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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Indulge/  Avant, Bang & Olufsen’s new flat-panel TV, is visual poetry
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Avant, Bang & Olufsen’s new flat-panel TV, is visual poetry

Flat-panel televisions will always pack in the latest tech, but completely neglect the luxury aspect. The Avant from Bang & Olufsen takes care of the latter too

The B&O BeoVision Avant is priced at `9,99,990. Premium
The B&O BeoVision Avant is priced at `9,99,990.

The popular names of the television world, the likes of Sony and Samsung, do not cut any corners when it comes to loading their flat panel beauties with the very latest cutting edge technology and features—quad core processors, high quality panels, the very best image processing software that works in the background and all the smart TV features that, if you believe the marketing noise, will replace your laptop altogether. Whether you spend 70,000 or 4,00,000 on a flat panel TV from the mainstream brands, they all look, feel and work the same. There really is no feel-good factor every time you pick up the remote and press that big green button.

With the Bang & Olufsen BeoVision Avant flat panel television, the 4K (also known as Ultra HD or UHD) resolution isn’t the only thing that grabs your attention. It is not difficult to notice an almost eccentric attention to detail, right down the design of each single element, which would otherwise fall in the “that’ll do" category.

The Avant would look the part in a millionaire’s mansion. The entire frame is made of anodized aluminium—bezel around the screen has a matte black colour finish, whereas the side spines have a silver finish. On the back, the designers have provided a thoughtful space to keep devices such as set top boxes (STBs), media players etc. hidden out of sight. There are blasters on the back of the TV which ensure that the remote control commands reach these devices that are not visible to the naked eye.

This isn’t a TV that you can be expected to install yourself. Each of the three mounts—floor, table top and wall mount are nothing short of mechanized masterpieces themselves. We explain how each works, one by one. The floor-stand is not very common with most other televisions that you can buy, unless you are willing to spend on a third-party solution to fulfil that need. B&O provides that option with the Avant. The TV is fitted on to a very solid and gorgeous looking aluminium pole, which is joined with an equally beautiful and a very industrial looking circular aluminium base. The entire material is completely non-shiny, and the brushed metal look adds another dollop of sophistication. The pole is actually fitting closer to one side of the base (it isn’t technically an edge, because the base itself is a circle) instead of being in the centre. That is because the entire structure is designed in a way that the pole can be moved around for moving the TV around. The second part of this mechanism seen the TV itself rotate on the pole up to 90 degrees, allowing it to be useful no matter where you are sitting in that massive living room or bedroom.

This ties in brilliantly with the presets that the TV allows you to set, for different times of the day. Suppose you want to watch some cricket from Down Under while having breakfast in bed, simply press the preset button, and the entire thing twists and rotates to be perfectly visible from there. If you sit on a lounger by the window while sipping some wine in the evening, you can set the TV to look that way too. Basically, one press of the button and the Avant can be configured to look wherever you are in the room.

The mechanized table-top stand rises up slightly when the Avant is switched on, and the wall mount can pivot the TV up to 60-degrees from the resting position up against the wall. Both of these are quite brilliant in their own right, but nothing compares to the sheer visual appeal of the floor stand.

The brilliance is still not finished. When the Avant is powered on, a set of speakers can be seen sliding down out of the spine under the screen. These then expand outwards to the left and right of the aluminum frame that just emerged, and almost run the full width of the screen—wrapped in black fabric. These are 3 channel speakers, with dedicated hardware for the centre channel to enhance dialogues. There is the .1 part as well—the 6.5-inch subwoofer is integrated on the back of the TV. In the more mainstream products, the Sony X900 4K TVs have some extremely powerful speakers, the most powerful in their class. The Avant just blows them away, in all aspects—loudness, detailing, picking up the finer details and bass.

B&O says the 55-inch panel has the non-reflective glass above the screen. From our testing experience, we would still say there is some work to be done before it can be called truly non-reflective. The panel has the 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels) and is 3D capable. The refresh rate is limited to 120Hz— good for users who do not like the ultra-smooth soap opera like effect that some newer TVs tend to reproduce with their unnecessarily overbearing fast visual processing (200Hz and more). This is a VA (Vertical Alignment) panel, which reproduces some very deep black colour levels, which in turn improves detailing and contrast. The Avant utilizes the Vision Clear picture feature that works in the background and can adjust picture settings continually, after analysing the quality of the incoming video signal and the resolution of the content being viewed. Vision Clear also relies on the lighting sensors fitted on the TV to understand the ambient lighting in the room. Picture quality, for high definition (HD) and 4K content is pristine. Standard definition (SD), as it does with other TVs, looks slightly off. But then again, anyone buying this will probably not watch Zee Cinema in SD.

There are 6 HDMI inputs, two more than what even the most expensive TVs usually offer. Plus, there is integrated Wi-Fi and LAN network connectivity, and USB ports for direct playback of multimedia from external storage.

The chunky BeoRemote One has an aluminium body and on it sits the black keypad with a rubberized finish to each key. The layout is easy to get used to. B&O claims that the finish, the colour and the response from each key will not fade even after many years of use.

The B&O BeoVision Avant is priced at 9,99,990. If you want something more exquisite than the mechanized table stand, you have the choice of the motorized floor stand which costs 1,89,990 or the wall bracket which costs 1,14,990. The upgraded wireless remote controller costs 39,990.

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Published: 29 May 2015, 09:04 AM IST
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