Plantronics

Early Plantronics headset

In the early 1960s, airline headsets were so large and cumbersome that many pilots had switched back to the use of handheld microphones for communications. The speed and complexity of jet airliners caused a need for the introduction of small, lightweight headsets into the cockpit. In 1961, United Airlines solicited new designs from anyone who was interested. Courtney Graham, a United Airlines pilot, was one of the many who thought the heavy headsets should be replaced by something lighter. He collaborated with his pilot friend Keith Larkin to create a small, functional design which was robust enough to pass airlines standards. (Larkin had been working for a small company called Plane-Aids, a Japanese import company which offered spectacles and sunglasses that contained transistor radios in their temple pieces.)[4] The final design, incorporating two small hearing aid-style transducers attached to a headband was submitted to United Airline approval. UAL's approval of the innovative design caused Graham and Larkin to incorporate as Pacific Plantronics (now called Plantronics, Inc.) on May 18, 1961. They introduced the first lightweight communications headset, the MS-50, to the commercial marketplace in 1962.

In the mid-1960s, the Federal Aviation Agency selected Plantronics as the sole supplier of headsets for air traffic controllers, and thereafter was selected to supply headsets to the operators of the Bell Telephone company.

On December 27, 2018, Plantronics agreed to pay $36 million to settle a bribery investigation connected to Polycom, a newly-acquired subsidiary.[5] In 2019, after the Polycom merger, Plantronics rebranded as Poly.

In 1961, NASA astronaut, Wally Schirra contacted Courtney Graham, a fellow pilot, to discuss creating a design for a small, lightweight headset to be used in the Mercury spacecraft.

Pacific Plantronics assembled its Space Environmental Communications (SPENCOMM) division to begin working on a reliable solution. SPENCOMM personnel traveled to NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center) and Kennedy Space Center to meet with and get design feedback from Schirra and several other astronauts, including Gordon Cooper.[4]

Neil Armstrong with Plantronics headset

Together, SPENCOMM and NASA spent only 11 days to create a working microphone design for space communications and Schirra was the first to use the new communication technology during the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission.[4] Significant redundancy was built into these headsets, as each microphone circuit had two transducers and each receiver had 5 transducers—in addition, the headsets were used in pairs. The use of these SPENCOMM-NASA headsets in astronaut space suits continued through the remainder of the Mercury program, the Apollo program and on to this day. The words spoken by U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong as he stepped on the moon were transmitted through a Plantronics headset.[6]

Following the Pacific Plantronics partnership with NASA in the Space Program, the MS-50 headset gained recognition in the communication marketplace. FAA, Western Electric and companies with telephone call centers adapted the MS-50 as a replacement for existing headsets.

On May 18, 1965, U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,556 was issued to W. K. Larkin for a

miniaturized headset wherein a hearing-aid size microphone transducer and a similarly miniaturized transducer are placed in a capsule mounted near the user's ear; speech is conducted to the microphone via an acoustic tube positioned near the user's mouth, while incoming communications emanating from the receiver are conducted to the user's ear via a second acoustic tube.[7]

Plantronics StarSet patent drawing showing proposed use of invention

In 1970, Ken Hutchings, an engineer who had joined Pacific Plantronics, patented a device which was marketed as the "StarSet". United States Patent 3548118 describes

A self-supporting headset having a housing which accommodates a receiver and microphone. A flexible acoustic tube adapted to communicate between the auditory canal of the ear of the user and the receiver secured to the bottom of the housing, and an adjustable acoustic tube secured to the top of the housing with its distal end adapted to be disposed adjacent to the mouth of the user to transmit sound to the microphone.[8]

Plantronics office headset on its charger

In the 1980s, Plantronics created a line of cordless products using infrared technology. Though the technology utilized was the same one being used by television remote controls, the link did not require a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) telecommunications approval. One of the first products used the infrared beam to create a communications link between a small transmitter and a base unit which was connected to the telephone network. This product was the first "echo-free" speakerphone for use in conference rooms. The small transmitter could be handheld or clipped to clothing to ensure a good pickup of the speaker's voice.

Mobile and Bluetooth mobile headsets

Plantronics BackBeat PRO 2 Box

Plantronics manufactures mobile headsets, including a line of Bluetooth headsets for mobile phones. The Pulsar 590, for example, is designed for use with Bluetooth and A2DP enabled cellphones.

Plantronics manufactures headsets for PC audio and online and console gaming via its GameCom and .Audio labels. Plantronics entered the multimedia headset market in 1999 with the release of the HS1 and the DSP-500 headsets, the latter featuring a built-in Digital Signal Processing card. In 2002, Plantronics and Microsoft created the headset for the Xbox Communicator, the first headset to enable voice communication with Xbox Live.[11] The company created a special headset for the Xbox as a tie-in with the videogame Halo 2 in 2004.

Plantronics has expanded into other segments of the audio equipment market through acquisitions.

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  NASA Astronaut Neil Armstrong wearing "Snoopy cap" with Plantronics (SPENCOM) headset prior to his Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969.
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  NASA Astronaut Tom Stafford wearing "Snoopy" cap with Plantronics (SPENCOM) headset in 1975 (Apollo-Soyuz Mission)
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  Plantronics (SPENCOM) headsets in use by NASA Astronauts Evans and Cernan, both wearing "Snoopy" caps, aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft.

• Mirchandani, V.; Benioff, M. (2010). "Chapter 8". The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations. Wiley Professional Advisory Services. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 107–112. ISBN 978-0-470-76845-7.
• Alexander, Steve (October 7, 1996). "Plantronics eases growing pains with Oracle applications". InfoWorld. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
• Raulerson, P.; Malraison, J.C.; Leboyer, A. (2009). Building Routes to Customers: Proven Strategies for Profitable Growth. Business and Economics. Springer New York. pp. 9–11. ISBN 978-0-387-79951-3.
• Plunkett, J.W. (2008). Plunkett's Wireless, Wi-Fi, RFID & Cellular Industry Almanac. Plunkett's Wireless, Wi-Fi, RFID & Cellular Industry Almanac. Plunkett Research Limited. p. 320. ISBN 978-1-59392-117-0.
• van Dam, N.; Marcus, J. (2012). Organization and Management: An International Approach. Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices. Taylor & Francis. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-136-64648-5.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plantronics.

• Official website