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Altec Lansing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Altec Lansing Technologies, Inc. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Private (subsidiary of Plantronics since 2005) |
| Founded | 1930s, as All Technical Products Company |
| Headquarters | Milford, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Key people | Bob Garthwaite, CEO |
| Industry | Computer peripherals |
| Products | Speakers and speaker systems, headphones, headsets, mixer, signal processing equipments |
| Revenue |  $175 million USD (2003) |
| Employees | 1,500 |
| Website | www.alteclansing.com |
Altec Lansing Technologies, Inc. is a manufacturer and marketer of computer and home entertainment sound systems, headphones, and microphones for personal digital media.
Some of its famous lines are the "Voice of the Theater", a line of speakers created in 1947, and "inMotion", a line of portable speakers designed for the Apple iPod.
It supplies many computer makers such as Dell, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and Gateway.
Contents |
From ERPI
to All Technical Services Company
to Altec Lansing
In 1928, AT&T's Western Electric division, pioneer in providing audio equipment for the then rising motion picture industry (these were the years of The Jazz Singer) founded a dedicated research center called "ERPI" (Electrical Research Products, Inc.). In 1936, the All Technical Service Company was purchased by the executives who ran ERPI, most notably George Carrington and Mike Conrow. In 1941 they acquired the nearly bankrupt Lansing Manufacturing Company (named after its head James B. Lansing) and melded the two names (All Tech & Lansing) into the Altec Lansing Corporation on May 1, 1941. The first Altec Lansing power amplifier, Model 142B, was born in the same year.
Altec produced a celebrated line of audio equipment, especially loudspeaker systems. At first aimed at motion picture theatres, these products were noted for fidelity, extremely high efficiency and high sound level capability. Well remembered products include "biflex" speakers where frequency range was increased by a flexible "decoupling" of a small center area of a speaker's cone from a larger "woofer" area; the 604-series of coaxial speakers that employed a high efficiency horn the throat of which passed through the center of the woofer's cone (still being built today by Great Plains Audio in Oklahoma City on the original Altec tooling); and the large Voice of the Theatre systems. The smallest of these, the A-7, used a large metal horn for high frequencies which featured "sectoral" dividers to provide wider sound dispersion plus a large wooden woofer cabinet with a short horn in front of the woofer and a reflex box behind. The high efficiency of all of these products was originally needed to provide high sound levels from the limited amplifier power available at the time, but it was also found to contribute to overall sound fidelity.
These early products were revised and enhanced over time with the addition of rubberized speaker surrounds and other modern features. Altec speakers remained standard professional equipment well into the 70's with 604E's being common recording studio monitors and A7's standard loudspeakers for high volume rock concert venues.
In 1984, Sparkomatic corporation of Milford, Pennsylvania purchased the rights to the Altec Lansing brand for consumer products such as automotive and home speakers. The rights for the Altec Lansing Professional brand remained in the ownership of Mark IV audio. In the 1990s Sparkomatic changed its focus to computer audio under the brand Altec Lansing Multimedia. As of the 2000s, Altec Lansing has held top spot in PC audio market share for more than a decade.
In 1996 Altec Lansing Multimedia established an R&D center in Kfar Saba, Israel. The center focuses on advanced multimedia technologies such as USB audio, surround sound and wireless audio. The center was closed in 2001 and the development activities moved to the Milford PA headquarters.
In 1997 Mark IV audio was renamed to EVI and later in 1998 merged with the Telex corporation.
The original Altec line Voice of the theater consisted of the Altec A-1,A-2,A-4,A-5. The A-7,and A-8 were designed for smaller venues. Altec Lancing is also related to J.B.L. speaker systems.
In 2000 the Altec Lansing Professional division was closed by the Telex corporation and Altec Lansing Technologies (formerly Sparkomatic), purchased the rights to the following trademarks:
- Altec
- Lansing
- Altec Lansing
- Voice of the Theatre
- Voice of the Highway
- Duplex
The actual company called Altec Lansing was never sold by Telex/EVI.
The Altec Lansing Professional line was relaunched 2002 by former executives of the old Oklahoma City-based Altec Lansing Corporation, but it did not fare well. Reduced to a supplier of off-shore built high-fidelity ceiling speakers and associated electronics, Altec Lansing Professional's Oklahoma City offices were closed in late 2006 and all remaining activities relocated to the Milford, Pennsylvania headquarters.
On July 11, 2005, Altec Lansing announced that it was to become acquired by Plantronics for approximately $166 million dollars.[1]
Altec Lansing currently sells a model of headphones under the inMotion branding that was created in partnership with Etymotic Research to be much like the ER-4 series headphones. The inMotion 716 and 616 look and perform much like their Etymotic cousins but are marketed towards the average listener looking to replace their free bundled portable earbuds. The eartips used are the same style as the ER-4 and ER-6 series with some minor adjustments to fit the iM716/616 such as color. There has been much debate among audiophiles as to if the iM716 is actually just an ER-4 in disguise. This is not true, although the iM716 does contain some Etymotic made parts.
- ^ Plantronics to Acquire Altec Lansing, press release