Meet the Sony SRS-LSR100, a TV Remote & Speaker In One

by Sohrab Osati | Oct 7, 2015 | 0 comments
Sohrab Osati

Sony_SRS_LSR100_02

Every once in a while, a product comes along that makes you scratch your head and ponder how it ever came into existence. In the case of Sony, these types of products happen to come along far too often and in many ways point to why the company faces so many challenges in the consumer electronics space.

Meet the Sony SRS-LSR100, a TV remote with a built-in speaker or perhaps a speaker with a TV remote built on top of it… because, well, Sony. Let’s talk about this crazy contraption after the jump.

Sony_SRS_LSR100_04Sony describes the SRS-LSR100 as a

 TV speaker that you can keep close at hand 

The vision for this product is that you can continue to listen to your TV and manipulate it while you’re away. Specifically, it can connect to your TV via a wireless dongle. Once connected, the SRS-LSR100 which measures at 179mm x 28mm x 71mm and weighs in about 440g can last around 16 hours before requiring a charge. Charging is a breeze, thanks to a base station (pictured below) which the TV remote/speaker can live on permanently if desired.

Sony_SRS_LSR100_08a

The remote offers a prominent volume dial along other basic buttons like volume/channel up and down and number inputs. Thanks to an audio output, the LSR100 can also help keep peace around the house late at night by allowing you to plug headphones in, which in turn can become semi wireless versus the alternative of needing to run a long audio cable across the house or needing to purchase headphones.

It’s highly unlikely that we’ll see the LSR100 expand to any other country outside of Japan. Perhaps unique and fit for the aging population of Japan (as it can be seen being referenced in the head image), the LSR100 still is a baffling products. I simply cannot imagine the market for this product justifying the cost of development as to me, even the initial idea seems absurd. Sony has been successful at offering some practical combinations of products like speakers and lightbulbs with the idea being that music can flow throughout your house in an unintrusive manor. This however seems like another ill-conceived idea that’s destined to collect dust in Sony warehouses.

The Sony SRS-LSR100 is now available in Japan for ¥19,980 ($167).

Discuss:

Do you see a market for this TV remote and speaker combo?

[Via Sony]