June 2019 News


Redefining high-resolution wireless sound with new Formation Suite


Bowers & Wilkins has launched a new five-model Suite of wireless audio products - called Formation. The high-end audio brand has drawn on its 50-year heritage of iconic engineering and acoustic expertise to develop Formation Wireless Technology, an all-new proprietary Mesh Network featuring a patented Perfect Speaker Synchronisation


function 6 that can


transfer audio between speakers in under one microsecond and in


true


24-bit/96kHz resolution - to allow the Formation Suite to guarantee the ‘Highest Form of Sound’. Launched at the end of April,


five


products currently feature in the Formation Suite: ■ Formation Wedge – Characterised by its 120-degree elliptical speaker shape and dedicated full-range stereo sound components. ■ Formation Bar – Nine optimised


drive units provide a wide soundstage including a dedicated centre channel. ■ Formation Bass – Opposed drivers, powerful amplifiers and Dynamic EQ provide bass response without distortion. Can be paired with other Formation components. ■ Formation Duo – Adopts the same Carbon Dome tweeter-on-top technology and Continuum Cone mid/ bass drive unit as Bowers & Wilkins’ wired speakers. ■ Formation Audio – Patented Formation Wireless Technology turns any traditional analogue component into a high-fidelity streaming device for a best-of-all worlds experience. “The Formation Suite is the most technologically innovative line of wireless products our development team has ever created,” said CEO of Bowers & Wilkins, Greg Lee. “Formation sets a new standard in the world of wireless sound.


ertonline.co.uk


Top left: Formation Duo; top right: Formation Bar; middle: Formation Wedge; bottom left: Formation Bass; bottom right: Formation Audio


Now consumers can get the high- performance audio quality they expect from Bowers & Wilkins coupled with


an unmat ched, easy-to-use, wireless listening experience, making Formation the new standard in whole home audio.”


“It’s a real change from what the normal B&W customer is used to”


In 2016, Bowers & Wilkins celebrated its 50th birthday.


In the same year, the company was also bought by EVA Automation - a Silicon Valley start-up with some very clever software solutions. Taking over Bowers & Wilkins (B&W), the newly-appointed Co-Chairman, Gideon Yu, said at the time that he wanted to make B&W one of the major AV companies in the world. Over the last


three years, the brand has been


working towards this new Formation Suite, which launched at the end of April in special partner retailers. “We didn’t have a product that fit into this multi-


room setup area, but this has been the result of the three-year partnership between EVA and B&W,” said Peter May, B&W’s General Manager, UK Sales, sitting down with ERT Editor, Jack Cheeseman, last month for this exclusive interview. “It’s high quality audio, high resolution streaming with very intuitive and simple ways of operating. It’s literally out of the box with no manuals to read as the app leads you through all the setup.” “It’s a real change from what the normal B&W customer is used to,” continued Mr May, “it’s hi-fi without the complexity that perhaps puts some people off. We’re appealing to a very different customer with Formation; we’re appealing to someone who wants


great audio quality - they want to listen to their music perhaps in a way they haven’t been able to before. The competition doesn’t have this type of product, nor does it have the technology behind it, thanks to our Mesh Network.”


Spy-grade technology Mr May also explained that his team at B&W did some research a few years ago and they found that consumers stay very loyal to the brand and once they already have one product they tend to buy from B&W in the future. One of the main points from this research, he added, was that people said if B&W was a person, it would be James Bond. “Ironically, Daniel Craig was pictured in the press about a week after, walking through an airport in the USA wearing a pair of B&W PX headphones,” chuckled Mr May, “so it turns out we were spot on with that research!” Although Formation remains the focus for the company at the moment, when asked what might be next, he said there are two approaches - how to bring more services into this current Suite and how to bring more products into the Formation family. He referred to a very busy roadmap for the next 12 to 18 months, adding: “There are products that will compliment those that


we’ve just launched. I can’t tell you anymore, but there are some natural additions. “Having said that, we don’t lose sight of the fact that for 53 years we’ve been making traditional hi-fi speakers. Over the last few years while we’ve been developing Formation, we’ve also relaunched our 600 and 700 Series, so our investment continues into where we’ve come from and where we’ll continue to be.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40