our feature on Bang and Olufsen and this time Thomas Reil, the company's Head of Communications, answers a some questions.

1. There is a conscious effort to incorporate flash memory convergence in the music experience. What do you think of the role flash memory will play in terms of digital music storage in the future?

Thomas Reil:
At Bang & Olufsen we think flash memory will play an important role in the future. This system makes music very easily accessible and you can also take your favourite songs wherever you go. This is why we have three products, BeoSound 2 (MP3 Player), BeoSound 4 (Stereo) and BeoSound 3 (Portable Clock Radio) that all handle the SD card, and so make the favourite music very easy accessible and portable.

2. I understand that memory card usage in portable music is an ordinary sight today but in home audio systems it isn't yet why is that and why do that in the Beosound 4?

Thomas Reil: In BeoSystem you can easily record a CD to MP3 format onto the SD card without a computer, and then port that to another unit eg the BeoSound 2 or 3.


3. Is there a big market for systems like the Beosound 4? I mean recording from audio system to CD-Rs has not caught up yet so what makes you think that with the SD-Card people will finally go to digital recording using the BeoSound 4?

Thomas Reil: Yes, we believe there is a market for BeoSound 4. The reason why people have not yet changed to record on SD-cards, is because you still need a computer and a card reader. With the BeoSound 4 recording is very easy, and possible directly from your CDs onto the SD card in a very high quality of 192 Kbps.

4. Are you going for multiple flash memory card formats in the future or are you going to stick with the SD-Card since it is the most popular form?

Thomas Reil: Bang & Olufsen is always looking for the most popular form before we start developing products integrating the new systems. This is also the case for SD card. We have chosen this system and to make it accessible throughout our products, we will use the same system in different products. As our products have a long lifespan, the SD card will be our favourite system for a longer time period.

5. Are there any plans of incorporating the Beocenter and BeoVisions with SD-Cards as well in the future so that we can watch home movies edited on the PC with these systems?

Thomas Reil: It is still too early to give any information on this.

Related Article:
Bang and Olufsen Incorporates SD Cards in its Music Systems

Technorati tags: Flash Memory / SD Card / Bang Olufsen / Beosound