Interview with Michael Laude

Michael Laude is Director of Design for Bose Corporation. He has over 30 years of experience working for corporate and consulting product design offices. The Bose design team under his management was selected “red dot: design team of the year 2008” due to its constantly outstanding design achievements. Michael Laude is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and the Design Management Institute.

What innovative technologies is the Lifestyle V30 Home
Entertainment System based on?
Michael Laude: ADAPTiQ audio calibration system, a proprietary Bose innovation that analyses and automatically adjusts the system’s sound to a user’s particular room, speaker location, furniture placement, even listener location so that the Lifestyle V-Class system delivers superb performance. Videostage 5 decoding circuitry provides a surround sound experience even from stereo and mono formats such as videotapes, stereo CDs, or older TV programmes. Advanced post-processing techniques automatically deliver a clear on-screen image and balanced surround sound, similar to that of a 5.1-encoded DVD. Bose link expansion protocol can extend the music benefits of each V-Class system to 14 additional rooms. With Bose link, a film can be screened in the main room while music fills the kitchen or even plays outdoors with the addition of a variety of Bose-link multi room expansion options. Automatic video up-scaling ensures that, independent of the incoming signal, the video output utilises the highest resolution capabilities of the video screen – up to 1080p over HDMI. The V30 also includes five award-winning Jewel Cube speaker arrays, which deliver performance rivalling many larger speakers.

How did you incorporate these technologies into the design?
Michael Laude: Many of these Bose technologies were built into the Lifestyle V30 and are invisible to the user. The goal was to provide a system that integrated easily with high-definition televisions and components, provided high-quality audio and video, and allowed users to get the most out of their system with less equipment and fewer cables.

What criteria played a particularly important role in the choice of materials?
Michael Laude: Since the V30 is a member of the Lifestyle product line, the media centre, display, and remote control use aluminium accents for a visually cohesive design and quality of touch. To effectively dissipate heat generated by the audio and video processing circuits, the media centre uses steel and magnesium structural components for strength, dimensional stability, and thermal conduction.

In your opinion, what economic significance does design have against a background of globalised markets and ever-fiercer international competition?
Michael Laude: At Bose, we apply our proprietary technologies to differentiate our products through their performance, and we invest in our design so it presents and accentuates the unique capabilities of our technologies. We believe that a well-designed product plays a significant role in how we delight our customers. This is unwavering and reflects the founding principles of our company.