Plantronics
Encyclopedia
Plantronics is an electronics company producing audio communications equipment for business and consumers. Its' products provide unified communications, mobile use, gaming and music. Plantronics is a publicly traded company (NYSE: PLT) headquartered in Santa Cruz, California.
solicited new designs from anyone who was interested. Courtney Graham, a United Airline pilot, was one of the many who thought the heavy headsets should be replaced by something lighter. He collaborated with his pilot friend, Keith Larkin, to create a small, functional design which was robust enough to pass airlines standards. (Larkin had been working for a small company called Plane-Aids, a Japanese import company which offered spectacles and sunglasses that contained transistor radios in their temple pieces.) The final design, incorporating two small hearing aid
-style transducers attached to a headband was submitted to United Airline approval. UAL's approval of the innovative design caused Graham and Larkin to incorporate as Pacific Plantronics (now called Plantronics, Inc.) on May 18, 1961. They introduced the first lightweight communications headset, the MS-50, to the commercial marketplace in 1962.
In the mid 1960s, the Federal Aviation Agency selected Plantronics as the sole supplier of headsets for air traffic controllers, and thereafter was selected to supply headsets to the operators of the Bell Telephone company.
astronaut
, Wally Schirra
contacted Courtney Graham, a fellow pilot, to discuss creating a design for a small, lightweight headset to be used in the Mercury
spacecraft.
Pacific Plantronics assembled its Space Environmental Communications (SPENCOMM) division to begin working on a reliable solution. SPENCOMM personnel traveled to NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center
) and Kennedy Space Center
to meet with and get design feedback from Schirra and several other astronauts, including Gordon Cooper
.
Together, SPENCOMM and NASA spent only 11 days to create a working microphone design for space communications and Schirra was the first to use the new communication technology during the Mercury-Atlas 8
mission. Significant redundancy was built into these headsets, as each microphone circuit had two transducers and each receiver had 5 transducers—in addition, the headsets were used in pairs. The use of these SPENCOMM-NASA headsets in astronaut space suit
s continued through the remainder of the Mercury program, the Apollo
program and on to this day. The words spoken by U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong
as he stepped on the moon were transmitted through a Plantronics headset.
and many companies with major telephone call centers adapted the MS-50 as a replacement for existing headsets.
The MS-50 was known commonly as a Larkin-type headset and it could be used with either a light headband or the temple bar of an eyeglass frame as the supporting member for the transducer housing.
In addition, users found that if a longer ear tube on the MS-50, the headband could hang around the user's neck. With this discovery, it became possible to rapidly adjust the headset to any of six different positions, increasing comfort for long-term wear. The six positions are on eyeglasses to the wearer's left or right, on headband to the left or right, and around the neck to the left or right. When the longer tube is on a headset worn on the headband in the traditional location, excess tube may be coiled around the headset support pad on the appropriate side, or left free and slack.
In the 1980s, Plantronics ventured into new areas to create a line of cordless products using infrared
technology. Though the technology utilized was the same one being used by television remote control
s, it had the advantage that the link did not require an Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) telecommunications approval. One of the first products used the infrared beam to create a communications link between a small transmitter and a base unit which was connected to the telephone network. This product was the first "echo-free" speakerphone for use in conference rooms. The small transmitter could be handheld or clipped to clothing to ensure a good pickup of the speaker's voice.
as a tie-in with the videogame Halo 2
.
, a manufacturer of amplified
handsets and telephones. The Clarity products were created to enhance telephone usability for those with hearing impairment
. 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 http://www.clarityproducts.com/.
for approximately $166 million.
In recent earnings and investor calls Plantronic's management have referred to this acquisition as a "turnaround" given disappointing financial results since purchase.
soundtracks. Although the Volume Logic series of applications have since been discontinued, the underlying technology has adapted Plantronics telephony
products to improve the sound quality of conference and personal phone calls.
(UC) Gatekeeper Study which surveyed IT professionals at Fortune 1000
companies regarding UC adoption and implementation. The research found that 98 percent of Fortune 1000 companies were at least considering deploying UC. It also found that, at the time, the workforce had been split into nearly three equal types of employees: onsite employees (37 percent), road warrior (computing)
(34 percent), and telecommuters (29 percent).
, China
, India
, Germany
, the UK
and the U.S.
Notable findings:
History
In the early 1960s, airline headsets were so large and clunky that many pilots had switched back to the use of handheld microphones for communications. The speed and complexity of jet airliners caused a need for the introduction of small, lightweight headsets into the cockpit. In 1961, United AirlinesUnited Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
solicited new designs from anyone who was interested. Courtney Graham, a United Airline pilot, was one of the many who thought the heavy headsets should be replaced by something lighter. He collaborated with his pilot friend, Keith Larkin, to create a small, functional design which was robust enough to pass airlines standards. (Larkin had been working for a small company called Plane-Aids, a Japanese import company which offered spectacles and sunglasses that contained transistor radios in their temple pieces.) The final design, incorporating two small hearing aid
Hearing aid
A hearing aid is an electroacoustic device which typically fits in or behind the wearer's ear, and is designed to amplify and modulate sound for the wearer. Earlier devices, known as "ear trumpets" or "ear horns", were passive funnel-like amplification cones designed to gather sound energy and...
-style transducers attached to a headband was submitted to United Airline approval. UAL's approval of the innovative design caused Graham and Larkin to incorporate as Pacific Plantronics (now called Plantronics, Inc.) on May 18, 1961. They introduced the first lightweight communications headset, the MS-50, to the commercial marketplace in 1962.
In the mid 1960s, the Federal Aviation Agency selected Plantronics as the sole supplier of headsets for air traffic controllers, and thereafter was selected to supply headsets to the operators of the Bell Telephone company.
SPENCOMM and NASA
In 1961, NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
, Wally Schirra
Wally Schirra
Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. was an American test pilot, United States Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's effort to put humans in space. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs...
contacted Courtney Graham, a fellow pilot, to discuss creating a design for a small, lightweight headset to be used in the Mercury
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
spacecraft.
Pacific Plantronics assembled its Space Environmental Communications (SPENCOMM) division to begin working on a reliable solution. SPENCOMM personnel traveled to NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's center for human spaceflight training, research and flight control. The center consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on 1,620 acres in Houston, Texas, USA...
) and Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
to meet with and get design feedback from Schirra and several other astronauts, including Gordon Cooper
Gordon Cooper
Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. , also known as Gordon Cooper, was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot and NASA astronaut. Cooper was one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space effort by the United States...
.
Together, SPENCOMM and NASA spent only 11 days to create a working microphone design for space communications and Schirra was the first to use the new communication technology during the Mercury-Atlas 8
Mercury-Atlas 8
Mercury-Atlas 8 was an early manned space mission, part of NASA's Mercury program. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation...
mission. Significant redundancy was built into these headsets, as each microphone circuit had two transducers and each receiver had 5 transducers—in addition, the headsets were used in pairs. The use of these SPENCOMM-NASA headsets in astronaut space suit
Space suit
A space suit is a garment worn to keep an astronaut alive in the harsh environment of outer space. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, and are necessary for extra-vehicular activity , work done outside spacecraft...
s continued through the remainder of the Mercury program, the Apollo
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
program and on to this day. The words spoken by U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
as he stepped on the moon were transmitted through a Plantronics headset.
Early success for MS-50
As the primary result of the Pacific Plantronics partnership with NASA in the Space Program, the MS-50 headset gained nearly instant recognition in the communication marketplace. FAA, Western ElectricWestern Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
and many companies with major telephone call centers adapted the MS-50 as a replacement for existing headsets.
MS-50 patent
On May 18, 1965, U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,556 was issued to W. K. Larkin for aThe MS-50 was known commonly as a Larkin-type headset and it could be used with either a light headband or the temple bar of an eyeglass frame as the supporting member for the transducer housing.
In addition, users found that if a longer ear tube on the MS-50, the headband could hang around the user's neck. With this discovery, it became possible to rapidly adjust the headset to any of six different positions, increasing comfort for long-term wear. The six positions are on eyeglasses to the wearer's left or right, on headband to the left or right, and around the neck to the left or right. When the longer tube is on a headset worn on the headband in the traditional location, excess tube may be coiled around the headset support pad on the appropriate side, or left free and slack.
StarSet
In 1970, Ken Hutchings, an engineer who had joined Pacific Plantronics, patented a device which was marketed as the "StarSet". United States Patent 3548118 describesWireless products
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
technology. Though the technology utilized was the same one being used by television remote control
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...
s, it had the advantage that the link did not require an Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) telecommunications approval. One of the first products used the infrared beam to create a communications link between a small transmitter and a base unit which was connected to the telephone network. This product was the first "echo-free" speakerphone for use in conference rooms. The small transmitter could be handheld or clipped to clothing to ensure a good pickup of the speaker's voice.
Wireless office headsets
In 2003, Plantronics introduced the CS50 wireless headset for use on office phones. Since that time, wireless headsets including Plantronics' recent "CS70N" have been widely adopted.Mobile and Bluetooth mobile headsets
Plantronics manufactures a variety of mobile headsets, including a diverse line of Bluetooth headsets for mobile phones.Computer and gaming headsets
Plantronics manufactures a variety of headsets for PC audio and online and console gaming via its GameCom and .Audio labels. The company created a special headset for the XboxXbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
as a tie-in with the videogame Halo 2
Halo 2
Halo 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved...
.
Corporate expansion and acquisitions
Plantronics has expanded into other segments of the audio equipment market through carefully targeted acquisitions.Clarity
In 1986, Plantronics acquired Walker Equipment, Ringgold, GeorgiaRinggold, Georgia
Ringgold is a city in Catoosa County, Georgia, United States. The population was 2,422 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Catoosa County...
, a manufacturer of amplified
Electronic amplifier
An electronic amplifier is a device for increasing the power of a signal.It does this by taking energy from a power supply and controlling the output to match the input signal shape but with a larger amplitude...
handsets and telephones. The Clarity products were created to enhance telephone usability for those with hearing impairment
Hearing impairment
-Definition:Deafness is the inability for the ear to interpret certain or all frequencies of sound.-Environmental Situations:Deafness can be caused by environmental situations such as noise, trauma, or other ear defections...
. 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
Digital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
for audio processing
Audio signal processing
Audio signal processing, sometimes referred to as audio processing, is the intentional alteration of auditory signals, or sound. As audio signals may be electronically represented in either digital or analog format, signal processing may occur in either domain...
in an amplified telephone http://www.clarityproducts.com/.
Altec Lansing
In 2005, Plantronics acquired computer speaker manufacturer Altec LansingAltec Lansing
Altec Lansing is a line of professional, home, automotive, computer, and multimedia audio products first developed in 1936. They were used in many studios as monitor speakers...
for approximately $166 million.
In recent earnings and investor calls Plantronic's management have referred to this acquisition as a "turnaround" given disappointing financial results since purchase.
Volume Logic
Plantronics later acquired Octiv, Inc. in March 2005 as one of its brands and renamed it as the Volume Logic division. They specialize in giving professionals an audio contouring toolset for crafting 5.1 surround soundSurround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...
soundtracks. Although the Volume Logic series of applications have since been discontinued, the underlying technology has adapted Plantronics telephony
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
products to improve the sound quality of conference and personal phone calls.
UC Gatekeeper Study
In April 2010, Plantronics released the Unified CommunicationsUnified communications
Unified communications is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging , presence information, telephony , video conferencing, data sharing , call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified...
(UC) Gatekeeper Study which surveyed IT professionals at Fortune 1000
Fortune 1000
Fortune 1000 is a reference to a list maintained by the American business magazine Fortune. The list is of the 1000 largest American companies, ranked on revenues alone...
companies regarding UC adoption and implementation. The research found that 98 percent of Fortune 1000 companies were at least considering deploying UC. It also found that, at the time, the workforce had been split into nearly three equal types of employees: onsite employees (37 percent), road warrior (computing)
Road Warriors
The Road Warriors were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Michael "Hawk" Hegstrand and Joseph "Animal" Laurinaitis. They performed under the name "Road Warriors" in the American Wrestling Association, the National Wrestling Alliance, and World Championship Wrestling, and the name Legion...
(34 percent), and telecommuters (29 percent).
How We Work: Communication Trends for Business Professionals
In September 2010, Plantronics released a second study titled, “How We Work: Communication Trends for Business Professionals.” The research looked at how people use new forms of communication to get work done throughout the day. Over 1,800 knowledge workers were surveyed across AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the U.S.
Notable findings:
- Overall communication has dramatically increased in the past five years with every form of communication listed showing increased use
- 90% of knowledge workers work remotely at least some of the time
- 54% of knowledge workers with access to softphoneSoftphoneA softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated hardware. Often a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons...
s use them “frequently” or “all of the time” - 99% of knowledge workers access email via a PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
or Mac “frequently” or “all of the time”; 81% said they access email via a mobile device as often - 83% of knowledge workers dial-in to audio conferences “frequently” or “all of the time”