No joke: Local company builds wireless mics for movie sets

Lectrosonics, a Rio Rancho company that produces wireless microphones for 80 percent of Hollywood’s movie and television shows as well as for television broadcast news shows throughout the country, announced Monday that it had produced the first solar-powered wireless transmitter, which was about the size of a credit card.

Turns out, Lectrosonics President Larry Fisher was sending out a press release of a fake product.

The product photo of a magnifying glass being held over the product while also frying an ant should have been the first clue.

April Fool’s.

At least the company president has a sense of humor.

But there’s nothing humorous about the products it actually does produce.

When Simon Hayes, a sound technician for the movie “Les Miserables,” won the Oscar for best sound mixing, he credited the wireless microphones used in the production that were made by Lectrosonics in Rio Rancho.

Karl Winkler, director of new business for the company, said the musical broke ground by being the first musical to have the performers actually sing the songs live during the taping for the film instead of dubbing the music while performers were lipsynching.

“He chose our products because he said he didn’t feel that he could do it any other way,” Winkler said.

“Your wireless products are the best in the business and I couldn’t have done it without them,” Hayes told him.

That niche in the wireless microphone network evolved over the years.

Lectrosonics launched in Albuquerque in 1971 by purchasing the rights to manufacture a bullhorn product called the “Voice Projector.” The first units were dispatched to the Albuquerque Police Department.

By the end of that decade, the company had produced a rechargeable battery-powered amplifier that allowed street musicians to sing into a wireless microphone and amplify their instruments and voices so that people walking on the streets could hear the music above the competing clutter of downtown traffic.

The “Mouse,” as the system was called, was such a hit in New York City and San Francisco that there were literally thousands of them on the streets.

Then, in the early ’80s, the company released an outdoor portable public announcement system called the “Long Ranger” that quickly became the standard for auctioneers and marching band directors. The company still has the final few dozen Long Rangers that were produced.

The company moved its entire operation to Rio Rancho in 1988 and now includes a state-of-the-art machine shop and modern equipment, which allows the company to manufacture virtually every piece of its equipment.

At about the same time, the company realized its future would be in wireless microphones. It created a product that would allow television crews to transmit voices from reporters to a mixer that would record sound on the camera’s video. WGN in Chicago was an early adapter and became an evangelist for the company.

“(WGN reporters) would grab people at trade shows and drag them to our booth,” Winkler said.

From the beginning, the company decided to make American products here, employ local workers and build products that were superior to other brands. At the same time, it created a customer service philosophy based on the notion that it was creating high-end equipment that they would stand behind.

“One of the things that makes us unique is that we support all of our products until we can’t do it because of parts availability,” Winkler said. “Even though we don’t make Long Rangers anymore, we still service them.”

In the service area there were about a half-dozen Long Rangers waiting for repairs, including one with a plastic horn that was broken and they were trying to find a part for.

That service component becomes important when sound technicians order a wireless system for $4,000 apiece.

The company’s 160 employees make most of its products in-house from original concept to manufacturing to testing and shipping. It builds components from circuit boards with components the size of a grain of sand to a two-foot rectangular box housing the latest digital audio processors designed to deliver high-quality sound during conference calls utilizing multiple microphones.

But their wireless microphones have become their most recognizable products. You can see them in the movie “Batman: Dark Moon Rising” during a pivotal scene when one is dropped and the camera focuses on the Lectrosonic brand as the wireless mic rests on the ground. Or in the Super Bowl, when singers use them for the National Anthem and referees flip a switch to announce their calls.

You won’t see them on actors because they are hidden. Or with music groups — including the Dixie Chicks, Journey, Foreigner and AC/DC — who use them to transmit their guitar sounds to larger sound systems. And you may not see them on preachers, free to walk away from the pulpit to emphasize a key point in a sermon. But, they are there.

Engineering and technology drive the company, which helps Lectrosonics make the best wireless microphones on the planet. “We design the best possible product in the world,” Winkler said.

The pros rely on Lectrosonics to produce sound that some say is too good to be true.

It’s no joke.

It sounded too good to be true.

Lectrosonics, a Rio Rancho company that produces wireless microphones for 80 percent of Hollywood’s movie and television shows as well as for television broadcast news shows throughout the country, announced Monday that it had produced the first solar-powered wireless transmitter, which was about the size of a credit card.

Turns out, Lectrosonics President Larry Fisher was sending out a press release of a fake product.

The product photo of a magnifying glass being held over the product while also frying an ant should have been the first clue.

April Fool’s.

At least the company president has a sense of humor.

But there’s nothing humorous about the products it actually does produce.

When Simon Hayes, a sound technician for the movie “Les Miserables,” won the Oscar for best sound mixing, he credited the wireless microphones used in the production that were made by Lectrosonics in Rio Rancho.

Karl Winkler, director of new business for the company, said the musical broke ground by being the first musical to have the performers actually sing the songs live during the taping for the film instead of dubbing the music while performers were lipsynching.

“He chose our products because he said he didn’t feel that he could do it any other way,” Winkler said.

“Your wireless products are the best in the business and I couldn’t have done it without them,” Hayes told him.

That niche in the wireless microphone network evolved over the years.

Lectrosonics launched in Albuquerque in 1971 by purchasing the rights to manufacture a bullhorn product called the “Voice Projector.” The first units were dispatched to the Albuquerque Police Department.

By the end of that decade, the company had produced a rechargeable battery-powered amplifier that allowed street musicians to sing into a wireless microphone and amplify their instruments and voices so that people walking on the streets could hear the music above the competing clutter of downtown traffic.

The “Mouse,” as the system was called, was such a hit in New York City and San Francisco that there were literally thousands of them on the streets.

Then, in the early ’80s, the company released an outdoor portable public announcement system called the “Long Ranger” that quickly became the standard for auctioneers and marching band directors. The company still has the final few dozen Long Rangers that were produced.

The company moved its entire operation to Rio Rancho in 1988 and now includes a state-of-the-art machine shop and modern equipment, which allows the company to manufacture virtually every piece of its equipment.

At about the same time, the company realized its future would be in wireless microphones. It created a product that would allow television crews to transmit voices from reporters to a mixer that would record sound on the camera’s video. WGN in Chicago was an early adapter and became an evangelist for the company.

“(WGN reporters) would grab people at trade shows and drag them to our booth,” Winkler said.

From the beginning, the company decided to make American products here, employ local workers and build products that were superior to other brands. At the same time, it created a customer service philosophy based on the notion that it was creating high-end equipment that they would stand behind.

“One of the things that makes us unique is that we support all of our products until we can’t do it because of parts availability,” Winkler said. “Even though we don’t make Long Rangers anymore, we still service them.”

In the service area there were about a half-dozen Long Rangers waiting for repairs, including one with a plastic horn that was broken and they were trying to find a part for.

That service component becomes important when sound technicians order a wireless system for $4,000 apiece.

The company’s 160 employees make most of its products in-house from original concept to manufacturing to testing and shipping. It builds components from circuit boards with components the size of a grain of sand to a two-foot rectangular box housing the latest digital audio processors designed to deliver high-quality sound during conference calls utilizing multiple microphones.

But their wireless microphones have become their most recognizable products. You can see them in the movie “Batman: Dark Moon Rising” during a pivotal scene when one is dropped and the camera focuses on the Lectrosonic brand as the wireless mic rests on the ground. Or in the Super Bowl, when singers use them for the National Anthem and referees flip a switch to announce their calls.

You won’t see them on actors because they are hidden. Or with music groups — including the Dixie Chicks, Journey, Foreigner and AC/DC — who use them to transmit their guitar sounds to larger sound systems. And you may not see them on preachers, free to walk away from the pulpit to emphasize a key point in a sermon. But, they are there.

Engineering and technology drive the company, which helps Lectrosonics make the best wireless microphones on the planet. “We design the best possible product in the world,” Winkler said.

The pros rely on Lectrosonics to produce sound that some say is too good to be true.

It’s no joke.