Libratone Beat wireless speaker promises 360 degree audio enjoyment
Danish audio innovator Libratone has been showing off its first consumer product at this year’s IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin. The Beat is a high-end wireless speaker that promises listeners an audio sweet spot wherever they may be in a room. An iPod, iPhone or iPad is connected to a wireless transmitter which sends an audio signal to the speaker, then FullRoom technology reflects the sound off the room’s walls to provide 360 degrees of sonic enjoyment. The system comes with a 30-pin transmitter that attaches to an iPod, iPhone or iPad and wirelessly streams audio to a Beat speaker up to 32.8 feet (10m) away. The proprietary lossless wireless transfer system packs the signal at the audio device end and then unpacks it again at the Beat. The wireless range of the system can be extended to 98.4 feet (30m) if the user opts to connect the wireless USB transmitter to a PC or Mac. It is, of course, a given that users of the system will want to get the most out of the experience by sending only high quality audio from the originating device.
The company’s Jes Mosgaard says that the Beat works “like an acoustic instrument filling the entire room with sound. The speaker disperses sound in different directions, reflecting it off the walls, providing 360 degree sound. This means you are always in the so-called sweet spot. We call it FullRoom sound.”
Said to use high-end components and advanced signal processing of the kind normally reserved for systems found in studios, the Libratone Beat aims to provide “the freedom that comes with portable devices