Danish premium audio brand Bang & Olufsen and Chinese TV and electronics manufacturer TCL Electronics have just announced a long-term partnership to bring “Audio by Bang & Olufsen” to TCL’s portfolio of premium and high-end TVs. The products will be distributed globally through TCL’s sales channels. The licensing agreement spans six years and begins this month (July, 2024).
The first product, the TCL A300 Pro NXTFRAME TV, was announced in China yesterday and is expected to begin shipping by the end of this month in China. The new TV will have a soundbar and subwoofer co-engineered by Bang & Olufsen and TCL’s acoustic design teams. In addition to Bang & Olufsen’s audio tuning and sound design, the new product will also feature BeoSonic. BeoSonic is Bang & Olufsen’s proprietary digital interface, which allows customers to customize and refine their sound experience.
Kristian Teär, CEO of Bang & Olufsen, had this to say about the agreement: “This is a partnership with great global potential for both brands. We’ll collaborate to bring premium sound experiences to TCL’s customers and enhance the overall product experience. At the same time, this is further proof of our commitment to expanding our licensing partnerships business in line with our strategy and as stated in our medium-term financial ambitions.”
Apparently TCL is equally enthusiastic about the deal. Mr. Zhang Shaoyong, Senior Vice President of TCL Industries and CEO of TCL Electronics, adds: “We are excited to announce the A300 Pro NXTFRAME TV. We want to continue to elevate the customer experience, and partnering with the globally recognized audio experts from Bang & Olufsen will bring incredible sound to our TCL audio-visual portfolio.”
B&O isn’t the first premium audio brand to partner with a display maker. Bowers and Wilkins partnered up with Philips for premium sound on their OLED TVs in Europe and with ForMovie to embed a B&W sound system into the ForMovie Theater UST projector. This partnership earned the ForMovie Theater the award for best sounding UST projector in our testing. TCL also currently collaborates with Onkyo for sound in its premium QM851G QLED miniLED TV, which we’re currently testing.
The Bottom Line
This partnership should be a win for both companies as TCL gains the premium audio brand recognition of B&O while B&O gains massive visibility from being included in products made by the number two global provider of televisions. From what we’ve seen at TCL events and in TCL’s TVs over the last couple of years, audio is becoming more of a priority for the brand and this can only help improve the quality of their TV speakers, soundbars and sound systems.
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ORT
July 19, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Bang & Olufsen – Putting the weird in your home for longer than I care to think about. Time to find and re-hang those Leroy Neiman Burger King Summer Olympics posters!
ORT
Chris Boylan
July 19, 2024 at 6:42 pm
LOL. B&O does make some pretty bold design choices. I was a little surprised by the announcement because the TCL QM85 TV we have in for testing right now already has an Onkyo branded sound system, so I wonder if that partnership is going away?