Tannoy is a British manufacturer of

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or " ...

s and

public address systems A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

. Founded by Guy Fountain in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1926 as the Tulsemere Manufacturing Company, today the company is part of the

Music Tribe Music Tribe, formerly Music Group, is a holding company based in the City of Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is chaired by Uli Behringer, founder of Behringer. Music Tribe's portfolio includes Behringer, Cool Audio, Midas, Turbosound, TC ...

group of brands.

History

Tannoy Ltd is a British manufacturer of

s and public address (PA) systems. The company was founded by Guy Fountain in

, England, as Tulsemere Manufacturing Company in 1926, and moved to

Coatbridge Coatbridge ( sco, Cotbrig or Coatbrig, gd, Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as ...

, Scotland in the 1970s. Tannoy's image is particularly linked to both studio monitors as well as its Prestige range of home speakers. Prestige speakers use Dual Concentric cone speakers and are easily recognisable by their "vintage" design. Tannoy is notable for its 'Dual Concentric' speaker design, which places the tweeter behind the centre of the medium or bass driver. "Dual Concentric" is a trademark although Tannoy is not the only speaker manufacturer to design

coaxial speakers A coaxial loudspeaker is a loudspeaker system in which the individual driver units radiate sound from the same point or axis. Two general types exist: one is a compact design using two or three speaker drivers, usually in car audio, and the other ...

. In 2002, Tannoy was acquired by

TC Group TC Group was a Danish multinational corporation specializing in audio related products for musicians, installers, producers, engineers, broadcasters, audio consultants and contractors. Its individual brands include Lab.gruppen, Lake, Tannoy, TC- ...

, and TC Group was subsequently acquired by

Music Group A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...

in 2015. Following the Music Group acquisition, it was suggested that the

facility would be closed and all related activities would be relocated to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. In 2016, however, Music Group confirmed that Tannoy loudspeaker manufacturing would continue in Scotland, with a brand new manufacturing facility planned.

Brand name

Tannoy Little Gold monitor - professional studio loudspeaker box

The name Tannoy is a

syllabic abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

tantalum Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. Previously known as ''tantalium'', it is named after Tantalus, a villain in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a very hard, ductile, lustrous, blue-gray transition metal that is ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

, which was the material used in a type of

electrolytic An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. Upon dis ...

rectifier A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation (converting DC to AC) is performed by an Power ...

developed by the company. The brand was trademarked by 10 March 1932, on which date the Tulsemere Manufacturing Company formally registered as Guy R. Fountain Limited. Tannoy became a household name as a result of supplying PA systems to the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and to

Butlins Butlin's is a chain of large seaside resorts in the United Kingdom. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families. Between 1936 and 1966, ten camps were built, including one in Ireland and o ...

and

Pontins Pontins is a British company operating holiday parks in the UK, founded in 1946 by Fred Pontin. Since 2011, it has been owned by Britannia Hotels. Pontins specialises in offering half-board and self-catering holidays featuring entertainment ...

holiday camp A holiday camp is a type of holiday accommodation that encourages holidaymakers to stay within the site boundary, and provides entertainment and facilities for them throughout the day. Since the 1970s, the term has fallen out of favour with term ...

s after the war, each speaker having the Tannoy logo prominently displayed on the speaker grills. As a result, the term "tannoy" is used in

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

for any public-address system, and as a verb, to "tannoy", for making an announcement in a public place. That is, although Tannoy is a

registered trademark The registered trademark symbol, , is a typographic symbol that provides notice that the preceding word or symbol is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office. A trademark is a symbol, word, or word ...

, , it is still often used generically.BBC World Service broadcast 27 February 2010 referring to the use of "Tannoys" in warning seaside dwellers to evacuate to higher ground due to a possible tsunami caused by the Chilean earthquake of that day (heard on WNYC FM) Because of this, the company's intellectual property department keeps a close eye on the media. To preserve its trademark, it often notifies publications not to use its trade name without a capital letter, or as a generic term for a PA system.

Products

Home and Studio speakers: * Reveal Series (Made in China) * Plus Series * 70Anniversary Series * Surrey Series * Gold Series * Definition Series * Eclipse Series * Mercury Series * Prestige Series * Classic Monitor * K3838 monitor kit (similar to Classic Monitor) * Super Red Monitor * K3808 monitor kit (similar to Super Red Monitor) * Little Red * Sixes Series * Profile Series * Precision Series * Revolution Series * Dimension Series * Eyris Series * Arena 5.1 Cabinets: * Lancaster * System DMT PA Systems: * Wildcats (1984) * CPA Series (1990) * T & I Series (1998) * B Series (1998) * V Series (2002) * VS Series (2003) * IQ Series (2004) * VQ & VQNET Series (2009) * VX & VXP Series (2011) * VSX Series (2012) * VSXNET (2015)

References

External links

{{Commons category, Tannoy
Tannoy worldwide homepage

Tannoy Dual Concentric website
Loudspeaker manufacturers Electronics companies established in 1926 Manufacturers of professional audio equipment Manufacturing companies of Scotland British brands 1926 establishments in England Audio equipment manufacturers of the United Kingdom

History

Brand name

Products

Further reading

See also

References

External links