The Bose VideoWave is the first product from the world leader in consumer and professional audio systems, to embrace video. But unsurprisingly, it retains the audio edge, squeezing 16 speakers , including 6 woofers, behind the magnesium casing of a 46 inch full high definition LCD TV display.

The Bose Wave Guide and advanced signal processing ensures that TV or movies now come with the best of surround sound. An audio calibration software supplied with the system, assesses room shape, size, even furnishings and self-adjusts the sound system for optimal performance. The sound seems – literally—to bounce off the walls, thanks to Bose’s Phase Guide sound radiator technology.
A separate console is the connection dock for all your input devices – Bluray DVD player, iPod dock, gaming machine – or the set top box that provides your satellite or cable TV channels. It has 5 HDMI or high definition ports and connects to the TV wirelessly.

ClickPadThe really user-friendly part of the system is the “Click pad” or remote -- and expectedly it takes a route that no ‘universal remote’ has offered. Instead of making you fumble with the controls for any or all of your input devices, the Click pad recognizes which input you are using and brings up the exact key pad as a strip on the screen. No fumbling for your spectacles or groping in the dark – you can operate the DVD player, TV remote or whatever—and the virtual keyboard vanishes from the screen once you are through. A video mute allows one to use the VideoWave as just a music system.
A lot of user-centric innovation -- for the asking price of Rs 4,78,013.
 -- Anand Parthasarathy

Nov 15 2010.

This review also appears in abridged form in the current ( Nov 21 2010) issue of The Week Magazine ( www.the-week.com ) See the  Business story: A sound shift.