BEOLAB 4000 (1997) IF 98, Good Design 98Like a fish in the ocean
Vesica Piscis is the Latin term for "the body of a fish". It is also used to describe the area emerging, when to equally big circles overlap each other. A geometrical figure which reminds you of the shape of a fish. It also became the shape of BeoLab 4000, because this shape solves the problem of conducting away the heat from an active shelf loudspeaker. The background was an unsuccessful attempt to make a shelf loudspeaker based on Bang & Olufsen's Active Loudspeaker technology.
This loudspeaker had the shape of a box, and in worst case only one out of six sides were free to conduct the heat away, the rest being wrapped up in books. This was far from enough and the idea had to be abandoned. But it turned out to be the starting signal to an intense team work which resulted in a new proposal, where the shape of the loudspeaker solved the heating problem.
The Vesica Piscis shape - as a loudspeaker cabinet - does not have six sides like a box. It only has four. The two sides are concave, so it cannot be enclosed by books. The back is one big heat sink, and even the front conducts heat away. Already the fundamental idea, determining the shape of BeoLab 4000, solves the problem of placing Active Loudspeakers on a shelving system, between books.
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