Here's an unusual way to sell a consumer audio product: Stick a microphone inside an active beehive.
In this three-minute (headphones recommended) ad for Bowers & Wilkins, sound recordist Sam Nightingale captures audio of bees at work, and then plays it back to them through the brand's T7 Bluetooth speaker, which features a honeycomb trim, to see how they respond.
Since bees communicate through sound and movement, the video suggests, this is a pretty good test of the speaker's overall fidelity.
The first in a series of "field experiments" from Bowers and Wilkins, it's beautifully shot—filmed by production company Shuffle Media at Stone Corner Farm, in Kent England. It's also pretty nicely told, barring the inclusion of an Einstein quote that's apocryphal at best.
And while the trick seems to work on the insects, it's hard not to wonder if talking to—and about—bees is the best way to sell a speaker to humans.
