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About PlantronicsFrom Santa Cruz to Tranquility Base: The Lightweight Headset Takes FlightPlantronics was an idea first dreamed of by two people who thought of doing things in a new way. Plantronics Inc. is based in Santa Cruz, California and is the largest manufacturer of Telephone Headsets in the United States. The company was started by two pilots, Keith Larkin and Courtney Graham, in 1961. According to Plantronics, the idea for the company came after Keith saw a pair of ‘radio spectacles’. We’re not even sure what radio spectacles are to be honest – but we’re glad Keith saw them, as it triggered a conversation between him and Courtney and they started coming up with and patenting designs for lightweight aircraft headsets.In May, 1961 Plantronics was established, then under the name Pacific Plantronics, and their first headset was commercially available in 1962 – the MS50. One of the early purchasers was United Airlines, and that put Plantronics firmly on the map. When NASA came looking for a headset for manned space missions, they asked Plantronics to modify the MS50 to fit inside a space helmet. The first Plantronics headset went into orbit later that year aboard Wally Schirra’s Sigma Seven orbiter on the Mercury Atlas 8 mission. Plantronics formed a specialist division, SPENCOM (Space Environment Communications) to produce headsets specifically for the space program and was one of the few independent companies to be named as a NASA supplier. Yes people, we're talking ‘space headsets’ here! In 1964, the FAA started to take interest in Plantronics headsets and contracted them to design and build headsets for its ground based air traffic controllers – something that they still do today. A few months later, Pacific Bell and Western Electric also contracted Plantronics to supply headsets to their thousands of telephone operators. Those three heavyweight contracts gave Plantronics the security it needed to invest heavily in the Research and Development needed to fine tune their headsets into what they are today. Throughout the sixties, Plantronics supplied headsets to NASA through its SPENCOM division, culminating in Neil Armstrong’s classic quote as he hopped down onto the surface of the moon from the steps of Lunar Module Eagle-1 "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." We find it amusingly ironic that the ‘a’ is so difficult to hear in the first part of the quote – but it was the sixties and this was all the way from the moon… today’s noise canceling units thankfully don’t suffer the same fate. Plantronics acquired Walker Equipment, a manufacturer of amplified handsets and amplified telephones, in 1986. In 2002, Walker acquired Ameriphone and became Walker Ameriphone before changing its name to Clarity; Clarity today, specializes in the production of specialist headsets that are highly amplified for the hard of hearing. Plantronics has manufactured its headsets in Tijuana, Mexico for over thirty years. The 240,000-square-foot plant (known as Plamex) provides work for about 1,700 skilled workers and has received countless process and production quality awards. Plantronics is justifiably proud of its Plamex plant, and from our own visits and tours, we can confirm that it deserves its reputation as one of the leading manufacturing plants in the Americas today. In 2005, Plantronics acquired computer speaker manufacturer Altec Lansing for approximately 166 million dollars. The acquisition adds a line of powered audio products to their portfolio, and the Altec Lansing brand looks to remain intact. |
Order now and receive your headset by Friday, May 16 with standard $7.95 shipping. Need it sooner?
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