Technology

Dedicated Centre Channel

The human ear is very sensitive to speech and the spoken word, and through a home theatre system this information is all sent through the centre channel. With Panorama, we have built in a dedicated centre channel so that you can experience the full engaging nature of movie dialogue.Utilising traditional B&W technologies such as a 1in aluminium domed Nautilus™ tapered tube tweeter, 1st order filter technology and two woven glass fibre midrange units, Panorama takes the dedicated signal from a 5.1 data stream and reproduces it exactly as it should be – pure and as the director intended.

Built-in Subwoofer

Panorama is a complete soundbar in every way. That means there is no need for an external subwoofer thanks to the clever use of materials, technology and over four decades of engineering know-how. To generate the powerful bass needed for movie effects, Panorama’s twin internal subwoofers are driven actively by a dedicated 50W amplifier. Designed to act like pistons, the cones are capable of extending bass levels to 40Hz and below. Flowports™ help reduce air turbulence noises caused by the air velocity in the ports generated by bass units. Panorama’s flowports are longer than is usually possible for a speaker of this limited volume; this allows for the remarkably low frequency bass tuning.

Drive Unit Technology

When designing Panorama, our years of world leading drive unit research was invaluable, as we battled to make what is a very visually discreet speaker sound as big as we could.Panorama’s tweeter is a 1 in aluminium dome connected to a Nautilus tapered tube. This acts like an acoustic black hole, swallowing superfluous sound from behind the dome making sure that all you hear is the purist high frequencies.The six midrange drive units that supply the bulk of Panorama’s amazing sound rely on glass fibre cones, optimised using laser interferometry. These dramatically reduce the unwanted effects of standing waves, leaving music and movies sounding clean, clear and true to life.

Cabinet construction

The cabinet of any loudspeaker needs to be as stiff as possible. This is so that what you hear is the sound produced by the drive units themselves, and not vibrations or distortions from an inferior cabinet. Having developed the use of metal cabinets for our audiophile speakers, we knew that we couldn’t go wrong using this material again. Knowing the stresses and strains that the Panorama cabinet was going to be under, we have strengthened it further with a glass loaded ABS compound that is both stiff and light. The result? A speaker where you only hear the drive units, and not the cabinet that houses them.

Electronics

So how do you get a full surround experience from a single speaker? Take the above technologies and combine them with clever DSP (Digital Signal Processing) circuits.   Developed by B&W to adjust the sound balance and manipulate the signals to create the impression of a fully immersive surround experience, Panorama will fill any room and works well in both small and large environments.