Moment hands on in Vegas

Bang and Olufsen press event at CES Las Vegas.

Since most of the information around the Moment already is available on the Internet I will focus more on the handson experience and the event as such.

The press event was held in a nicely dressed function room at the Venetian hotel.

The CES event is spread in multiple venues all over Las Vegas.

The setup included three Avant, 55, 85 and the new 75 inch version.

The Avant 75 is now launched. You can see the prices below.

The Avant has been awarded an innovation award at the CES event.

The Moment was introduced as an "ultra-domesticated cloud music system"

The wood side is used for simple hands on operation. To use wood is bold in my mind, but I think the design will grow on you like the lamellas on the Beolab 18. It is certainly quite different but looks nice. It was mentioned that a lot of work has been put into selecting the right parts of the tree that should withstand environmental conditions from the Nordics to Asia.

Hands on operation:

Touch inside the circle to start up music. The music that is played is what you normally play that time of day. The Moment looks both in your music library and in the songs you marked as favorites from e.g Deezer. It would take 2-3 weeks usage for the Moment to learn from your usage, so that you actually feel that what the Moment select is what you would like to hear at that time of day.

B&O call that "pattern play".

Swipe up to mark a song as favorite.

Swipe left or right inside the circle to jump back or forward in the playlist.

When you turn the tablet you get access to a screen. The aluminum ring has exactly the function as mentioned above.

The screen is intended for e.g search in your library, access radio services and Deezer. User interface is sleek and responsive, and in my mind easier to understand than Beosound 5.

(Not my picture)

The finish is very nice. There is aluminum all around. Brushed in the finish we all know and love.

The base is heavy and will stand well on any sideboard. Connections include Phono in, power link out and Ethernet. There is a lid on the backside covering the connections. If the lid is removed, the tablet show the settings. Very Bang & Olufsen I would say. :)

Mid this year multi room functionality will be added by a sw upgrade. The demo included an Essence on one end of the room. When music was played on the Moment, you just had to press on the Essence button, to get the same music in that room. Also e.g A9 will be part of the multi room solution and that was also part of the demo.

The "goodie bag" included USB with all info shown (have not had time to look at it) a nice notepad and a pen.

Will later post separately my impressions of the new H8 headphones that was also shown.

Some more pics from the presentation:

Who were the presenters of the products?  Not Tue or B&O America product manager?

expoman:

Who were the presenters of the products? Not Tue or B&O America product manager?

The woman appears in the other Moment thread demonstrating for maybe 5 minutes in Danish - which is semi-intelligible on account of technical phrases in English

Thanks a lot Hiort for all these details !

Great report.

.

Thanks Hiort - and enjoy your 'goodies'.

MM

Thanks Hiort.  Great pictures and information.  I couldn't find much on the net about the connections, nor the multi room, so thank you very much :-) 

Thanks for the review and nice to know that it will work with the Essence in the future.

Enjoy your time in Las Vegas

can't wait for your review on the headphones

nice work

 

Any news regarding if it will be possible to control the BS Moment (and the linked products A9/Essense) from the Beolink app if you have a BLGW?

Yeah thanks Hiort, good report.

With the alu face it looks nice.

Here are some specs I got on the USB.

Had to take photos from my laptop screen since I'm currently only online with my iPhone but will post the complete PDFs when I can.

Same design studio as Essence: http://www.frackenpohl-poulheim.de

1280*800...

insanely bad for anything that costs above $200. 

ilPadrino:

1280*800...

insanely bad for anything that costs above $200.

Looked very good on the 7 inch screen.

No Digital inputs? That's a pity

jans:

No Digital inputs? That's a pity

And no digital output.

WiSA is a digital output

Maybe we will find Wisa>Digital coax conversion boxes in the future...

mbee:

WiSA is a digital output

Maybe we will find Wisa>Digital coax conversion boxes in the future...

diisign.com

Ok, but actually it's wireless.

Some people might connect the Moment directly to Beolab 5 or to S/PDIF at a Beovision.

Yeah, more boxes and converters... That's what we need.

Doesn't make sense how to connect it to B&O's flagship speakers. Surely adding a SPDIF out wouldn't have been too complicated? 

Thanks Hiort.  Impressive work!

Bill

Aha! Finally ALAC! Apple Lossless Audio Codec! :-) All my CD's have been ripped in ALAC :-)

I have to say, I'm impressed by the Moment. The colored touch wheel for letting it select music is the most radical and innovative thing I've seen in audio since the introduction of MOTS/Genius by B&O/Apple. I've really enjoyed what Genius selects in my iTunes setup, expanding this to the huge collection of Deezer and adding the ability to select by mood and whether you want more of what you know or more of what you don't, is to me very interesting. In a way this brings back what I miss from the old days of FM album rock and such. Back then you could select a station that played a certain kind of music and expect a wide variety of songs in addition to the favorites of the day, the stations tried to differentiate themselves and grab your attention. Something that's gone by the wayside in the days of overly commercialized stations all owned by the same company.

The two things I really enjoy about my current setup are the Genius functions, and Spotify's ability to over time, using the thumbs up and down button, tailor various radio stations to my tastes. I think the Moment appears to do this on steroids. Time will tell if the implementation is good, but honestly this is the first thing other than speakers and headphones that's made me think "I want this" from B&O for a while now.

Replacing all my Master Link setup with Essences would be price prohibitive, but I have to say the idea of the Essence control tied to a Moment to touch and control music in each room is a worthy successor to Masterlink if that is indeed the way B&O goes in the future.

The H8 looks wonderful too, and the improvements to the A9 and Beolit 15 seem to be well thought out as well. This is a fast changing market, for about the first time in a long time it appears B&O is actually ahead of the market with the Moment and wireless speakers. Hopefully it's not too late.

Thanks to "our reporter" in Las Vegas

[ √ ] FLAC ... for those who were asking after it

[ x ] Beo 4 ... end of an era

Nevermind.

Super. It can be controlled by the Essence remote!

Jeff:

I have to say, I'm impressed by the Moment.

Jeff:

The H8 looks wonderful too,

I've said elsewhere, I really like the interface, I think the hardware design is very questionable.

I also think the H8's could be killers!

elephant:

[ x ] Beo 4 ... end of an era

If it can be controlled by a BeoRemote One, why shouldn't it be possible to use a Beo4 as well (at least for basic functions)?

i guess that will have to be confirmed or denied, before you send the Beo4 in the EOL.

MM

Millemissen:

If it can be controlled by a BeoRemote One, why shouldn't it be possible to use a Beo4 as well (at least for basic functions)?

i guess that will have to be confirmed or denied, before you send the Beo4 in the EOL.

MM

I'm sure beo4 should work.

Probably not mentioned because it's not sold anymore.

Millemissen:

If it can be controlled by a BeoRemote One, why shouldn't it be possible to use a Beo4 as well (at least for basic functions)?

i guess that will have to be confirmed or denied, before you send the Beo4 in the EOL.

MM

There is a tv - and there is a BV.

You may be right, dear MM.

But how to use BR One with the Moment? As far as I know the Moment is not available in source list of BR One. Can BR One be updated, and if so how??

Regards

Räuber

Raeuber:

You may be right, dear MM.

But how to use BR One with the Moment? As far as I know the Moment is not available in source list of BR One. Can BR One be updated, and if so how??

Regards

Räuber

Hmmm. There are a lot of Beosounds in the BR1 Settings Products Show option. Maybe one of those?

Hiort:

Millemissen:

 

If it can be controlled by a BeoRemote One, why shouldn't it be possible to use a Beo4 as well (at least for basic functions)?

 

i guess that will have to be confirmed or denied, before you send the Beo4 in the EOL.

 

MM

 

 

 

I'm sure beo4 should work.

 

Probably not mentioned because it's not sold anymore.

...but the Beoremote One isn't for sale either!

 

Jonathan:

Hiort:

Millemissen:

 

If it can be controlled by a BeoRemote One, why shouldn't it be possible to use a Beo4 as well (at least for basic functions)?

 

i guess that will have to be confirmed or denied, before you send the Beo4 in the EOL.

 

MM

 

 

 

I'm sure beo4 should work.

 

Probably not mentioned because it's not sold anymore.

...but the Beoremote One isn't for sale either!

 

Maybe it's included for the first 10.000 customers (wishful thinking). You can buy the BeoRemote 1 at March 2015 if I remember my dealer's info correctly.

 

The Moment is it's own remote.

But if we want to control it via a NL-tv a BeoRemote One/Beo4 surely will be usefull.

MM

Millemissen:

The Moment is it's own remote.

MM

There is a tv - and there is a BV.

Yes but if the woman in red has wandered off into another room with it I would like to mute her Italian boyfriends !

I am not sure if there is a remote for that - try with your fist 👊

MM