A view of the headquarters of L-Acoustics in Marcoussis, highlighting the theme based on the logo of the company, created using covers on the windows of the facade. This is the building that hosted all activity when it was built in 2002. It was gradually relieved of logistics and, now, also of the production line.
When a renown prestigious brand like L-Acoustics steps on the gas, it doesn’t go unnoticed. New buildings, new assembly line, the foundation of a holding company, a new management team, the arrival of professionals from the automotive industry, massive hiring, double-digit growth, all these things denote the will of this jewel of French electro-acoustics to grow even faster and better. How far will it go?
The ringmaster, or the man with the golden keys, in action… but you can call him Stéphane Ecalle.
A note of humor to start: During our visit to Marcoussis to cover the official presentation of the X-Series, where we gathered the information necessary for the preparation of this article, we were never free from the sound of concrete drills being used in the building, which was, once again, being modified.
At L-Acoustics, change is not a political slogan but a reality, and a stroll through the past, present and future of this company with the help of the verve of Stéphane Ecalle, marketing director, shows striking proof of this.
Marcoussis (a small town located in the Paris suburbs) now hosts four different buildings. First of all, there is the headquarters, which was established in 2002 and houses the administration, the design offices, an auditorium and lots of space for training, R&D and new entrants.
Then there is a second building that is home to the speaker and electronics assembly lines. Finally, two separate buildings are dedicated to logistics.
The first of these is for the flow of incoming material such as woodwork, loudspeakers, accessories and all electronic subassemblies, while the second building is for outgoing finished and packaged products, waiting to be shipped around the world to distributors or subsidiaries.
The building in which all acoustic and electronic products are assembled and tested
But L-Acoustics has also changed more profoundly, because this historic brand of speakers is no longer… a brand, but the flagship of L-Group, which comprises three others: Simea, L-Isa and Blububbles.
In addition to owning and controlling these four brands and subsidiaries, this holding company includes the infrastructure necessary to consolidate them under a single common denominator.
Simea is the subsidiary responsible for the design and manufacture of the cabinets, which are increasingly complex, lightweight, rigid, involve much more than wood, and necessary for the new speaker lines like K2 and the X Series. Initially a simple subcontractor, this industrial woodshop was founded in 1984 and joined the group around 2007.
Based in Keskastel, in the Bas-Rhin area, it has just inaugurated a new building of nearly 5000 m². This facility features 5-axis, dual-head CNC machines and offers a significant scalability capability in order to meet customer demand, thanks to its 60 workers and its network of subcontractors that employ over 200 people.
The new facilities of Simea, a subsidiary of L-Group that manufactures all the woodwork, located in Keskastel, Bas-Rhin. 850 enclosures come out of here every week.
This building is also designed to have a reduced carbon footprint, to limit waste and recycle manufacturing scraps. It is certified to meet the RT2012 standards.
L-Isa, Installations Sonores Artistiques (Artistic Sound Installations)
It is a new branch of L-Group that has conducted research for the past few years aimed at providing, through distributed loudspeaker systems, new hyper-realistic listening experiences.
Certainly an artistic image, but very real, as it was taken in the auditorium in Marcoussis where 54 Karas and 4 SB28s are still installed. This picture certainly creates a desire to hear it.
Countless experiments have already been conducted in the auditorium at Marcoussis, where an impressive circular wall of 13 clusters of six KARAs each, deployed at intervals of 15°, allows a total of 180°. Four SB-28s reinforce the low end.
This installation is still in place and will doubtlessly host future demos.
L-Isa can be considered a new sound reinforcement format that will lead to professional, and domestic applications.
Christian Heil personally manages this project, which has just been officially presented at ISE in Amsterdam and has a its own website.
See link here l-Isa-music.
Soon, we will have the opportunity to come back to this process and the equipment used.
Finally, the company BluBubbles aims at building bridges between arts and technology, any form of art, musical or not, linked to L-Isa or not. Hence the existence of the works of art included in L-Group’s collection.
Therefore there is a total of 25,000 m² of facilities dedicated to the group and mainly to the design, manufacture and sale of advanced sound systems.
From a barn to 25,000 m² of facilities
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The barn where it all began, a picture from 1991. Unfortunately in the picture we do not see the Peugeot station wagon with just as much history and with which Christian Heil transported the enclosures that he invented. In any case, I hope he had chains for his tires. He was faced with having to clear the snow with subs ;0)
SLU : Now we go to Stéphane Ecalle for a long and fascinating stroll through the figures and human history of a French success story made of wood, paper and a bundle of good ideas.
“When I joined L-Acoustics in 2002, there were 35 of us in total, counting France and abroad. In 2008 we were already three times that and, since then, that figure has grown geometrically. It is the same with the turnover: steadily growing at a double-digit average rate since 1984.
By the end of 2015, we had reached 320 group employees and a turnover that tripled the 2008 reference point. Just in hiring, in 2015 we recruited a number of people equivalent to the total number of employees in 2007. It is enormous.
A very small part of the L-Acoustics team, very small…
That means that every other day, between our growth, departures and temporary replacements, we hire someone. It is also important to note that a quarter of our employees are involved in R&D, which once again proves the importance of this aspect in the DNA of the company.”
Success is not a goal in and of itself, it is a consequence
“The funny thing is that we were not pursuing at all this exponential growth. L-Acoustics is, above all, a paradise for engineers and designers, and what interests us is designing and manufacturing the best products. We create them to meet specific needs, not to reap the biggest profits.
The profits are only the natural results of our work. Year after year, our forecasts are very reasonable, despite the success that our products enjoy, and this success is something we are very proud of, even if we do nothing to boost it artificially. The corporate culture here is simply doing things the best way.”
Christian Heil in 1992 with his famous DOSC waveguide for the Diffuseur d’Ondes Sonores Cylindriques (Cylindrical Sound Wave Generator)
“I would also like to remind you that we are known as the company that introduced a modern and functional vision of the line-source, thanks to Christian Heil in 1992. We are not the inventors of the line array, as the principle already existed, but Christian worked for years and developed his vision, which has proven accurate in terms of the calculations and which is easily usable on a daily basis.
His merit is having understood better than anyone the interactions between multiple sources and, in particular, to have very specifically defined how to combine them into an enclosure so that they sum, with the WST in 1992.
He followed this with its practical application in the V-DOSC, which opened the door to countless other products of ours as well as those of other manufacturers.
Remember that, at the time, it was very difficult to have a long throw and uniform coverage of an audience, due to interference between the emission sources. Delay lines were always needed, along with the additional costs and longer set-up times necessary to deploy them.
Diana Ross world tour in 1998, a magnificent installation of V-DOSC and ARCS. The power amplifiers are flown, because neither Divas nor impedances like cables hanging about…
The V-DOSC solved all these problems with its long throw, its light weight, ease of implementation, and its uniform, high-quality sound. This system has contributed enormously to music, service vendors and productions.
The beginning of the adventure: still interfering but already promising, the Incremental, photographed in the famous barn.
This is the reason for its great success… a success that nonetheless took ten years to become a reality because, at the launch of the first V-DOSC, Heil-Acoustics – the company name at the time – was made up of a total of eight people.
Not in a garage, but on a farm.
There was no sales force, no marketing and no manufacturing potential. Christian made the rounds to visit sound services in his Peugeot, full of equipment.
It’s not all about having a great idea, it requires a lot more work and resources to get something to the market. In 2000, eight years after being introduced, sales of V-DOSC were still in the growth phase. Today, with the resources that we have, a few months are enough to ensure the launch of a product.”
“Besides the DOSC wave guide and the WST, another innovation has contributed to the company’s success: the coaxial enclosure. Introduced in our catalog in 1987, it allowed us to build generations of speakers that have gained a large following.
Again, we don’t claim to be the inventors of the coaxial speaker. Tannoy, in England, had introduced it well before us, but only for the studio and for home use because, at the time, there were no speakers capable of generating the pressure required for use in sound reinforcement.
A 12XT – versatile, thanks to its coaxial speaker and equally comfortable deployed as a wedge, in sound reinforcement or, as shown here, on the lip of the stage.
The merit of Christian was understanding the benefits of coaxial transducers in terms of respecting the phase, in terms of directivity and of simple construction. He therefore developed a range of speakers around this dual speaker configuration, but redesigned to withstand the stresses of the stage.”
“We also innovated the design of laminar vents, which appeared on the SB28 subs in 2007. Here again, we knew that progress needed to be made in order to better manage the wave behind our 18-inch speakers, the excursion and power handling of which are such that they generate noise, due to the turbulence created by the passage of air through the port in the front panel.
I remember that, to help inspire and support the theoretical calculations and visualize the effects of a particular model of vent, we used a simple smoke machine for stage lighting.”
“A further step was the evolution from the V waveguide, like the DOSC, to the new K guide, substantially improving the uniformity of the side coverage. This balance was tipped with the Kara and the K family that it began.
The Kudo demonstrated the ability to guide the mids and treble using components called K-Louvers, a technique that was reused and improved considerably on K2 with the Panflex system and also specific presets for perfect control of the mid-range.”
“The latest addition is the ellipsoid waveguide deployed on the new X series, which is placed in front of the coaxial speaker in order to further exploit its natural directivity.
Which is very useful with stage monitors or in sound reinforcement to better direct the energy where it is useful, but without losing the coherence of the coaxial speaker.”
There’s no good sound without electronics and advanced computing
“All of these electroacoustic developments would not have been possible without the signal processing, amplification and the speaker management controllers that accompany them. After working for many years with Lab.gruppen, in the early 2000s we moved to an OEM agreement with Camco to create the LA-8 and LA-4 and, thus, to being able to control the complete audio system. Gradually, our role with respect to Camco has changed, because now we are in charge of most of the engineering. We design and integrate our own electronics.
L-acoustics LA8
Since 2007, the entire network system is L-Acoustics. The onboard DSP is an in-house creation and the design of the critical stages is our responsibility. The LA-4X is even more an in-house product. Our R&D department, initially made up of acousticians and mechanical engineers, has welcomed more and more electronics and IT people. We now have twelve people involved in electronics and an IT team of eight people. Besides the controllers, we have also developed our software with Soundvision, in 3D since 2004, which allows you to build a system and predict its performance, while LA Network Manager controls the whole thing by driving the controllers connected in a network.”
“The range of speakers at L-Acoustics is very simple, compared to other brands. It effectively covers all the professional applications for which it is designed. We made sure to avoid endless lists of models, in which customers and those who specify systems can get lost. Our key words are simplicity and rationality.
We have chosen to divide this range roughly into three parts, corresponding to coverage ranges: short, medium and long, plus subs. Coaxial systems, like the X series initially take care of short throws, the constant curvature models such as ARCS for medium throws and, finally, the variable curvature enclosures, ranging from Kiva to K1, are for long to very long ranges.”
The Kara festival, probably better known by the name “Dancing with the Stars”, in 2013 at the Paris Bercy.
“L-Acoustics has chosen the niche, a relatively small but high-end market: that of very high-quality sound reinforcement able to fully satisfy audiences, as well as artists and technicians. No compromise is possible in this small market. It is necessary to be recognized and to offer always the best products. Where some manufacturers have chosen to relocate production to Asia, for example, we have made the exact opposite choice and decided to keep 100% of R&D, manufacturing and logistics in Europe, mainly in France.
To be able to justify this choice and the resulting price, you must be able to offer only the best and never skimp on education, on the quality of components or construction. We would never launch a price war, which would only result in a decline in terms of R&D, components or manufacturing, because there will always be someone cheaper, anyway.”
2009 – the Stade de France welcomes Mylène and K1, in a deployment of unprecedented size. Just the main hangs include 24 K1s, 12 K1SBs, and 28 SB28s per side plus, on the ground, a cluster of 4×4 SB28s per side, for sending some serious infra out onto the lawn… Stéph Plisson got to tame this beast.
Service and guaranteeing results
“Service is also one of the keys to the success of L-Acoustics, and it is a constant requirement. It would be self-deluding to deliver a big K system and count on customer satisfaction without first fully training the technicians who will have to use it. It is the same when installing in a fixed system. Without thorough study and careful calibration, the rated performance will never be achieved.”
“You can’t forget the strength and durability of a product. It is necessary that it has quality, upon its introduction on the market, but also that it uses sufficiently advanced technology to ensure years of service and an excellent return on investment for the customer who makes the purchase. Every product will eventually be obsolete, but you need to make sure that that happens as late as possible.
We are living in a contradictory time, during which the renewal of product portfolios is accelerating and forcing manufacturers to constantly offer new products, while this makes it difficult or impossible for users to monetize their investments. The nature of products like sound reinforcement systems can’t be allowed to get into the short life-cycle times that are found, for example, in computers – typically two to three years. Otherwise, nobody will be able to make a living.”
“It is also worth noting that, for our network and our partners, we have made a choice of customers rather than shooting everything that moves. L-Acoustics is a premium brand that has to be sold as such, by someone with a perfect knowledge of each model and who provides flawless service. It is better to be credible and expert in some areas than to have a sprinkle of knowledge in everything and nothing, all at once.
Competence in the sale of a product is essential, and it can only be acquired with time. This is why we favor historic partners who, thanks to their competence with regards to our range, can explain it well, sell it and then deploy it.”
At the conclusion of this veritable historic and strategic review, a question comes to us.
SLU : Does having appointed an executive director of the L-Group holding company – in the person of Guillaume Hervé – mean that Christian Heil, who is the president, will take a step back… that he will abandon his operational role to concentrate on the development of L-Isa?
The headquarters of the subsidiary L-Isa, in London.
“Christian has chosen to settle in London, a city where he now spends a lot of time, to take care of L-Isa. London is also an ideal base for this multichannel sound diffusion method, due to its proximity to potential customers – many renowned sound designers and, doubtlessly, also West End theaters that could be target customers, along with Broadway and Vegas.
From an operational and day-to-day point of view, Christian has taken a step back, but he is regularly in Marcoussis. He has put a team in place that is in charge of managing the group and the main subsidiary, L-Acoustics, which he placed under the direction of Hervé Guillaume. Of course, he assists us when it comes to major strategic decisions, particularly related in any way to R&D, where his knowledge is well proven.
However, it is equally true that L-Acoustics is now an entity with the capacity to operate in complete autonomy, creating its projects, carrying them out and ensuring their commercialization. We have a weekly development meeting, with a committee composed of 90% engineers, during which the areas of research are defined, based on field input and the analysis of customer needs, with the help of the people who use the products. Starting from this definition of the future product, our R&D engine gets into gear.”
A big company is, above all, a great team
Official photo of the management team of L-Group with, from top to bottom and left to right: Christophe Pignon, Senior Acoustic Research Engineer; Cédric Montrézor, Director of Fixed Installation Applications; Anne Hamlett, Director of Human Resources and Legal Affairs; Florent Bernard, Director of Touring Applications; Thibaut Jouanin, Director of Methodology and Industrialization; Stéphane Ecalle, Director of Marketing; Herve Guillaume, Managing Director in charge of the group and its various entities; and finally Christian Heil, Founder and President of L-Group.
“Finally I would like to stress the importance of the employees and executives that have made L-Acoustics what it is today. Take for example our two application engineers Florent Bernard for touring and Cédric Montrézor for installation. They fill dual roles. First, together with their teams, they provide technical support to customers, but they are also an extension of our R&D, for defining future products.
Their role is strategic, as they identify and synthesize customer needs in order to turn them into answers. They are the antennae that receives signals from the market. They can therefore be considered as product managers. On their part, our R&D team is also able to reflect on new technologies, which will be subsequently incorporated into products or which will be the base of them.
Therefore, we have people who can do product development as well as research, who can give us a definite advantage in some areas, such as software, electronics, electro-acoustics… or even mechanics, for making enclosures lighter, for example.
Genio Kronauer
I’m also thinking of Genio Kronauer, our director of electronic development. There are even products named after him in Germany.
Christophe Combet who is the director of electro-acoustic, is young and very talented.
There is Thibaut Jouanin director of methodology and industrialization, who turns concepts into products that can be manufactured.
Jochen Frohn
On the left is Laurent Vaissé, the head of the US subsidiary of L-Acoustics, next to Christian Heil.
I’m also thinking of Hervé Guillaume our managing director at the head of the group.
And of Jochen Frohn about whom we don’t talk enough. He is the director of business development, in short, a sales manager who oversees worldwide sales, a key figure at L-Acoustics.
Our US subsidiary is led by Laurent Vaissié, an extremely talented executive who is responsible for almost thirty people and for a significant portion of sales.
Today at L-Acoustics, 90% of the operation is controlled by our teams
SLU : Obviously, the idea of Christian’s retirement or even a change of shareholders of L-Acoustics has crossed our minds. This is sort of the trend these days among French professionals. Again, Stéphane Ecalle enlightens us.
“I have no idea about his plans. All I can say is that he has prepared L-Acoustics for the future. He wants the company and the management that leads it to be able to achieve a level of autonomy that will allow the transition to the post-Christian-Heil era.
Many of our competitors – and even companies outside the audio industry – have built their reputation on a man, implying that everything rests entirely on his shoulders, especially in terms of ideas and R&D. We are no longer at all in this situation. Today at L-Acoustics, 90% of the operation is controlled by our teams. This is essential and it adds even more to the company’s value.
No, seriously, you planned on breathing?? Thirty-two 18-inch speakers, it will not be easy if you stand up front!!
The future is built by providing for the replacement of all or part of the brain that makes up its capital. It is obvious that we will not have a second Christian Heil; this man has extraordinary intelligence and a vision, but it is entirely possible to create a team between management, application, R&D and strong marketing that can lead L-Acoustics to new horizons. As I said, the majority of the company is still owned by Christian Heil.”
Sound Vision in all its splendor
SLU : The temptation is too strong for us not to ask some final questions, referring to possible forthcoming new products, that Stéphane – a veteran used to dealing with the press – fields expertly.
“Combining into a single software Soundvision and LA Network Manager, yes, this idea seems like common sense. The users are the same and the purpose is the same. This is not on the agenda and technically it is not easy, but conceivable.
A new amp intended to replace the LA8? Again, why not? Yes, our partners are still the same for the amplification platform and there are two of them, but I can not tell you more.
I can only invite you all to Frankfurt. We will introduce a number of new products. I highly recommend that you go this year.”
The assembly plant in four photos
A view of the double production line. Note the speakers and the huge cartons of absorbent filling. In the past, one enclosure was assembled by one worker. Now, the teams occupy different positions and thus assemble specific parts for two hours, then move over to another job, thus avoiding the repetitiveness and improving the final quality of the assembly.
Conveyer belts lead the different enclosures through two anechoic chambers – on the right in the image – in which various tests are conducted to verify that the product works (phase, impedance, anomalous noises due to elements that could be dropped inside during assembly) and, above all, that the performance meets strict tolerances. All the testing is automated, except for a few tests that are always made with a pair of ears. Note also that, compared to previous facilities, the presence of two anechoic chambers greatly increases production rates and, most importantly, removes a bottleneck in the flow of deliveries.
Subs coming down like rain. In the foreground, those are not speaker domes, but handles waiting to be mounted. Production capacity has increased to an average of 850 enclosures per week, all told, and with only one shift per day. So, it is far from its full potential. Depending on the model, it takes from 20 minutes to about an hour to build a speaker cabinet ready to use. The new assembly line was launched in April, 2015.
The end of the production line, where the speaker enclosures are packaged before their short trip to the warehouse. If you need K2s, out come a few!
CONCLUSION
Change is under way in Marcoussis. Oh, it will not be a revolution, no… tomorrow L-Acoustics will not be bringing out a range of molded-plastic speakers for mobile DJs, a Bluetooth walkman version of Kara or “K for Men,” the scent of wood. One senses, nonetheless, a turn towards the market economy, taking into greater consideration business cycles and, above all, the beneficial effects of a solid management on a younger team without departing from the founder’s triptych: quality, advanced technology and training.
Jean Michel Jarre in Paris, July 14, 1995, where over a million people stretched hundreds of meters on the Champ-de-Mars. We knew how to do it without V-DOSC, but it was easier with!
There has been a lot of talk about generational renewal in French technical industries, where a reshuffling of the cards is currently in full swing. L-Acoustics is probably preparing to face the same challenge, but from atop a peak of corporate status and globally enviable success… alone to face the big Anglo-Saxon groups and, especially, supported by a turnover that places it in the top three professional speaker manufacturers. Yet L-Acoustics still possesses a significant rate of growth and its capital is essentially owned by its founder.
Even though product development costs are exploding, 29% sales growth in 2015 and probably even more this year, when the new products will be added to the X Series at PL+S, make L-Acoustics a flagship of French manufacturers and an export champion in all categories. I hear a rooster crowing in the distance, and I hope it crows for a long time.
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