Editing Altec Lansing (section)

===Conception and early products===
In 1930 [[American Telephone & Telegraph|AT&T]]'s Western Electric established a division to install and service loudspeakers and electronic products for motion-picture use. Named Electrical Research Products, Inc. and commonly referred to by the acronym ERPI, it became the target of an anti-trust suit brought by Stanley K. Oldden.<ref>{{cite news |title= Ask Pacent Suit Dismissed |year= 1937 |newspaper= Motion Picture Herald |volume= 129 |page= 76}}</ref> By 1936, Western Electric had shed its audio-equipment manufacturing and sales division, bought by International Projector and Motiograph, and was looking to dissolve the associated service division. ERPI was purchased as part of a consent decree in 1937 by a group of ERPI executives, including George Carrington Sr., Leon Whitney "Mike" Conrow, Bert Sanford Jr., and Alvis A. Ward, with funding from three Wall Street investors. They reincorporated as "Altec Service Company", the "Altec" standing for "all technical".<ref name=MPH>{{cite news |title= ERPI Turns Over Sound Servicing to Former Heads in New Altec |year= 1937 |newspaper= Motion Picture Herald |volume= 129 |page= 29}}</ref> Company executives promised they would never make or sell audio equipment.<ref name=MPH/>

The Altec Services Company purchased the bankrupt Lansing Manufacturing Company and melded the two names, forming the Altec Lansing Corporation on May 1, 1941. The first Altec Lansing power amplifier, Model 142B, was produced that same year. [[James Bullough Lansing]] worked for Altec Lansing, then in 1946 he left to found the James B. Lansing Company ([[JBL (company)|JBL]]), another manufacturer of high-quality professional loudspeakers, which competed with Altec Lansing.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://jblpro.com/history|access-date=2021-05-02|website=JBL Professional Loudspeakers|language=en-US}}</ref> Altec Lansing produced a line of [[professional]] and high-fidelity audio equipment, starting with a line of [[horn loudspeaker|horn-based loudspeaker]] systems. First developed for use in motion-picture theaters, these products were touted{{by whom|date=December 2018}} for their fidelity, efficiency and high sound-level capability. Products included "biflex" speakers (where frequency range was increased by a flexible "decoupling" of a small center area of the speaker's cone from a larger "[[woofer]]" area) and the 604-series of [[coaxial speakers]] (which employed a high-efficiency [[compression driver]] mounted to the rear of the 604's low-frequency magnet, and exited through a multicellular horn that passed through center of the woofer's cone).

Altec Lansing also made the Voice of the Theatre systems. The design resulted from a collaboration between [[John Kenneth Hilliard|John Hilliard]] and [[James Bullough Lansing|Jim Lansing]]. Douglas Shearer didn't hesitate to approve the Hilliard's proposal and authorized "any reasonable budget". Hilliard became the team leader of this new project. Hilliard immediately recruited Lansing Manufacturing, Robert Stephens, a design draftsman on MGM's staff, and Harry Kimball. The speaker was named the Shearer horn. Later on, a more refined model, the VOTT, was introduced. The smallest model, the A-7, used a large-sized sectoral metal horn for high frequencies, which featured dividers (sectors) to provide control sound dispersion, plus a medium-sized wooden low-frequency enclosure, which functioned as a hybrid bass-horn/bass-reflex enclosure.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

The most often used Voice of the Theatre system was the A-4, many of which are still in use in motion picture theaters measuring 9 feet tall . {{as of | 2018 | lc = on}}.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} The efficiency of all of these products originally provided high sound pressure levels from the limited amplifier power available at the time. The original Voice of the Theatre series included the A-1, A-2, A-4, and the A-5. The A-7 and A-8 were designed for smaller venues. In 2004, the A-7 Voice of the Theatre system was inducted into the [[TECnology Hall of Fame]], an honor given to "products and innovations that have had an enduring impact on the development of audio technology."<ref>{{cite web|title=TECnology Hall of Fame, 2004|url=http://legacy.tecawards.org/tec/04TECnologyHOFdetails.html|website=TECawards.org|date=2004|access-date=December 12, 2024}}</ref>

[[Bill Hanley (audio engineer)|Bill Hanley]] used Altec high frequency drivers and horns along with JBL bass drivers in his custom-built loudspeaker system for the [[Woodstock]] Festival in 1969.<ref>
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eO8oChHYDhMC&pg=PA56
 |page= 56
 |title= Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked the World
 |first1= Mike |last1= Evans
 |first2= Paul |last2= Kingsbury
 |publisher= Sterling Publishing
 |year= 2009 |isbn= 978-1402766237
}}
</ref>
Some professional Altec Lansing products remained in use well into the 1990s.