AV integrator Electrosonic is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. Founded in 1964 the company started with two rooms in London’s Greenwich vegetable market. Five decades later, Electrosonic is an international, multi-million dollar business with headquarters in Burbank, California, and offices worldwide.
Electrosonic’s story parallels the history of AV technology, and provides a window into how the industry and its services and products have changed.
Founded by Denis Naisbitt, Michael Ray and Robert Simpson, the company opened with the strapline 'Electronic Control and Audio Systems'.
From the start, Electrosonic combined the manufacturing and selling of products with the building of complete engineered systems. Key product categories included electronic lighting control, multi-image slide projection and videowalls. The product and systems portions of the business continued together through 2010 when the products side of the business, which by then represented a small portion of overall revenue, was sold.
Electrosonic has carried out many projects over the last 50 years all around the world, from multi-image spectaculars in 1970s Iran and the world’s biggest videowall in Seville in 1992 to massive projection displays at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.
Electrosonic will release a book about its history in late March 2014, with the title 'Electrosonic – 50 Years on the Audio-Visual Frontline'. Written by co-founder Robert Simpson, the book presents a short history of the company, and chapters on its products, notable projects completed, its people and on the company’s contributions to the AV industry.