Event sponsor: JBL

JBL is an American company that manufactures audio equipment, including loudspeakers and headphones. There are two independent divisions within the company; JBL Consumer produces audio equipment for the consumer home market, while the JBL Professional produces professional equipment for the studio, installed sound, tour sound, portable sound (production and DJ), and cinema markets. JBL is owned by Harman International Industries.

Lansing and his business partner Ken Decker started a company in 1927, in Los Angeles, manufacturing six- and eight-inch speaker drivers for radio consoles and radio sets. The company was called "Lansing Manufacturing Company", from March 1, 1927.[1] In 1933, head of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) sound department, Douglas Shearer, dissatisfied with the loudspeakers of Western Electric and RCA, decided to develop his own. John Hilliard, Robert Stephens and John F. Blackburn were part of the team that developed the Shearer Horn, with Lansing Manufacturing producing the 285 compression driver and the 15XS bass driver. The Shearer Horn gave the desired improvements and Western Electric and RCA received the contracts to each build 75 units, with Western Electric calling them "Diaphonics" and RCA using them in their RCA Photophones. Lansing Manufacturing was the only one selling them as Shearer Horns. In 1936, the Shearer Horn received the Academy Scientific and Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Over the next two decades, JBL went more mass-market with their consumer (Northridge) line of loudspeakers. At the same time, they made an entry into the high-end market with their project speakers, consisting of the Everest and K2 lines. JBL became a prominent supplier to the tour sound industry, their loudspeakers being employed by touring rock acts and music festivals. JBL products were the basis for the development of THX loudspeaker standard, which resulted in JBL becoming a popular cinema loudspeaker manufacturer. JBL was formerly used in Ford's top-of-the-line vehicle audio systems, as competition for Chrysler (whose cars used Infinity) and Nissan (who used Bose).