Bose today announced a trio of smart speaker products in their new music and home theater line, a new wireless speaker the Bose Home Speaker 500 and two soundbar products the Bose Soundbar 700 and Soundbar 500. All are powered by Amazons Alexa voice assistant with other voice assistant technology to follow. Apple's Airplay2 will have functional streaming to the new Bose speakers from early 2019.
Bose Home Speaker 500 - A new smart speaker from Bose with Alexa technology
“All of our new smart speakers double up on functionality. It takes just one Home Speaker 500 to deliver true stereo separation — there’s no need to pair two. Our Soundbar 700 and 500 are thin and discreet with jaw-dropping surround sound — whether you’re streaming Spotify or watching a movie. They combine Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for unbeatable ease of use, can be mixed and matched to play in sync or separately, and with new Alexa functionality and more VPAs on the way, they’ll only get better over time”
These new Wifi enabled speakers from Bose feature many of the same features as industry competitors like the HomePod from Apple and Sonos One speaker. They can stream music, sync for multi room audio and receive and complete voice commands. The Apple Home Speakers and Sound Bars also feature Bluetooth, so you can stream to them directly from your phone or computer.
The new Bose app will enable you to select music on the fly from your iPhone, Android device or Tablet.
Bose Home Speaker 500 in Black - The new speaker from Bose can be used for multi room audio
The Bose Home Speaker allows you to Play. Pause. Shuffle. Or skip to your favorite song, album or artist. Access to all of your favourite music is on the tip of your tongue and with Alexa built in, you have access to things like weather reports and news headlines, too.
Boses Full Colour Display
The Bose Home Speaker 500 also features a first in the industry in that it includes a full colour display. The LCD display shows information about the content currently playing on the speaker, including album art, track name, artist name, music service information, radio station name, and location, etc. There is an optional clock setting available in the Bose Music app, which displays the time when the speaker is in standby mode. The display also shows setup and diagnostic information. It does not play video content and is not a touch screen. It will automatically dim based on the brightness of the room, and will turn off if content is not playing.
“Voice-controlled speakers aren’t new, and there are plenty of great options to choose from. But we had a different vision for ours, inspired by what we could uniquely do to make the experience better”
The two Soundbars will also feature Alexa voice technology but no colour display. They feature HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) and can be combined with wireless rear speakers and a subwoofer for full 5.1 surround sound.
The new speaker range will be available from October 2019.