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Bose VideoWave

The Bose VideoWave is a TV with a built-in sound-bar that places the emphasis on convincing, quality surround sound and deep, subwoofer-like bass.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury
2 min read

Bose is a company whose reputation for hi-fi precedes it, but it is probably not the first brand you'd think of if you're looking to buy an entire home theatre system. The company hopes to change this with its brand new VideoWave television system.

While companies such as Bang and Olufsen flirt with hi-fi in their television products, the VideoWave is the first product that we can think of that's a sound system with a TV attached, and not the other way around.

The VideoWave is essentially a sound-bar in a TV, with a large flow port snaking around inside for subwoofer-like bass. The system uses three separate systems inside the TV to simulate a full 5.1 speaker package. Across the top of the unit, and designed to bounce off a rear wall, is a set of five woofers subbing for left, right and centre channels, while out of each side pokes a kind of "tweeter cannon". Two tube-feed speakers fire high-frequency sounds out from the TV and actually sound from the first surface they hit. Driving the "sub" is a set of six push/pull drivers that feed the bass through the innards of the TV in a certain way as not to make the cabinet vibrate.

The TV itself is a 46-inch LCD lit with a CCFL backlight, but Bose is understandably coy about its origins. From a brief hands-on with the unit, though, we were unable to find the setup controls for the TV and their absence would not please videophiles.

The TV also ships with a Bose click-pad, which is a universal remote with a touch-sensitive pad for scrolling through menus that appear around the edge of your TV. Bose says that it has an extensive code database, and setting up your equipment looks quite simple.

The Bose VideoWave will be available 1 June 2011 for AU$7999 from Bose stores.