Bang & Olufsen – B&O – Beolink 7000 Remote Controller

DESCRIPTION

Manufactured: 1992 – 1995
Designer: David Lewis
Colours: Stainless Steel and Black Glass

Beolink 7000, designed by David Lewis was, undoubtedly, one of the most beautiful and advanced remote control units ever made. Its completely new, radical design, with hardened glass and anodised aluminium surfaces enclosing sensi-touch panels and display menus, provided a unique interactive dialogue between the user and Bang & Olufsen’s audio and video systems.

The interactive nature of Beolink 7000 came into play as soon as you chose a function. Prompts or questions appeared on the screen to gently guide you through every stage of an operation. Beolink 7000 needed just a gentle touch of your hand to light up and literally, rise towards you, confirming its status as the world’s most advanced control unit. A simple touch on the electronically-sensitive metal front ‘woke up’ the unit and awaited your instructions.

Beolink 7000’s two-way infra-red data transfer capability could be used with every one of the latest (1991) audio and video systems. Its display panel provided two main areas of information. The top section provided data about the products and their functions. It told you which source was playing and offered the menu of functions for you to choose from. The lower section, with its combination of sensi-touch panels and displays allowed you to activate your chosen functions.

Beolink 7000 on its purpose-built wall stand incorporating mains charger to ensure that it was ready for operation at all times

A series of visual prompts guided the user through every stage of the operation with Beolink 7000 finally giving visual confirmation that your instructions had been carried out. Battery-operated for total freedom of use anywhere in the house, Beolink 7000 came with a stylish table-top recharging unit. And of course, being Bang & Olufsen, the terminal could be operated even when it was being recharged. As an alternative, Beolink 7000 could be placed high up on its purpose-designed stand next to your own armchair. The stand was adjustable for height and placed the unit at an angle slightly away from the vertical for optimum ease of operation.

This tall stand also contained a recharging unit to ensure that Beolink 7000 was fully operational at all times.

Beolink 7000 was the ideal terminal for anyone who had, or planned to have, Bang & Olufsen audio video systems linked to different rooms in the house through the Beolink® round-the-house system.

Features: Beolink 7000 was the ultimate in remote control units, its interactive nature making it ideally suited for the more complex operations of Bang & Olufsen’s systems of the early 1990’s, particularly when both audio and video systems were installed. Beosystem 6500 was designed for infra-red operation and only the Beolink 7000 terminal could operate all of its functions. Beolink 7000 was also recommended for rooms equipped with link systems. Additional speakers and an extra TV set extended the use and control of all available Bang & Olufsen sources to any room in the house. By working as part of a local Control System in a secondary room, Beolink 7000 extended the use and control of all available audio, video and light control sources. It could be attached to the wall-mounted unit where it gave a constant display and automatically recharged the terminal even when in use.

Other infra-red remote controls at the time that Beolink 7000 was available were the Beolink 1000 and Beolink 5000 terminals. The later versions of Beolink 7000 were fitted with RDS display as standard (see model Types below) which allowed you to view details of the radio channel to which you were listening. This however, would only function correctly when used with Beomaster 7000.