BBE Sound Inc., a family-run maker of signal processors and other electronic gear for musicians, is looking to consumer electronics for growth.
The Huntington Beach-based company is known for equalizers, processors, amplifiers and other devices that enhance the sound of instruments and live music.
BBE also makes guitars at its Fullerton-based G & L; Musical Instruments, which was started by guitar pioneer Leo Fender.
The company’s products are sold at stores of Westlake Village-based Guitar Center Inc. and New York’s Sam Ash Music Corp., among others.
The company’s latest push: consumer electronics. BBE is seeking to land its sound enhancing electronics into more TVs, stereos and other products.
Licensees already include Sony Corp., Samsung Corp., LG Electronics Inc. and Olympus Corp.
BBE hopes to grow that side of the business by landing its electronic designs into mobile phones, digital camcorders and cameras, music players and video game consoles.
The company has some close competition. Santa Ana-based SRS Labs Inc. also licenses sound technology to consumer electronics makers.
BBE, with offices in Japan, South Korea, China and Europe, has yearly sales of about $20 million and 100 workers. The company plans to hire more people for its licensing team, said Chief Executive John McLaren.
A former executive at Yamaha Corporation of America and CBS’ music division, McLaren bought BBE with a group of investors in 1985.
The company was first known as Barcus-Berry Electronics. It started after engineer Robert Crooks developed the company’s signature audio electronics in 1979.
By 1984, Barcus-Berry Electronics went bankrupt. McLaren later shortened the name to BBE sound.
McLaren said he wanted to license BBE’s technology so that electronic companies could build it into their products. In 1986, he hired Freemont-based Exar Corp. to make chips that could be produced in bulk and sold cheaply.
After years of testing its chips, BBE started licensing the designs in 1991.
“The biggest challenge for the company at the time was that there weren’t any compact stereo chips that you could sell to licensees,” he said. “All there was were these large, individual and expensive chips made for professional-grade equipment.”
Funeral Procession
Laguna Hills-based O’Connor Mortuary, a family-run funeral home operator, has opened a San Juan Capistrano center.
The company is looking to work with residents in Dana Point, San Clemente and Mission Viejo on planning funerals. O’Connor Mortuary’s other “arraignment centers” are in Irvine and at its Laguna Hills headquarters.
“Opening this arrangement center takes a little of the stress off the planning process,” said Neil O’Connor, the company’s chief executive.
Patrick J. O’Connor started the company in 1898 with son Joseph and grandson Joseph Jr. Today, the company is managed by a fourth generation of O’Connors. The company provides funeral services and cremation and sells caskets, vaults, urns and grave markers.
O’Connor Mortuary also does preplanned funeral arrangements.
The company has 30 workers and about $5 million in yearly sales. Last year, O’Connor Mortuary said it worked with about 900 families. The company plans to open another arrangement center in the inland South County, O’Connor said.
Prototype Push
Judy Greenspon, owner of prototype developer NPI Services Inc., has her hands on products long before the masses.
Costa Mesa-based NPI makes early versions of products for electronics makers, technology startups, aerospace and medical companies and academic research labs. The company buys materials from suppliers around the world and has prototypes produced under contract at factories in OC.
Greenspon started the company in 1998 with $35,000 after she oversaw economic development projects in the Philippines as part of the Peace Corps.
Since NPI’s start, the company has done work for big companies and grown at an average rate of 20%, said Greenspon, who declined to give sales.
The company typically hires recent graduates and spends about $5,000 a year on computer and engineering software training. NPI has 10 workers and is looking to grow.
The goal this year: gaining ISO certification to win more with medical and aerospace companies.
Online Background Checks
You can find out a lot of stuff about people on the Internet.
Apscreen Inc., an employment screening company in Rancho Santa Margarita, offers employee background checks online. They’re based on credit reporting information.
“We look for ways to make our clients use us less,” said Thomas Lawson, Apscreen’s chief executive.
Lawson started Apscreen in 1980. The company works with businesses in the gaming, military, banking, aerospace and legal sectors.
