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  • Bang & Olufsen Chelsea Acquired by Leading Luxury AV Installer, Kensington Audio Visual

    King’s Road AV ‘Experience Centre’ Launched for Interior Designers – London’s leading luxury AV installer, Kensington Audio Visual, has acquired Bang & Olufsen of Chelsea, and in November will launch an Experience Centre for designers in its new King’s Road showroom where lighting design, architectural light fittings, lighting control, AV, home automation solutions and security can be showcased for the interiors and architectural design industries and also end-users.

     

    For the first time, London-based design professionals can source Bang & Olufsen, “the world’s leading luxury audio visual brand” (Superbrands), from a specialist AV trade installer. Bang & Olufsen has previously only been available as a ‘retail’ brand, but now designers can safely specify Bang & Olufsen with the reassurance that it can be seamlessly integrated with control systems and fully supported by a specialist AV consultancy servicing professional designers.

     

    This comes as Bang & Olufsen announces the introduction of a new wireless speaker platform, the first ever to use wireless technology that is robust enough for high-end digital sound, at CEDIA 2013 tradeshow in Denver, Colorado. With the new wireless technology, audiophiles will be able to enjoy 24-bit, uncompressed music wirelessly. Interior designers can achieve cinema-quality surround sound without the wire clutter. The new wireless technology by Bang & Olufsen incorporates WiSA’s (Wireless Speaker and Audio Association) open standard to achieve the ultimate sound performance in multi-channel wireless set up. Therefore, Bang & Olufsen’s next-generation wireless speakers, to be introduced this Autumn, will connect to any WiSA compliant third-party television, Blu-ray player, AV receiver or the like – simply, flexibly and brilliantly.

    “Practically, Bang & Olufsen is perfectly suited to large residential refurbishments. Few realise how upgradable Bang & Olufsen is – both its hardware and software can be replaced making their TVs superbly future-proof,” says Malcolm Stewart, CEO of Kensington AV.

    Designers and developers have had little exposure to the Bang & Olufsen brand from AV trade suppliers as historically it has only been available as a retail brand. Kensington AV is very excited by the creative and technical opportunities of including Bang & Olufsen in its refurbishments: “the engineering is so much more advanced in Bang & Olufsen. It’s not its good looks that stand it apart: their TVs are the best combination of picture and sound on the market and it’s undoubtedly a design statement,” adds Stewart.

    Bang & Olufsen has just been voted the best audio technology brand in the Coolbrands’ 2013/14 survey and was voted as the twelfth coolest brand in the UK above Chanel, Prada and Adidas.

    Kensington AV’s new ‘Experience Centre’  based in the Bang & Olufsen Kings Road showroom will provide impartial design advice and demonstrations for architects, interior designers and end users in lighting design and control, home cinema, door entry, security and home automation.  All the major brands are represented.

    “We are a ‘one-stop-AV-shop’ for the design profession,” says Stewart, who has intimate knowledge of prime residential refurbishments having managed bespoke installations for prestigious architects, interior designers, A-list music celebrities and Russian Oligarchs.

    “We make life easy for interior designers by offering in one service all the expertise across the technical specialisms in a high end refurbishment – they have less people to deal with and a single point of responsibility. Our client-facing staff speak fluent Russian, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew which also helps smooth relations with our exacting high-net-worth central London clients.”

    Kensington AV runs regular CPD courses dedicated to Lighting Design and Control and also Audio Visual/ control systems for architects and interior designers (enquiries to cpd@kensingtonav.com)

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