Written by Christian Milsom on Monday, November 24th, 2008 in News.
Section: Audio, Speakers, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle
This is one of those concepts/ideas/products that would work great in the perfect world and if people used it right, would be really cool. However this is the real world, and despite the undoubted merit in the idea behind this concept, I’m not sure it would work in the “real” world. Nevertheless I may be wrong and we may soon see these adorning streets everywhere: I am willing to be proven wrong. But what is it? This is the Boombench and it is pretty much what it sounds like.
Pretend for a second that you haven’t just looked at the picture, and imaging a modern, sleek minimalistic bench combined with a 80s/90s. Now open your eyes and see the epitome of minimalistic-cum-retro design: the aforementioned Boombench.
The idea is that you will link up to the bench, which will be just on the street, through Bluetooth on your phone and play your music through the substantial speakers. They are twin 60-watt co-axial speakers with two subwoofers built into the seat which makes it vibrate while it’s playing—all of which was demonstrated at the Urban Play event in Amsterdam. I think this is a great idea and concept, allowing people to share music, liven up areas, create a community space, increase musical diversity and awareness and togetherness.
Despite how good this idea is in principle, it won’t work and I think an analogy is needed. I think it will just end up being like a dictatorship: it will work as long as you’re in charge. The problem is people don’t like the same music, so conflicts will arise over what is played. Also, it will be dominated by the younger generation for two reasons: firstly, more of them have phones and also they are more likely to “claim” the bench and not let anyone else use it. This will result in a larger and noisier version of kids on street corners with loud music on phones. I can also imagine many people having complaints about noise pollution, and realistically how long will they be there before someone steals them? Not long.
Unfortunately, I think this is something that will only work in principle, but nonetheless it is a good idea. It can go down along with millions of other things that are designed to improve a society, but will only work if society is already perfect. However, there is still hope for the Boombench as I can see this being made into a viable commercial product.
Source [WooHome]
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