Lab.gruppen

Lab.gruppen

Lab.gruppen is a Swedish sound equipment company, based in Kungsbacka, dedicated to building mainly public address power amplifiers. The company now (2007) has 130 employees and is owned by TC Group which also holds Tannoy, TC Electronic, TC-Helicon, and TC Applied Technologies.

History

Kenneth Andersson and Dan Bävholm founded Lab.gruppen in 1979 with a fist full of Kroner, hearts full of passion, determination and a desire to succeed – whatever the limitations. Neither was particularly experienced in the world of audio or music. They first met as schoolboys with a complementary interest in electronics. Their craft was learned empirically through reading and practical projects, slowly developing the skills that would ultimately lead to the creation of world renowned, landmark products.

Their early output was completely market driven. Friends introduced the budding electronics “gurus” to local musicians who were only too eager to access products to fill their needs that could be competitively priced against name-brand imports. Kenneth and Dan dived into their first project with vigor. The outcome – not a power amplifier, but a hand-made mixing console. Neither had ever attempted such a feat, but it worked. And worked so well that it served as at FOH for a concert in their hometown by the famous jazz performer, Eartha Kitt and remained in service for many, many years. They continued to react to local market needs and created other mixers and a series of guitar heads and combos that attracted the attention of many important artists, including legendary Johnny Winter. Their intermittent manufacture of mixers and guitar amplifiers continued through the formal establishment of Lab.gruppen in 1979. The company was originally located inside a local hi-fi store, where the duo serviced consumer equipment for additional income. It was here that the company’s first professional audio power amplifier was created.

Between the LAB 4000 and fP Series 6400, Lab.gruppen engineers continued to advance and refine virtually every aspect of amplifier technology. The LAB Series was overhauled and augmented and subsequently became today’s fP range. fP designs were also upgraded to meet the stringent new EMC standards in Europe, and adoption of UL safety standards opened access to the US market. Standardization of internal components between models increased manufacturing efficiency to keep pricing competitive in all new markets.

In the late 1990s, Lab.gruppen founders Kenneth Andersson and Dan Bävholm evaluated the future options for their fast-growing company. As electronic engineers, their passion was directed toward advancing the technology and developing new products. They had less interest in managing the daily operations of a sizeable business enterprise. The founders soon decided that the next stage of growth could best be realized with compatible new ownership as well as a new managing director. In July of 2000, Lab.gruppen was acquired by the TGI Group of the UK, and a few months later Tomas Lilja was chosen as managing director. In early 2002, the TGI Group – Lab.gruppen included – was acquired by TC Group of Denmark, the current corporate owner. In 2004, the companymoved to its new location at Faktorvägen. Both Andersson and Bävholm remained with the company following the acquisitions. And, although both have now left to pursue other interests, their legacy lives on…

In 1998, Lab.gruppen engineers undertook the long-term development of an entirely new amplifier platform. The complete range would have four bridgeable amplifier channels and an integrated monitoring and control network. The basic technology of both the power supply and output stages was taken from the proven fP range, but with significant upgrades to reduce the number of components required. Output power per channel was again doubled.

Designated the C Series and targeted at the installation market, the first amplifiers of this design were shipped in the summer of 2005. This was followed up by the release of FP+ in 2006 and PLM Series in 2007. In 2008, Lab.gruppen is the most recognised independent supplier of power to professional applications.

Product models

:*PLM Series:*FP+ Series:*fP Series:*iP Series

Powered Loudspeaker Management Systems

:*PLM 10000Q

The PLM 10000Q, the first in Lab.gruppen’s PLM Series, combines cutting-edge technologies from two of the leading innovators in the live event production industry: Dolby Lake and Lab.gruppen.

These technologies have been closely and intelligently integrated to add up to much more than the sum of their parts. The result is a new concept in professional audio: Powered Loudspeaker Management (PLM).

PLM brings together the ground-breaking signal processing that has made Dolby Lake a touring standard worldwide. And an amplifier platform based on the extraordinary power density, sonic purity, and proven reliability of Lab.gruppen’s flagship FP+ Series.

Conceived from the outset as a comprehensive drive system for any type of loudspeaker, the PLM 10000Q seamlessly integrates the functions of crossover, delay, equalization, limiting, audio networking, and power amplification.

It adds up to an unprecedented level of user control, reconfiguration flexibility, and precise system tuning for optimum performance. In addition, revolutionary new load verification and performance monitoring features assure extended reliability for all system components, loudspeakers included.

Power Amplifiers

:*FP 10000Q:*FP 13000:*FP 7000:*FP 6000Q:*fP 6400:*fP 3400:*fP 2600:*C 68:4:*C 48:4:*C 28:4:*C 16:4:*C 20:8X:*C 10:8X:*C 10:4X:*C 5:4X

Other

:*DSP 24: 2-in/4-out digital crossover and loudspeaker equalization unit. Can be controlled from a Windows environment through VIEW (a Lab.gruppen control software program).

Trivia

Among some sound engineers Lab.gruppen is famous for using their amps as welding devices at sound engineering fairs (to show that they are very tolerant to low impedance loads).

External resources

*Company web-page: [http://www.labgruppen.com www.labgruppen.com]

Notes

Most of the information in this article is derived from [http://www.labgruppen.com www.labgruppen.com] .


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cologne Game Lab — Vorlage:Infobox Hochschule/Träger fehltVorlage:Infobox Hochschule/Studenten fehltVorlage:Infobox Hochschule/Mitarbeiter fehltVorlage:Infobox Hochschule/Professoren fehlt Cologne Game Lab …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • FORSYS — Logo FORSYS (Forschungseinheiten der Systembiologie) ist eine nationale Förderinitiative des BMBF zur Förderung der deutschen Systembiologie. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Ziele …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Forschungseinheiten der Systembiologie — FORSYS (Forschungseinheiten der Systembiologie) ist eine nationale Förderinitiative des BMBF zur Förderung der deutschen Systembiologie. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Ziele 2 Geschichte 3 Die vier FORSYS Zentren 3.1 FRISYS Freiburger Initiative für… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Magdeburg Centre for Systems Biology — FORSYS (Forschungseinheiten der Systembiologie) ist eine nationale Förderinitiative des BMBF zur Förderung der deutschen Systembiologie. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Ziele 2 Geschichte 3 Die vier FORSYS Zentren 3.1 FRISYS Freiburger Initiative für… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Классификация электронных усилителей — Основная статья: Электронный усилитель Классы электронных усилителей и режимы работы активных усилительных приборов (ламп или транзисторов) традиционно обозначаются буквами латинского алфавита. Буквенные обозначения классов усиления могут… …   Википедия

  • TC Electronic — is a Danish audio equipment manufacturer, founded by two brothers, Kim and John Rishøj, in 1976. It s product range includes guitar effects, audio interfaces, audio software, equalisers, studio processors and computer hardware. TC Electronic… …   Wikipedia

  • Cork Institute of Technology — Motto Rísam Uile (Let us Achieve) Established 1974 President Dr. Brendan J. Murphy Students 17,000 …   Wikipedia

  • Cork School of Music — CIT Cork School of Music is located in the center Cork City, Ireland. The college was founded in 1878 and became a school of Cork Institute of Technology in 1993. The school currently operates from a state of the art, five floor, music center,… …   Wikipedia

  • Electronic amplifier — A practical amplifier circuit An electronic amplifier is a device for increasing the power of a signal. It does this by taking energy from a power supply and controlling the output to match the input signal shape but with a larger amplitude. In… …   Wikipedia

  • Cobranet — is a combination of software, hardware and network protocols designed to deliver uncompressed, multi channel, low latency digital audio over a standard Ethernet network. Developed in the 1990s, CobraNet is widely regarded as the first… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”