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Posted: 2018-06-06 22:55:59

Given recent scrutiny on data handling, Spence was sure to state that Sonos would never sell user data. He even made fun of some other "marketing and data collection devices masquerading as speakers". But in a follow-up interview, he conceded that when using Alexa or Spotify, those third party services will still have access to collect data.

In commercial for the product, a young man talks about the various smart speakers in his living room, and says about one: "this one listens to conversations I have, and then advertises to me, based on the content of my conversations."

When asked which of the many Silicon Valley companies the ad was referring to, Spence said its intention was show how fragmented the market for smart things was, whereas Beam was designed to be one device that could do it all.

"We're not trying to throw shade on anyone in particular, but rather this notion of cheap devices, disposable bluetooth devices… or little pucks that don't sound good," he said.

"Now that said, I think a lot of these pucks are good stepping stones. They make people realise 'Oh I forgot how much I enjoyed listening to music at home'."

Sonos insists it doesn't want their customers to feel the need to upgrade or throw out older speakers. According to Spence, 93 per cent of Sonos speakers purchased are still in use.

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"We knew that if we made good speakers that last, people will eventually buy another to add, not to replace, their older Sonos," he said.

The Beam is 60 per cent smaller than the high-end Playbar, and $400 cheaper. But the Beam inherits features like Speech Enhancement and Night Mode, which lowers the bass and sound of explosions in movies, so viewers can still enjoy action movies after the kids have gone to bed.

Connecting to a TV via HDMI allows the device to control a TV, with viewers using Alexa voice commands to switch channels or turn the volume down. Using the industry standard HDMI-CEC means the Beam should work with almost all modern televisions.

The event was focused heavily on the quality of sound. Hilmar Lehnert, Sonos' senior director of acoustic engineering, remarked that there's no simple yardstick to measure audio quality.

"Science hasn't found a way to say 'yes, that will sounds great to a human ear'," Lehnert said, indicating that Sonos instead focuses on working with creators.

After two years of development in the lab, the team took the speaker around Hollywood, visiting movie studios and recording industry professionals, playing back their content to them, asking what sounded good, and what they didn't like.

Sonos name-dropped Oscar-winning sound designers from Mad Max Fury Road and Baby Driver.

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Giles Martin is a two-time Grammy Award winner, and has worked with Sonos since 2013 under the title sound experience leader. He explained that every part of the new speaker had to be redesigned for the size and price point they were aiming for.

"Everything is brand new. We had to completely redesign the transducers to fit the space," he said.

The one thing missing for a soundbar is Dolby Atmos support.

"It's a question of scale, and the price point of this product, Dolby Atmos just wouldn't work," Martin said.

"You're much better getting the best quality speakers into a small space than flooding the space with transducers. We hope to get to Dolby Atmos, and we will... But it would cost a grand to add Atmos to this design."

The $599 Sonos Beam will ship globally starting July 17, and is available for pre-order today.

Peter Wells

Peter Wells works at Swinburne University and is a technology commentator in his spare time. He is an award-winning journalist who currently appears on the Daily Tech News Show.

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