Prior to establishing Lansing Sound, Incorporated in 1946, Jim Lansing's
reputation was largely made in the professional loudspeaker market. That
market was dominated by one segment – cinema sound. From the Shearer System
to the Voice of the Theatre (VOTT), the Lansing name had become associated
with the finest in cinema loudspeakers. However, by the time Jim
decided to strike out on his own, that market had matured with only a few
prominent vendors. Foremost amongst these vendors was Jim's previous
employer, Altec Lansing.
Lansing Sound would begin as an extremely
small scale venture with only four employees in the first year and little
working capital. There were nowhere near the resources necessary to develop
and manufacture systems of the scale of the VOTT. Jim had no choice but to
begin with systems that would only be suitable for small
theatres, and thus restricted his market. There was one benefit in starting
off with small systems. That was the opportunity to design dual use
loudspeakers that could find application in both the high-end consumer
market and cinema market. This became the objective of the first products of
Lansing Sound. The first system was the D-1000 series that consisted of the
D130A, D175 and H1000 components. The enclosure was available in utility
finish for cinema applications and fine wood finishes for home use.
The company struggled in the first three
years and seemed to always be on the verge of bankruptcy. It would be a
seminal contract for Fox's west coast theatres that gave the company its
first, firm financial footing. Jim convinced Fox to install his D1000 system
in a number of their theatres. This would mark the beginnings of JBL in the
professional market.
Nonetheless, for the next twenty years,
JBL would primarily be known as a high-end home loudspeaker company. This
was a result of the marketing focus brought by Bill Thomas after he assumed
control of the company upon the Jim Lansing's death in 1949. Bill astutely
foresaw the rise of the hi-fi market that had its beginnings in the late
40's and early 50's. In contrast to the mature cinema industry, the consumer
market was just establishing itself and would see exponential growth for
years to come. Bill Thomas initially concentrated product development and marketing on this segment.
Thomas was never one to overlook a market
opportunity so that the professional industry was not completely ignored.
However, he took advantage of professional opportunites brought to him as opposed to
actively seeking them out. The first opportunity was the TODD AO project that started in 1954. This was a new
development in cinema screen format and sound. It was a contemporary of
Cinerama and incorporated a wide screen projection system and multi speaker
sound system. Ampex was brought in to undertake the technical design under
the direction of Ross Snyder. Ross knew of the reputation of Jim Lansing and
his products back in the 1940's. It led him to seek a meeting with Jim in
1948 where he was further impressed with the man and his work. Ross never
forgot this meeting, and when the TODD AO project began, he sought out JBL
as an initial supplier for the design prototype.
JBL D55
© Harman International
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Courtesy Mark Gander and John Eargle
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By that time, Bill Thomas was running the
company and Bart Locanthi was responsible for technical design. Ampex paid
for the development of a loudspeaker system just for this project. It would
be known as the D55, or its more famous nickname, the JBL "Scoop". This, and
its smaller sibling, the D43, would remain in JBL's catalog until the 1980's
as the 4530 and 4520.
Ten speaker systems were required for the
prototype. Initially, JBL did not have enough production stock on hand to
fill this order. Ross states that two very special compression drivers were
substituted to make up the order. According to his recollection, they were
2" diameter throat drivers that Bill Thomas stated were "hand built by Jim
Lansing". They were considered so valuable to JBL that Ross had to commit to
returning the drivers after the prototype project. These drivers have a
unique significance to legacy of Jim Lansing that will be explained later.
The prototype loudspeaker systems were a
success and negotiations were begun with JBL to provide production
quantities. Given the small scale of JBL at the time, and the consumer focus
of the company, Bill Thomas was not comfortable to expand to meet the demand
for a potentially limited production run. As an alternative, it was agreed
that Ampex would undertake manufacturing of JBL designed loudspeaker
components under a licensing arrangement. For a number of years afterwards,
Ampex would produce and market cinema components labeled "Jim Lansing by
Ampex".
At around the same time as the TODD AO
project, JBL was approached by Westrex to develop cinema loudspeaker
systems. Westrex had been the export arm of Western Electric (WE). In 1938,
WE had divested the domestic supply of cinema sound systems to Altec as part
of a consent decree that resulted from a federal anti-trust action. In the
1950's Westrex decided to make a concerted effort in cinema sound for the
foreign markets for which they still held rights. JBL was approached to both develop
and supply product for this market.
JBL 375
© Harman International
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Courtesy Mark Gander and John Eargle
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John Frayne of Westrex worked with Bart
Locanthi of JBL to develop brand new products for this project. At a pivotal
meeting between Frayne, Locanthi and Thomas, John brought out an old WE 594
compression driver and asked if JBL could produce a modern equivalent. The
594 was unique in utilizing a 4" diaphragm and 2" horn throat. It had long
been out of production as a result of the 1938 consent decree and no one was
making a compression driver of this size and output. Bart examined this
driver and quickly agreed to develop a prototype. The prototype was
functionally the same as the 594 but replaced the field coil of that driver
with a permanent Alnico magnet. The resulting driver was the JBL 375,
introduced in 1954, and this driver would become the most significant
professional device ever developed by JBL. As will be seen, it was
singularly responsible for providing opportunities in new professional
markets for the next two decades.
Now is the time to revisit the "special"
Jim Lansing drivers provided to the TODD AO project. Until recently, it was
thought that the 375 was the first example of what is referred to as a large
format compression driver after the WE594. While this is true for production
drivers, it would appear that Jim Lansing personally built prototypes of a
large format driver years before the 375. Unfortunately, Bill Thomas's
request to have the drivers returned to JBL was not fulfilled and these
drivers have been lost to history. However, there is a tantalizing record of
preliminary design sketches referring to such a driver, but no record of its
actual manufacture. Thus there remains an element of mystery to this device.
Theatre System Drivers
© Harman International
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Courtesy Mark Gander and John Eargle
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The 375 was only one component of the
system developed for the Westrex project. A unique bass driver, the 150-4C
was also produced. This driver had a deep, straight sided cone to provide
the stiffness required for horn loading while remaining light in weight for
maximum efficiency. Four of these drivers were mounted in a massive new
enclosure - the T550A. John Frayne worked with Bart Locanthi to develop new
acoustic lens to be used with the 375 driver and two of these driver/lens
combinations were mounted on top the the T550A. For the first time, JBL had
produced a theatre system of a scale that could compete with the largest
Altec VOTT systems. The T550A was sold directly by JBL as "Jim Lansing
Theatre Sound System" and was also manufactured by Ampex as the C6000.
The T550A enclosure bears closer
examination. Its roots were not in theatre system design, but rather high
intensity sound simulation. Bill Thomas's background was in military
aviation and he maintained separate companies in this field. These companies
were involved in high intensity sound sound simulations for battlefield
conditions, and later, missile launch simulations. Research in these fields
were brought to bear in the design of the T550A's horn flare. In contrast to
the combination horn loading and bass reflex principle of the competing
Altec VOTT, the T550A was purely horn loaded since the back enclosure was
sealed.
With the Ampex and Westrex theatre
projects, it would appear that JBL was poised to be a major player in the
professional sound industry in the 1950's. However, this was not to be. The
TODD AO system, that was the heart of the Ampex collaboration, lost out to
the competing Cinerama system for market share. Westrex was never able to
develop a sizable overseas market. In both cases, JBL was going up against
Altec in providing the sound systems that competed against these projects.
At that time, Altec had a virtual monopoly in all market segments of the
professional sound industry. JBL ended the 50's growing and strong, but
strictly on the basis of their success in the high-end consumer market.
Professional sound was again relegated to a peripheral status.
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