Plantronics

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Plantronics Corporation

Type	Public (NYSE: PLT)
Founded	1962
Headquarters	Santa Cruz, California
Key people	Kenneth Kannappan (CEO)
Industry	Consumer electronics
Products	Headphones (Circumaural), Audio equipment
Employees	over 4500 in 19 countries
Slogan	Sound Innovation
Website	www.plantronics.com

Plantronics is a hardware company based in Santa Cruz, California, that specializes in lightweight headsets and is the market leader worldwide[1].

1 History
- 1.1 Incorporation
- 1.2 Corporate expansion and acquisitions
2 Trivia
3 References

[edit] History

[edit] Incorporation

The company was incorporated as Pacific Plantronics on May 18, 1961. It introduced the first lightweight communications headset in 1962.

[edit] Corporate expansion and acquisitions

In the 1980s, Plantronics expanded into other segments of the audio equipment market through carefully targeted acquisitions.

[edit] Clarity

Plantronics acquired Walker Equipment, a maker of amplified handsets and amplified telephones, in 1986. Walker later acquired Ameriphone in 2002, and became Walker Ameriphone before changing its name to Clarity; Clarity is now US leading supplier of amplified telephones and is the first company in the world to utilize digital signal processing for audio processing in an amplified telephone [2].

[edit] Altec Lansing

In 2005, Plantronics acquired computer speaker manufacturer Altec Lansing for approximately 166 million dollars. [3]

[edit] Volume Logic

Plantronics later acquired Octiv, Inc. in March 2005 as one of its brands and renamed it as the Volume Logic division. Volume Logic provides audio enhancement software and products to consumers, audio professionals, and businesses. They specialize in giving professionals an audio contouring toolset for crafting 5.1 surround sound soundtracks. Volume Logic has also adapted its products to telephony to improve the sound quality of conference and personal phone calls.

Volume Logic plug-in—a plug-in for consumer media players which levels volume between playlist tracks while improving overall sound quality. Technology incorporated includes multi-band dynamics processing, and real-time spectral balancing. Version 1.3 incorporates new presets as well as the Plantronics branding.
ProTools platform / broadcast HDTV programming,—This product allows audio-editing professionals to gain control for 5.1 channel surround sound.
OctiVox Clear Call line leveler—This product provides automatic incoming call volume normalization for conference calls and other critical personal communication.

[edit] Trivia

Plantronics supplied the headsets used by NASA, including those worn by Neil Armstrong and other astronauts during the Apollo Program moon missions of 1968 - 1972. The MS50-series headsets worn in Mission Control and the Apollo spacecraft are still popular today among aviators and professional communicators.