Tannoy is a British manufacturer of

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or, more fully, a speaker system) is a combination of one or more speaker drivers, an enclosure, and electrical connections (possibly including a crossover network). The speaker driver is an ...

s and public address systems founded in 1926. 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, T ...

group of brands.

History

The company was founded by the Yorkshire-born engineer Guy Fountain (1898-1977) at a garage in Tulsemere Road,

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of H ...

in London as the Tulsemere Manufacturing Company. It originally made battery chargers for wireless radio sets. The company name was changed to Tannoy in 1928 and a small factory was opened in Dalton Road,

West Norwood West Norwood is a largely residential area of south London within the London Borough of Lambeth, located 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south south-east of Charing Cross. The centre of West Norwood sits in a bowl surrounded by hillsides on its east, ...

, later moving to Canterbury Grove. Tannoy Square SE27 commemorates the site today.'Loud and Clear', from ''The Dulwich Diverter'' archive
/ref> During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Tannoy public address systems were supplied to the

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

, and a Tannoy PA system was used at

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

in 1945 to announce the end of hostilities. Tannoy speakers were also supplied to factories around Britain to relay the BBC's motivational radio series Music While You Work, and to

Butlins Butlin's is a chain of large Seaside resort, seaside resorts in the United Kingdom, incorporated as Butlins Skyline Limited. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families. Between 1936 and 1 ...

and

Pontins Pontins is a British company operating holiday parks in the UK, founded in 1946 by Fred Pontin. It was acquired by Britannia Hotels in 2011. Pontins specialises in offering half-board and self-catering holidays featuring entertainment at reso ...

holiday camp A holiday camp is a type of holiday accommodation, primarily in the United Kingdom, that encourages holidaymakers to stay within the site boundary, and provides entertainment and facilities for them throughout the day. Since the 1970s, the term ...

s following the war - where they were famously used to waken guests with the words "Good morning, campers!". The Tannoy factory moved from Canterbury Grove to

Coatbridge Coatbridge (, ) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands (popula ...

, Scotland in the 1970s. In 2002, Tannoy was acquired by

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

, and TC Group was subsequently acquired by Music Group 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 and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, 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 () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

tantalum Tantalum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ta and atomic number 73. It is named after Tantalus, a figure in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a very hard, ductility, ductile, lustre (mineralogy), lustrous, blue-gray transition ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

, which was the material used in a type of

electrolytic An electrolyte is a substance that conducts electricity through the movement of ions, but not through the movement of electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases, dissolved in a polar solvent like water. Upon dissolving, the ...

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 process is known as ''rectification'', since it "straightens" t ...

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 due to widespread and high profile adoption during and after the war, each speaker having the Tannoy logo prominently displayed on the speaker grills. As a result, the term "tannoy" came to be used in

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

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 A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from ot ...

, , 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

Tannoy's image is particularly linked to both studio monitors as well as its flagship 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 ...

. Home and Studio speakers: * Cheviot Series * 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

The Tannoy Factory, Canterbury Grove
West Norwood, circa 1968 Loudspeaker manufacturers Electronics companies established in 1926 Manufacturers of professional audio equipment Manufacturing companies of Scotland British brands Brands that became generic 1926 establishments in England Audio equipment manufacturers of the United Kingdom

History

Brand name

Products

Further reading

See also

References

External links