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Bose VideoWave Entertainment System

Sydney Australia, Wednesday 25 May 2011.

Components, remotes and cables. These are three things that throw a spanner into the setup of our entertainment systems and are generally the three things that cause the most grief for people. According to Bose, only 1 in 3 homes in America have a sound system connected to their televisions and they narrow this down to complexity. Not only must you find a way to neatly connect your speakers to your television but then you have another remote control to add to your already growing pile. There are however universal remotes available but even Impulse Gamer know that these are not the easiest things to use, setup or navigate. So where does that leave us? In my opinion, quite a mess of cables and components

... until now.

Today, Impulse Gamer were treated to a brand new Bose product in Sydney, the VideoWave Entertainment System. This was literally a one stop place for your entertainment enjoyment as Bose have combined a home theatre sound system, a 46" 1080p FULL HD screen and a music system in one simple to use product. This means that you do not need 2, 5 or even 7 speakers connected to your TV but through careful research, Bose have managed to combine it all into one TV unit. As Bose have combined three products into one, they have also merged all access to your entertainment peripherals (e.g. TiVo, XBox 360 and Blu-ray) into one simple to use remote control.

With only just a handful of buttons on the remote control and considerably smaller than standard remote controls, users have access to all their entertainment peripherals via one remote and best of all, accessing the features of these devices is done through a clickpad. By pushing the clickpad, this brings up a remote control menu on your TV and by moving your thumb around the clickpad, you can navigate your peripherals such as your TiVo, iPod or Blu-ray player for example. It's quite impressive to see the menu appear on the TV as you still have access to your picture. Whether you were navigating your TiVo or iPhone 4, it was a treat to use and quite easy as you are no longer looking at your remote to find the buttons but rather, you're now looking at your TV. It's simplicity at its best.

However the highlight of this product launch was speaker system of this television which does not require additional speakers connected to it or a subwoofer as it is all in one unit, the television. Through ten years of research, Bose have successfully managed to remove the need for external speakers and after this demonstration, it did leave quite a few people gobsmacked, myself included. Using a variety of key Bose propriety technologies, the VideoWave Entertainment System produced sounds in all parts of the room from my left to my right and behind. The sound quality was exceptionally clear, with no distortions whatsoever. Without getting into the specifics, the system contains a cluster of six high-performance woofers, a Bose waveguide, a Bose PhaseGuide sound radiator, seven-element speaker arrays and advanced Bose digital signal processing which is the heart and soul of the sound system. Best of all, this technology will recognise the shape of your room, including any objects in it to deliver the best sound possible. No installation is needed here either. The only installation is whether you want this product on your wall or on the stand.

To install the VideoWave Entertainment System, the unit comes with a console that connects to the TV. This console contains a variety of ports such as HDMI, USB, Component which is where you connect your devices such as your PlayStation 3, TiVo or even iPod. The console has been designed to connect an iPod or iPhone via a dock which in turns allows you to listen to music or watch movies on your FULL HD TV. What's cool about using the system to listen to music is that there is an option to disable video on the TV which basically turns the TV off and becomes just a music system. The unit comes pre-packed with a detailed listing of peripherals in order to connect it to the console and updates will be available which can then be installed via the USB port. This issimilar to setting up your TiVo remote to replace your regular TV remote and by selecting the product and pushing a few buttons on your remote, this will basically replace the need to use your existing remote.

Of course, all this luxury and quality does come at a cost and the recommended retail price is $7999 (AUD) which will be available in all good specialist audio stores from the 1st of June 2011. The only issues that we could find with the product is that if you lose your remote control, you cannot access the VideoWave Entertainment System console but fortunately additional remote controls are available from Bose. Another issue is that the product only comes in a 46" model which does not support 3D, not that there is a 3D standard at present anyway. However, if you're looking for a product that removes the need for complicated installations and you want the best possible quality, than look no further than the VideoWave Entertainment System from Bose. For now, only the 46" model is available but if this proves popular, I'm sure that Bose will increase their range.

This is how movies and gaming should be experienced!

* Review score only inductive of production information demonstration and is not a real-world review score