BEOSOUND SHAPE
The story of shape Listen to designer, Øivind Alexander Slaato, talk about perspectives and the importance of seeing things differently. Øivind’s inspiration for the Beosound Shape speaker is a combination of the breathtaking beauty of nature, the precise science that holds everything together, and a single moment of magical awe.
Chapter I / A magical moment
There is no water, no electricity, and if you come out there it was minus 15 degrees. It's so beautiful and out there you see the snow landscape that is very gentle. When you look at it then it looks white at the first glance. But when you look at it closer you'll discover the entire spectrum of the rainbow. Depending on the intensity, angle or even the filtration of light by clouds, snow or temperature of air. It's a very peaceful experience, both visually but also from an acoustic point of view everything is dampened and well balanced. I wanted to somehow get this feeling from the snow landscape and this piece came from there. If you look closer at a snowflake or snow landscape, then you will see that every snowflake has a hexagonal structure and all snowflakes are based on the same mathematical rules. They all have these 120 or 60 degrees angles but you'll never find two snowflakes that are equal. The hexagon is one of nature's favourite forms, seen in anything from snowflakes to honeycombs and makes perfect sense on repetitive and expanding structures. Every outcome is unique and there is a sense of natural beauty in these infinite variations. You find the hexagonal geometry in organic molecules, quartz crystals, columnar basalt and even the armour of crocodiles and turtles. With other words, the hexagon has been around long time before we found it, but for some reason nobody used it to create sound before.
CHAPTER II / Creating a natural form
In the computer we today have an extremely powerful design tool. However, the classic analog methods like folding paper or drawing a line with a pencil is something you will never let be. It's simply very powerful methods and quite nice to work with as well. Although this first draft was slightly more complex in appearance, the hexagon shape and symmetry of the final product was apparent from the start. Then again, Øivind might be the designer of the Beosound Shape modules, but the final design of the entire configuration is up to you. It looks different depending on which angle you look at it and how the light comes into the room, and thereby mirrors that effect of the snowflakes. It will never be the same.
CHAPTER III / Endless possibilities
Beosound Shape is a modular tile concept that allows customers to choose the size, shape, colour and even the sound performance according to personal preference. Each tile functions as a speaker, amplifier or acoustic damper and can be pieced together in endless combinations and sizes to serve rooms big and small. This flexible system can be rearranged to form new patterns or tiles can be added to boost sound performance or acoustic dampening properties. Users can also change the colours of the fabric covers, which currently come in ten different colour options, including four Kvadrat textured fabrics. The cool thing is that you can always change the colours later on by simply swapping the front to other colours without needing to disassemble the entire structure. This ability and flexibility that allows you to upgrade the colours and change them afterwards is something you can also do with the sound. So, let's say you start buying a small Beosound Shape and then afterward find out "Oh, maybe it could be cool to have even more sound in this room". Well, then you can just add more modules, and you could also change the acoustic performance of the entire structure. So, it's flexible not just in terms of colour and design, but actually also in sound.
CHAPTER VI / Creating soundscapes
On the music front, the system provides an immersive and social sound experience, thanks to a patented technology called "band on the wall", a unique upmixing algorithm that distributes the signals across the speakers making the correlated signal appear in the center from every listening position. Beosound Shape is a completely new way to listen to music. You don't need to sit in the center of a stereo perspective. Instead you can be wherever in the room, which is the case when you have a lot of people for a party. Beosound Shape is using sound in a different way. So it's more like a carpet. It's a sound carpet or architectural sound. You could say the perfect sound system for architectural sound. It looks good and makes people feel good.