What’s New

This year we have redesigned our theater room to accommodate two JBL Synthesis systems and we have two additional demo rooms to introduce our new line of JBL Modern Audio AV Receivers and our Stage 2 loudspeakers. We are confident that anyone who sits through these demos will realize why JBL and JBL Synthesis home cinema systems should be part of your company’s product offerings.

As an integrator myself in the past, I carefully chose brands and products that would enhance my company’s reputation. I curated brands that made it easier for me to close a deal and easier for my installers to work with. We only had room for a couple of active systems on display in our design centers and we chose to install a complete JBL Synthesis system in one of those spaces because it not only sounded better than anything else, but the system allowed our salespeople to tell evocative stories about the JBL brand and its influence in the motion picture industry.

So, what are some of the evocative stories that should be told about JBL and the influence it has had on the entertainment industry?

JBL was a pioneer in the movie and music industry. James B. Lansing, born with the given name James Martini, and his engineering partner Ken Decker moved from the Midwest and settled in Southern California back in 1927. The Lansing Manufacturing company focused their efforts on creating loudspeakers for the Motion Picture industry, which had recently released the Jazz Singer which was the first feature length film with sound. Lansing promoted his shearer loudspeakers to Warner Brothers and MGM Studios which later won him an Academy Award for technical excellence.

During the 2^nd World War, Ken Decker served our country and perished during maneuvers in a plane crash which was a major blow to the Lansing Manufacturing Company. It forced Lansing Manufacturing to merge with the Altec Service Corporation in 1941. Later that year, Lansing agreed to sell the assets and goodwill of the brand to Altec and signed an agreement to not compete with them for five years.

JBL has storied history not only in the US, but every where music is appreciated. In Japan, JBL played an integral role after the war when the first jazz kissa (jazz listening bar) was established in Tokyo. These bars often had a diverse collection of jazz albums for patrons to come in and listen to on JBL loudspeakers. The owner (masutâ) of the jazz kissa is often a jazz expert and will choose the albums for the guests. These bars were intended to provide a space for dedicated listening versus just background music.

Five years later, Lansing founded the James B. Lansing Sound Corporation which was later changed to JBL in 1955. The company continued working with motion picture companies and developed studio monitors for Capitol Records and EMI.

Today, JBL is the brand of choice for more commercial cinemas than any other brand globally. On top of that, the JBL Synthesis brand is the epitome of luxury home theater sound. It has been the preferred choice of Hollywood producers and Cinema-Royalty alike. For decades, many of the homes in Belair and Beverly Hills have had JBL Synthesis systems installed to allow for private screening of future blockbusters.

 With the recent introduction of our new line of AV receivers and loudspeakers that were designed and engineered to be installed and calibrated together as a system, you know more stories to share with your client and have a better alternative for those home cinema projects that you sell for under $10,000.

JBL is one of the most recognizable brands for today’s consumers. With over 200 million headphones and 100 million loudspeakers sold, the brand is trusted and aspired by people from across the globe. The JBL Premium brand is offered in some of the most popular Toyota automobiles. With a reputation like that, why would you not want to propose JBL branded solutions to your customers?

JBL Synthesis and now JBL MA AV Receivers and Stage 2 Loudspeaker product is designed to work together in a system. The product team and the engineering teams sit beside each other in Northridge, our Center of Acoustics Excellence during the product ideation and final testing to optimize the performance of our products. In the case of the MA AV Receiver range and Stage 2 loudspeaker range, the team also had a synergistic approach to the industrial design elements of the products. We knew that these products would be on display next to each other in some of our retail partner showrooms, so we made sure that products looked as good as they sound.

We look forward to seeing you at CEDIA next month. We are confident that there will be more stories to be shared with your customers upon your return from Denver.