TANNOY

Tannoy is one of the oldest audio companies in the world today. It was founded 78 years ago, just after the beginning of broadcast in London, by an engineer name Guy R Fountain. He owned a commercial garage in Dulwich and it was there that he invented a solid-state rectifier made from an alloy of Tantalum and Lead. This Tantalum-Lead Alloy is the origin of the now world famous brand name - Tannoy.

Fountain set up a small factory in Dalton Road, West Norwood to manufacture the rectifiers and a few years later Tannoy was commissioned to supply a sound reinforcement system to a famous European circus. This was just the stepping stone they needed and in 1933 Fountain produced Tannoy’s first discrete two-way loudspeaker system. A year later they had a complete range of microphones, loudspeakers and amplifiers under their belt.

By the time the Second World War came in 1939, Tannoy was established well enough for their products to be used in the nations defence, largely as part of communication systems for airfield crews, submarines and command systems.It was during this period that the company become known for the “Tannoy” PA System.
This phrase now exists in its own right and is still used in the UK today, to describe a Public Address announcement, and it even has its own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Three years after the war came the launch of Tannoy’s first Dual Concentric™ loudspeaker. This was and still remains the core of their success. Chief Engineer at the time, Ronnie H Rackham combined a high frequency compression horn drive unit with a 15” direct radiating bass driver. This unique design was then implemented into all the loudspeaker ranges. It has continually been developed and updated, but traces of the original concept can still be found in the newest and latest products.

More recently in 2002 Tannoy merged with the Danish TC Group of companies. TC Group is a holding company of several individual music technology businesses, which includes TC Electronic, a modern and exciting company at the forefront of digital technologies. The combined expertise has allowed the companies to share research and development resources ensuring they always have their finger on the pulse and areaware of all the latest industry updates.

In today’s market Tannoy has its hand in a number of sectors including Residential Audio, Installation Speakers and Studio Monitors. They cater for small or large projects such as: professional audio and film recording studios;retail outlets; shopping centres; corporate boardrooms; public buildings; pubs; clubs and bars.

They have a list of impressive installations around the globe. Examples include the Hong Kong Convention Centre, the Sydney Opera House, the London Palladium Theatre, Coca Cola Headquarters in Atlanta, the HardRock Hotel and Casino and the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, the Dolce & Gabbana headquarters in Milan and the Finnish National Theatre.

Presently, Tannoy are introducing their latest product ranges. The new Tannoy VQ Series is a range of revolutionary loudspeakers designed for any application where precise directional control, outstanding sonic performance, and high SPL’s are critical issues. Using precision design and engineering, the VQ series produces enough power and clarity to be used individually, maintaining a building’s aesthetics, unlike line array solutions. Also new, QFlex is a series of self-powered, digitally steerable loudspeaker arrays using ‘beam-steering’ DSP technology. By focusing the acoustical output in the target directions where it is needed Tannoy’s revolutionary new range is designed specifically to overcome intelligibility problems associated with highly reverberant surroundings.

The future path for Tannoy is to continue providing cutting edge audio solutions into all markets in which they are active. A rich heritage, class leading technology and an inspired team of people combined with a classic brand name will ensure the company continues to make history by living up to its mission statement: To be is a leading innovator of premium audio solutions utilising cutting edge acoustic, electronic and digital expertise.