Beoremote Halo

For just about any product that’s been around for a while, there grows a certain consensus as to how this type of product should appear. What it should look like, how it should feel in your hands and so on. The shape is often guided by function and technological limitations, but pure tradition also plays a part.

In our studio, we always try to question these dogmas. Because what if we do this, instead of that? Why go down the usual way, when we can try this one instead? We believe that investigating these questions is essential to real innovation. For the benefit of the product and its user – but certainly also for the brand that takes a brave product to market. So, when Bang & Olufsen asked us to design a new remote control, we knew that this was a perfect opportunity to create something meaningfully different in this category.

Beoremote Halo is a remote control optimized for music. It has a built-in voice assistant, one-touch to play and fast access to your favorites. Browsing your tracks, playlists, radio stations as well as controlling different smart home features is easy. Our task was to combine all these functions in a meaningful and natural way. While also giving the user the freedom to use and place the product as he sees fit. We found the answer in geometry.

The essence of Beoremote Halo is an aluminum ring. Inside, it holds a rectangular piece of glass that functions as the control display. Normally, a rectangle wouldn’t fit and look right inside a mechanical ring like this. But by tilting its angle and removing the optical dead space, we ended up with a striking circle with a curved transverse section. Radically different, yet completely intuitive.