In theory, that's how it works.
Gotta keep in mind though that Bose has for many years had a strong marketing presence based on gimmicks and fuzzy physics. There's always an element of truth in what they put out in the world, but my impression of their products has been that their real claim to fame is presenting sound in a way that people aren't used to hearing it before. Music through some of Bose's systems sounds "enhanced", not necessarily because it's better or because it's more truthful to what the mastering
producer intended, but because the EQ and phasing accentuates the music differently than the listening experience people are used to. It is easy for someone in a shopping mall at one of Bose's storefronts to mistake "different" for "better".
The physics behind column speakers is pretty well established though. A scientifically ideal
line array attenuates at 3dB per doubling of distance, where a
point source cabinet attenuates at 6dB. But in practice they just aren't rock and
roll systems, and since nothing is ever perfect your "line-ish" source is going to
attenuate more at 4.5dB per doubling of distance. Also worth pointing out that this
pattern control is a function of the length of the
array at a given frequency up to a certain distance. A longer
array has better
pattern control down to lower frequencies.
So a 5'
line source only controls 1000 Hz to that 3-4.5dB/doubling up to 35' away. At 35', that
line effect has dissipated and the
speaker performs just as well as a
point source cabinet would. At 500 Hz, this happens at 17'.
Don't get me wrong -- I've used higher end steerable column speakers in churches and a few theaters to great success, but that's a very controlled environment, primarily with speech or dynamically soft music, and the relationship between the location and size of the audience doesn't ever change.
If in doubt though, read some of
the rather bland reviews over at PSW.
It's also suspicious that if you look at Bose's website, it's rather lacking in performance information. If you dig deep enough though, you can find some info at Full
Compass' website, like the remarkable physics-defying claim of [Nominal Dispersion: 195° H x 0° V].