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Mahananda Bohidar
Home automation has always been a very specialised area when it comes to integrating personal technology. Sprucing up your home with an integrated audio system or theatre system is something that you could hope to accomplish only with help from professionals in the industry. Of course, there were a few notable exceptions. Last week, the audio company Bose launched a new series of devices that could change the abovementioned trend forever. Smartbuy travelled to New York to witness the launch first-hand and bring you this hands-on preview.
Wi-Fi Hi-fi
Called the SoundTouch series, the new technology from Bose is aimed at making access to your music and its playback effortless. To this end, Bose launched three new products in the SoundTouch range - the SoundTouch 30, the SoundTouch 20 and the SoundTouch portable. The primary function of all three devices is to allow streaming of music anywhere within your home possible with the touch of a button. While all three consoles are designed similarly with respect to form and function, they differ in the kind of room and space they are designed to cater to.
The SoundTouch 30, the largest of the lot, is designed for the most spacious area of your home where you might usually entertain guests or where you’d need a system considerably big so as to not lose the effect of good music.
The SoundTouch 20 is a slightly more compact version of the SoundTouch 30, obviously designed for similarly compact spaces like a bedroom or a kid’s room. While the device itself is not too bulky, the truly portable one is the SoundTouch portable which is designed to be carried around from one room to another.
Interface
The interface that lets you control all the systems that you might have installed in different rooms around the house is the Bose SoundTouch app. It gives you all the control you need to access music on your system. You have six presets which you can drag and drop music, artists, albums and radio stations to customise the list. One of the main apps integrated into the app - and one that will not be available to Indian users is Pandora. The app connects to your PC, laptop or other personal device to source music from there via Wi-Fi. According to the company you can easily have four devices hooked up to the systems to control it. Apart from your own music library, the SoundTouch consoles let you tune in to internet radio stations from around the world. The best part about the devices was that switching from one song to another and from one radio station to another barely took any time. If you have multiple SoundTouch devices throughout your home, you can control all your devices through the app. You can use it to play different tracks in different rooms or make sure it’s the same one in every room; you can adjust the volume of the entire console together as well as independent of each other.
Controller
While each SoundTouch system comes with a remote control, Bose also showcased a specially designed controller which will be made available sometime early next year. Packed with four batteries, the circular remote control gives you quick access to the six preset media choices. A rotating bezel works as a volume controller so you can crank it up or down just by rotating the ring. The remote control is touch sensitive so when you touch each preset you can preview the audio file assigned to it and then press to play. The device is also built with a proximity sensor so you can just wave your hands over it to activate it. It comes with a wall mount so you can walk into a room and activate it like you’d do with a light switch. Bose is upgrading a bunch of its really popular products with the SoundTouch technology such as the Lifestyle home theatre system and the VideoWave entertainment system. The new app is compatible with iOS, Android, Mac and Windows systems. These products have been simultaneously launched in India too.
India Prices
SoundTouch Portable and SoundTouch 20 system - Rs 32,512
SoundTouch Portable 30 - Rs 52,763
mahananda.bohidar@thehindu.co.in
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