LRAD..oil platforms, Olympic games, New York PD, war zones...(and much, much more to come..lol)...tough to find a better 'story' stock, especially, with rapidly increasing revenues.
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From: timesrecord.com 0563D93?Opendocument
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This device comes across loud and clear
Christopher_Cousins@TimesRecord.Com
08/25/2004
TOPSHAM — A small company is distributing new technology, which is being heard loud and clear around the world.
Really, really loud and clear ... and developed right here in Topsham.
American Technology Corp., a 35-person California-based company with a branch office in the Great Bowdoin Mill, developed its "long range acoustic device" so person-to-person communication can occur at distances usually reserved for telephones, radios or other communication devices.
In layman's terms, it's essentially a large speaker, but the device is so loud that a key is required to turn it up all the way.
"Our's go to 11," quipped Steve Bradbury, recalling a classic line from the parody documentary "This is Spinal Tap," in which a spoofed rock star explains how the volume on his amplifiers go one notch higher than any other.
The device, referred to by Bradbury and his coworkers as the "LRAD," was recently installed aboard Humvees and other police vehicles in New York City for use during next week's Republican National Convention. It is also deployed aboard warships around the world, in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and on oil platforms in Bahrain. It is also being used at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, for long-range announcements.
Bradbury, the company's product development manager, demonstrated the device recently outside the Great Bowdoin Mill.
"Keep going," he told a reporter and a photographer at least three times as they walked away from the device to test its effectiveness. Even at its lowest setting, a pre-recorded voice track could be heard and understood clearly at 100 yards. At that distance, a warning tone emitted by the device was, as promised in company literature, "highly irritating." And all this was possible with only the power of a 12-volt battery booster device.
The LRAD is capable of emitting 151 decibles of sound, which is louder than a jetliner taking off but not quite as loud as a rocket launch. Sounds at 120 decibels and higher are considered to be above the human threshold of pain. The device is effective at distances of 500 yards and more, especially over water.
Developed with mostly private funds, the LRAD was designed in reaction to the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000. That terrorist attack highlighted the need for a way for the military to communicate with — and warn — approaching watercraft at long distances.
It looks like a single large speaker, but it's actually an array of more than 70 very small and precisely aimed speakers, which collaborate to emit a focused "beam" of sound. Standing behind it, the LRAD doesn't sound that loud, even at high volumes. In front of it is considered a danger zone.
Other than vessel-to-vessel communication, it is used for crowd control, building-clearing operations, psychological operations and other uses.
"People are very impressed when they see it," said Bradbury, who mans the small Topsham office with Ken Winter, director of systems engineering and product development, and A.J. Ballard, another project manager. "This company will be growing in the near future. We're all out straight here."
Winter said the company is committed to keeping operations in Maine.
"We find Maine to be an ideal workplace and are pursuing a larger manufacturing role for this great state," said Winter. "We look forward to a bright future for our company."
f/b wpc |
