Phoenix Rising

By Scott Wilkinson • Posted: May 21, 2009

When I first heard about the BeoVision 4-103 from Danish design king Bang & Olufsen, I thought I knew the story—a 103-inch 1080p plasma, undoubtedly sourced from Panasonic, with B&O's unique stylistic treatment. That's all true, but there's much more to it, as I discovered at a recent press demo held at the Aston Martin dealership in Beverly Hills, California.

Despite its considerable bulk—the panel weighs nearly 600 pounds—this behemoth is normally mounted on a motorized lift that gently and silently raises it off the floor when you turn it on. Once in position, the panel can be rotated ±20 degrees and tilted ±4 degrees, no mean feat for the incredibly powerful electronic-motor system.

When the panel is elevated, a triangular BeoLab 10 speaker emerges from behind to take its place below the screen as a self-powered center-channel speaker. Like most B&O speakers, this one includes an Acoustic Lens that widens the horizontal dispersion of the high frequencies and limits their vertical dispersion, enlarging the "sweet spot" while minimizing reflections from the floor and ceiling.

One of the coolest features provided by this and a few of the company's other plasma TVs is called Automatic Color Management (ACM). Each BeoVision 4-103 is calibrated at the factory, but B&O realizes that plasma phosphors can change their color characteristics as they age. So ACM periodically swings a small camera down from behind the upper bezel and displays white, gray, and black windows. The set's electronics then adjust the white point, keeping it where it's supposed to be during the panel's entire 100,000-hour lifespan—or you can do it whenever you want to impress your friends.

The demo was quite impressive—we saw HD clips from Quantum of Solace, Transformers, and Kung Fu Panda as well as some B&O custom footage. The picture was exceptional, with great detail, colors, and blacks. Equally impressive was the sound system consisting of the aforementioned BeoLab 10 center, two BeoLab 5s—which include integrated subwoofers—in the front left and right positions, and two BeoLab 9s as surrounds, all internally powered by B&O's ICEpower digital amps.

If you want one of these beauties, it'll cost you—$111,805 to be exact. You can omit the motorized stand and center speaker, which shaves almost $20,000 from the price tag, but then you must hang it on a seriously sturdy wall. In fact, before B&O will sell you one, a team of specialists first visits your home to determine if you have the infrastructure to support it, including a dedicated 220V electrical circuit—this thing draws around 1200 watts of power when on—and adequate reinforcement in the floor or wall. If your home passes muster, get ready for the most awesome plasma on the market today.

Comments

Submitted by Jarod on May 21, 2009 - 1:25pm.

At the demo when you viewed this set at the Austin Mar tin dealership,(by the way, I think you have the coolest job in the world!), did they specify a contrast ration? Also, was the demo in a darkened room so you could get an idea of its black level performance; was it Kuro blacks?

Submitted by Jarod on May 21, 2009 - 1:25pm.

I meant contrast ratio, sorry about the typo.

Submitted by kelsci on May 22, 2009 - 3:16am.

If you have the mulah, this is one heck of a system to own.

Submitted by Dave on May 22, 2009 - 4:00am.

Its Aston Mar tin not Austin. Two very different price points for cars. And AM are more reliable by significant margin than any Austin. And Mr Bond would never have a B&O system. He would have a something from Linn! Austins were responsible for BMW becoming a car maker. They manufactored an Austin on contract after WWI in the 20's.

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on May 22, 2009 - 9:58am.

Jarod, they did not specify the contrast ratio; I'm waiting for that info and will post it as soon as I get it. They tried to darken the room with makeshift curtains, but it wasn't really dark, so there was no way to really judge the black levels. The picture did look quite good to me, but that's an admittedly cursory impression.

Submitted by Norm on May 26, 2009 - 8:22am.

Not to take anything away from B&O, as they do make exceptional products, but to you think the size of the picture influenced your findings? Over the years, I have come to believe that size matters more than the quality of the picture. A bigger picture sucks you into what's going on, while viewing the screen. It reminds me of the early days of letterboxed laser discs; I always felt gipped with the smaller picture, even though it was still 100 inches.

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on May 27, 2009 - 4:08pm.

Jarod, B&O says the contrast ratio is typically 4000:1 and can be tweaked to as much as 5000:1. When I asked if that was dynamic or static, I didn't get a straightforward answer. The set has two features called Digital Adaptive Luminance Peaking and Adaptive Black that I would guess dynamically affect the contrast, but when I asked if they were engaged to achieve the specified contrast ratio, I was informed that they are "not relevant in the measurement of contrast ratio specifications, as it is performed with test signals which are not affected by those features." I doubt that a feature called Adaptive Black doesn't affect the black level when displaying a full black field or that Digital Adaptive Luminance Peaking doesn't affect the white level on a white window or full white field, so I'll continue to pursue this.

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on May 27, 2009 - 4:06pm.

Norm, a big picture is certainly impressive, but I think I can evaluate image quality independently from size. I've seen plenty of large images that did not look nearly as good as this.

Submitted by Derf on May 29, 2009 - 1:56pm.

That's what she said . . .