Altec Lansing
2015 logo
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|
| Private | |
| Industry | Audio electronics |
| Founded | 1936 |
| Headquarters | 1407 Broadway, New York City, United States |
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Key people
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Ike S. Franco (Chairman) |
| Products | Consumer loudspeakers, headphones, in-ear monitors |
| Owners | Infinity Lifestyle Brands |
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Number of employees
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1000–1500 |
| Website | www.alteclansing.com |
Altec Lansing is an American audio electronics company founded in 1936. Their primary products are loudspeakers and associated audio electronics for professional, home, automotive and multimedia applications.
Engineers at Western Electric, who later formed Altec Services Company, developed the technology for motion picture sound that was introduced in 1927 with the release of "The Jazz Singer". Originally, Altec Services Company serviced the theater sound systems the company founders had helped develop. In 1941 the Altec Services Company purchased the nearly bankrupt Lansing Manufacturing Company and melded the two names, forming the Altec Lansing Corporation, and with the manufacturing capabilities of the former Lansing Manufacturing Company, they quickly expanded into manufacturing horn loudspeakers.
In 1958 the Altec brand was bought by James Ling. By 1974, the company was saddled with debt. In 1984, Gulton Industries purchased the brand out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Since then, there has been a string of owners, purchased in 1995 by Telex Communications, 2000 by Sparkomatic, 2005 by Plantronics, 2009 by Prophet Equity, owned since 2012 by the Infinity Group, a company which acquires struggling consumer brands.
Popular loudspeakers include the Altec Lansing Duplex 600-series coaxial loudspeaker, studio monitors from the 1940s to the 1980s, and the Altec "Voice of the Theatre" line of loudspeakers widely used in movie theaters, concert halls, and also in rock concerts from the 1960s to the 1990s, such as custom designs used at .
In 1930, AT&T's Western Electric established a division to install and service loudspeakers and electronic products for motion picture use. Named Electrical Research Products, Inc. and commonly referred to by the acronym ERPI, it was the target of an anti-trust suit brought by Stanley K. Oldden. By 1936, Western Electric had shed its audio equipment manufacturing and sales division, bought by International Projector and Motiograph, and was looking to dissolve the associated service division. ERPI was purchased as part of a consent decree in 1937 by a group of ERPI executives, including George Carrington, Sr., Leon Whitney "Mike" Conrow, Bert Sanford, Jr., and Alvis A. Ward, with funding from three Wall Street investors. They reincorporated as "Altec Service Company", the "Altec" standing for "all technical". Company executives promised they would never make or sell audio equipment.
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Wikipedia