A broken-down motorcycle helped spark the founding of QSC, which has evolved from a boutique speaker firm favored by Led Zeppelin and The Doors into a fast-growing disruptor in the $300 billion audio-visual industry.
The Costa Mesa-based firm supplies high-performance loudspeakers, digital mixers, power amplifiers and cutting-edge AV systems to theme parks, casinos and concert halls worldwide, serving customers from performers to event managers whose livelihoods depend on its technology working flawlessly.
“We are helping them make money. That’s our business,” President Jatan Shah told the Business Journal.
It’s also helping its new owner, Acuity Inc., which acquired QSC for $1.2 billion in January 2025. Since then, QSC has been a big driver of revenue and profit at Atlanta-based Acuity, which sports a $9.5 billion market cap (NYSE: AYI).
“QSC is building the industry’s most innovative full-stack AV platform that unifies data, devices, and a cloud-first architecture to deliver real-time action, experiences, and insights,” Chief Executive Neil Ashe told analysts on a conference call to discuss fiscal 2025 results. “The
addition of QSC has evolved the geographic footprint of our AIS business, accelerating our multinational expansion. One of the markets where we have already benefited from this is India, where we compete commercially and have an experience center that we expanded during the quarter.”
The Sound of Music
When the purchase was announced last year, it was one of 2025’s largest acquisitions in Orange County, with Acuity paying 14 times QSC’s estimated earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation (EBITDA) for the 12-month period ended Aug. 31, 2024.
“In all reality, Acuity bought QSC for our talent, our people, our technology – many things that we have been successful at,” Shah said.
QSC, short for Quilter Sound Co., reported $535 million in total sales for 2024. Vice President of Finance Jared Callister told the Business Journal last year that the firm was “knocking on the door” for $600 million in 2025, with a mission to generate $1 billion in revenue.
Acuity, an industrial technology firm that develops lighting and building management solutions, called QSC “a disruptor” in the industry.
“Bringing QSC together with Acuity underscores the critical role AV technology plays in live, hybrid, and virtual experiences,” Joe Pham, then-CEO of QSC, said at the time the acquisition was announced in October 2024.
Though QSC no longer discloses revenue, Shah said “the double-digit growth trajectory has continued.”
And its growth is making a difference for Acuity, both in revenue and profit.
QSC immediately began accruing profit to Acuity. In the fiscal second quarter of last year, which included two months of QSC’s results, Acuity said its operating profit of $163 million was up around $23 million, or 16%, from last year.
“This increase was primarily a result of the year-over-year improvement in our gross profit and the inclusion of the QSC results,” Acuity’s Chief Financial Officer Karen Holcom said during the April 3 earnings call.
QSC was placed in a segment called Acuity Intelligent Spaces (AIS), which includes products like Atrius and Distech Controls. For the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2025, AIS reported sales of $472.4 million, for which QSC contributed $428.6 million, according to Acuity’s annual report.
QSC’s revenue accounted for the majority of Acuity’s rise as companywide sales climbed 13%, or $504.6 million, to $4.36 billion in fiscal 2025. Acuity’s adjusted profit climbed 20% to $768.6 million.
Shah said QSC benefits from the scale and financial backing of Acuity.
“What changes is that you now have significance in the larger financial backing of a public company,” Shah said. “The idea is to continue the journey and not lose that momentum.”
Optimizing Built Spaces
Shah first joined QSC in 2010 as chief financial officer, with a background in management consulting at McKinsey & Co. and in operations management at Carrier. It was his first stint in audio technology.
As time passed, the executive led product strategy and development, operations and IT on top of finance. In 2011, Shah won the Rising Star Award at the Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Awards for helping the privately held company cut costs and boost profits over a 12-month period.
He was appointed president and chief operating officer in 2021.
“Jatan has made a tremendous impact on QSC and the AV industry, working smartly with leaders across QSC to build new capabilities, increase scale and guide many strategic initiatives to success across our growing multi-national organization,” then CEO Pham said in a statement.
Last year, Pham retired following the Acuity acquisition, and Shah was promoted as QSC’s top official.
Shah has witnessed almost 20 years of growth at QSC, from launching the cloud-based Q-SYS platform to opening 21 distribution offices worldwide. Its headcount has increased to about 1,000 employees after acquiring several businesses to improve its Q-SYS business.
Now, with Acuity, QSC can expand its footprint in new markets beyond entertainment spaces by installing its AV systems in more commercial buildings.
“QSC has built a differentiated cloud-manageable audio, video and control platform that controls what happens in a built space,” Acuity CEO Ashe said last year. “Our acquisition of QSC builds on our vision of data interoperability as we continue to make spaces smarter, safer and greener.”
Shah said adding its products and solutions to the division made strategic sense as demand for full-system solutions grows.
“There used to be a world of separate audio, separate video controls, lighting, this and that. And now people are saying, ‘Look, I need just a full solution,’” Shah said.
Acuity last month reported fiscal first-quarter net sales of $1.1 billion, up 20% or $192 million. The AIS segment, which accounted for nearly 23% of total revenue, more than tripled its fiscal Q1 sales to $257 million.
“The two brands of QSC and Q-SYS keep thriving, even to this last year, as we grew our business significantly under the Acuity umbrella,” Shah said.
Showcasing Innovation at NAMM
At QSC, innovation is having a “performer-first mindset” that looks to solve problems, according to QSC President Jatan Shah.
“One thing that has to remain constant throughout all the decades is that focus on innovation and focus on technology to actually solve problems for people that we are serving,” said Shah, who became QSC’s top official when former CEO Joe Pham retired last year.
Every year at The NAMM Show, QSC focuses on showcasing its problem-solving new products.
This year, the Costa Mesa-based firm debuted a new battery-powered loudspeaker system—a first for QSC—a double 18-inch powered subwoofer and a new mobile app for controlling Bluetooth-equipped loudspeakers made by QSC.
On the audio side, Shah said QSC is currently developing “solutions” that keep its portable products lightweight and high-quality.
QSC’s first time attending NAMM dates to 1977, when it was still operating as Quilter.
NAMM is the go-to event where where QSC not only launches new products but also meets with key customers like distributors and dealers. Customers, or “end users,” in attendance also have the chance to experience QSC and its products in-person.
“Across decades, the through-line stays the same: we design products that let people focus on their audience—not their equipment—and we’re still aiming to push the bar higher year after year,” Shah told the Business Journal in an email.
Conference operators said NAMM was attended by more than 60,000 people. Shah took note of the crowds.
“I was joking with somebody – I said, the fact that I had a hard time finding parking actually explains that there’s a lot of energy,” Shah said.
—Emily Santiago-Molina
QSC – Born from a Motorcycle Mishap
QSC has been making audio gear in Costa Mesa since 1968.
The story of co-founders Pat Quilter and Barry Andrews can be traced back to a motorcycle mishap in an industrial park almost 60 years ago.
Andrews’ bike broke down within sight of Quilter, who at the time was the owner of an amp company called Quilter Sound Things. Quilter had built his first amplifier in 1967.
Andrews was a cabinet maker with a busted two-wheeler.
The two joined forces and added Andrews’ brother, John, to oversee the company’s finances. The products, mainly hand-built guitar amplifiers at first, were crafted in a 400-square-foot shop in Costa Mesa.
QSC, short for Quilter Sound Co., was born. The founders started selling power amplifiers a year later called the Duck and the Quilter Sound Thing from a makeshift storefront in the city.
At first it ran on “youthful optimism and negative cash flow,” according to company lore. QSC reached $150 million in sales 15 years ago for the 12 months through June, a 43% increase from two years earlier.
QSC’s annual sales have risen to about $535 million.
“We’re going to keep innovating and making sure that our solution remains current and future ready,” President Jatan Shah told the Business Journal.
Nowadays, the founders have moved on to new ventures. Pat Quilter returned to his original venture, making guitar amps, and revived his namesake brand as Quilter Laboratories in 2011 to escape the “large corporate infrastructure.”
—Emily Santiago-Molina
