Type Subsidiary Website www.allen-heath.com Founded 1969 | Industry Electronics Headquarters Penryn, United Kingdom Parent organization Electra Partners | |
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Products Headphones
Mixing consoles Profiles | ||
Allen & Heath (also known as AH or A&H) is a company based in Penryn, Cornwall, England, specialising in the manufacture of audio mixing consoles. Allen & Heath also makes sound management systems for industrial installations and DJ mixers for nightclubs. Allen & Heath is now part of Electra Partners.
Contents
History
Founded in 1969, the company became more widely known after involvement by Andy Bereza, Ivor Taylor, and Andrew Stirling.
In the early 1970s Allen & Heath built a custom quadraphonic mixing console for the band Pink Floyd, the MOD1, which was used by Alan Parsons to mix their live performances. The MOD1 can be seen in their movie "Live at Pompeii".
Allen & Heath was acquired by Harman International in 1991. By 2001 the manufacturer's turnover has increased tenfold.
In July 2001 there was a management buyout of the company with investment coming from 3i and Bank of Scotland. The board consisted of the four then current directors, plus two non-executive directors from its investment partners.
In March 2006 Close Growth Capital brought 3i's share for £9m in a secondary buyout. The company then employed 180 people with a turnover of £15 million.
In April 2008, A&H was sold to D&M Holdings Inc.
In June 2013, D&M Holdings sold Allen & Heath to private equity firm, Electra Partners. £43 million of equity and debt was provided by Electra Private Equity PLC and Allen & Heath's management.
Innovations
Allen & Heath was the first manufacture to mount pots and switches on the input channel circuit board. These were the first modular mixers where sub-systems could be replaced as a unit. Allen & Heath was the first company to make a small mixer, a 6 channel, 2 output transistorised mixer called the MiniMixer. The Allen & Heath Syncron A mixer was the first to use op-amps. The Allen & Heath CMC console was the first console to use a microprocessor to integrate MIDI capabilities with a mixer. The GL2 console combined Front of House (FOH) and stage monitor functionality into a single mixer, what is called a "dual function" mixer.