PEIKER acustic
Encyclopedia
Peiker Acustic GmbH & Co. KG (styled all-lower-case as "peiker acustic" in the official company logo) is a family-owned and company, based in Friedrichsdorf
, Taunus
, Germany
, with about 600 employees worldwide. Since 1946, the company has specialized in manufacturing electronic products including microphone
s, loudspeaker
s, handset
s for radio
and mobile telephone use, Bluetooth
hands-free kits, and in-vehicle multimedia
systems.
In 2007, the Peiker group of companies generated approximately 120 million euro
s in sales. After the closure of large portions of the Milupa plant in Friedrichsdorf, Peiker is now the city's largest employer.
manufacturers
, along with various industrial firms, police
and fire department
s, emergency medical services
, government agencies and official bodies
and Public transit agencies. The company's specialties include the fields of acoustics
(with analog
and digital signal processing
), validation,, and the manufacturing, construction and development of hardware and software for in-vehicle communications devices.
, in Germany
's Taunus
region. International affiliates include Peiker Acustic, Inc., based in Irving
, Texas
, a subsidiary named Peiker France
SAS in Paris, the subsidiary Peiker de México
S.A. de C.V. in Ciudad Juárez
, and Pei Tel Communications GmbH, which is based in the town of Teltow
, Germany, and is responsible for worldwide sales of the company's product range for government agencies. The company also maintains close cooperative ties with associated company ALAC GmbH, based in Kirchhundem
, Germany.
Since 2007, 100 percent of Peiker Acustic has once again been owned, indirectly, by the family that founded the company.
The managing directors of the company are Andreas Peiker and Stephan Graf von der Schulenburg, while Dr. Agilolf Lamperstorfer, is the chairman of the supervisory board. The company's main building, located in the Friedrichsdorf industrial zone on Max-Planck-Strasse, houses production, warehouse, and administrative space, and a plastics injection facility is located in the adjacent neighborhood of Köppern. In addition, since 1996 the company has had a logistics center
directly adjacent to that facility. The company's development department, which is critically important to its activities, is located in various buildings and some of its functions are also performed at Peiker locations abroad.
s, such as ISO 9001, QS 9000 and VDA 6.1
, ISO/TS 16949:2002, and the ISO 14001:1996 environmental certificate.
s commonly used at the time; the company revised and improved it several times over the years.
During the years that followed, Peiker Acustic achieved one historic milestone after another: In 1957, American balloonist Major David G. Simons was the first person to travel to more than 30,000 meters in altitude, wearing a special microphone from Peiker built into his helmet as he did so. Four years later, the Peiker hand microphone TM70 for UHER Report brand audiotape devices was the first microphone used on a climb in the Himalayas.
The company relocated its head office, in 1962, to the town of Ober-Eschbach, and in 1967 the company name was also changed, to Peiker Acustic, Fabrik Elektroakustischer Geräte, Heinrich Peiker GmbH & Co. KG. Ten years later, Heinrich Peiker was awarded the Cross of Merit
of the Federal Republic of Germany by the then Minister of Economics of the German state of Hesse, Heinz-Herbert Karry, in honor of his entrepreneurial and social achievements. The company continued to bring out new microphones and speakers. To ensure that the firm stayed in the family, Andreas Peiker (who had been managing director since 1981) took over as the head of the company in 1983, following the death of his father.
Over the next few years, changes took shape within the company's portfolio: With the development of handsets for mobile telephony, the first Bluetooth
hands-free kit for in-car use for Siemens
, and the first digital answering machine for Alcatel
, Peiker Acustic entered a new product segment as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer
). The company's focus increasingly shifted to supplying communications solutions for the mobile phone market and automotive industry, and this gradually replaced microphone manufacturing
as the mainstay of Peiker's business.
In 1992, the company relocated its headquarters and changed its name for the last time. Now, Peiker Acustic GmbH & Co. KG has its headquarters in the industrial zone on Max-Planck-Strasse in Friedrichsdorf. At the same time, Pei Tel Communications GmbH was established in the town of Teltow, in Greater Berlin. The new company was founded for the development and sale of the Peiker standard product range. In addition, the company established a partnership with ALAC GmbH, a manufacturer of multimedia hands-free kits. In 1993, Peiker established its first foreign subsidiary
, Peiker France S.a.r.l. (now Peiker France SAS), based in Paris. In 1996, the company expanded its activities in North America
with its new subsidiary, Peiker Acustic, Inc., originally based in Auburn
, Georgia
, USA. This branch location was ultimately relocated to Dallas, Texas in 1999.
In 2000, Peiker succeeded, in cooperation with ELSA
, in launching one of the world's first Bluetooth hands-free kits for vehicles. A year later, Peiker opened a technical office in Detroit. In 2004, another production site was opened, Peiker México, in Ciudad Juárez. The same year, the company also established its competency center in the town of Böblingen
, Germany, dedicated primarily to speech input
systems and vehicle connections. In 2005, Peiker developed the first full in-car integration system for the Apple iPod
. In June 2006, Peiker dedicated its new logistics center, occupying more than 3000 m² of space, on the grounds of its headquarters in Friedrichsdorf. In 2008, the company decided to purchase a neighboring plot of land offering 12,000 m2 of space, with an eye to further expansion.
Friedrichsdorf
Friedrichsdorf is a town of the Hochtaunuskreis, some north of Frankfurt am Main in Hesse, Germany.-Location: Friedrichsdorf is located in the Taunus area, ranking third among the Hochtaunuskreis boroughs after Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and Oberursel...
, Taunus
Taunus
The Taunus is a low mountain range in Hesse, Germany that composes part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. It is bounded by the river valleys of Rhine, Main and Lahn. On the opposite side of the Rhine, the mountains are continued by the Hunsrück...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, with about 600 employees worldwide. Since 1946, the company has specialized in manufacturing electronic products including microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
s, loudspeaker
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
s, handset
Handset
On a telephone, the handset is a device the user holds to the ear to hear the audio sound. Modern-day handsets usually contain the phone's microphone as well, but in early telephones the microphone was mounted directly on the telephone itself, which often was attached to a wall at a convenient...
s for radio
Walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
and mobile telephone use, Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
hands-free kits, and in-vehicle multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
systems.
In 2007, the Peiker group of companies generated approximately 120 million euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s in sales. After the closure of large portions of the Milupa plant in Friedrichsdorf, Peiker is now the city's largest employer.
Clients
Peiker Acustic's main clients include well-known automotive and mobile phoneMobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
manufacturers
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
, along with various industrial firms, police
Law enforcement agency
In North American English, a law enforcement agency is a government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.Outside North America, such organizations are called police services. In North America, some of these services are called police while others have other names In North American...
and fire department
Fire department
A fire department or fire brigade is a public or private organization that provides fire protection for a certain jurisdiction, which typically is a municipality, county, or fire protection district...
s, emergency medical services
Emergency medical services
Emergency medical services are a type of emergency service dedicated to providing out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient, or the medical practitioner, believes constitutes a medical emergency...
, government agencies and official bodies
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...
and Public transit agencies. The company's specialties include the fields of acoustics
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
(with analog
Analog signal processing
Analog signal processing is any signal processing conducted on analog signals by analog means. "Analog" indicates something that is mathematically represented as a set of continuous values. This differs from "digital" which uses a series of discrete quantities to represent signal...
and digital signal processing
Digital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
), validation,, and the manufacturing, construction and development of hardware and software for in-vehicle communications devices.
Geographic location and corporate structure
The company's headquarters are located in the city of FriedrichsdorfFriedrichsdorf
Friedrichsdorf is a town of the Hochtaunuskreis, some north of Frankfurt am Main in Hesse, Germany.-Location: Friedrichsdorf is located in the Taunus area, ranking third among the Hochtaunuskreis boroughs after Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and Oberursel...
, in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's Taunus
Taunus
The Taunus is a low mountain range in Hesse, Germany that composes part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. It is bounded by the river valleys of Rhine, Main and Lahn. On the opposite side of the Rhine, the mountains are continued by the Hunsrück...
region. International affiliates include Peiker Acustic, Inc., based in Irving
Irving
Irving is originally a Scottish surname, a variant of the name Irvine, which is derived from the eponymous River Irvine inDumfriesshire. It may also refer to:pinguino bailarin-Family name:* Amy Irving , American film and stage actress...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, a subsidiary named Peiker France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
SAS in Paris, the subsidiary Peiker de México
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
S.A. de C.V. in Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
, and Pei Tel Communications GmbH, which is based in the town of Teltow
Teltow
Teltow is a town in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:Teltow is part of the agglomeration of Berlin. The distance to the Berlin city centre is , while the distance to Potsdam is ....
, Germany, and is responsible for worldwide sales of the company's product range for government agencies. The company also maintains close cooperative ties with associated company ALAC GmbH, based in Kirchhundem
Kirchhundem
Kirchhundem is a community in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It belongs to the Olpe district.- Location :The community of Kirchhundem lies in the Olpe district’s southeast in the south Sauerland and belongs to the so-called Bilsteiner Bergland...
, Germany.
Since 2007, 100 percent of Peiker Acustic has once again been owned, indirectly, by the family that founded the company.
The managing directors of the company are Andreas Peiker and Stephan Graf von der Schulenburg, while Dr. Agilolf Lamperstorfer, is the chairman of the supervisory board. The company's main building, located in the Friedrichsdorf industrial zone on Max-Planck-Strasse, houses production, warehouse, and administrative space, and a plastics injection facility is located in the adjacent neighborhood of Köppern. In addition, since 1996 the company has had a logistics center
Logistics center
A logistics center is a facility dedicated to logistical operations. A logistics center might be a warehouse, freight forwarder, or a repair depot....
directly adjacent to that facility. The company's development department, which is critically important to its activities, is located in various buildings and some of its functions are also performed at Peiker locations abroad.
Certifications
In the past, the company has successfully obtained a number of certificationCertification
Certification refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organization. This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, assessment, or audit...
s, such as ISO 9001, QS 9000 and VDA 6.1
VDA 6.1
VDA 6.1 is a German quality management system standard. It was initiated by the automobile industry. The first VDA standard was for the exchange of surface models, and was named "VDA-FS". It has been superseded along the way, by a subset of the "Initial Graphics Exchange Specification" ; referred...
, ISO/TS 16949:2002, and the ISO 14001:1996 environmental certificate.
History
In 1946, Heinrich Peiker and his father-in-law Paul Beerwald founded the company Beerwald & Co. for the manufacture and sale of piezoelectric and acoustic devices. The company was initially headquartered in the city of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe. The company made its major breakthrough with the development of a piezoelectric microphone whose electric adaptation was precisely tailored to the vacuum tube amplifierValve amplifier
A valve amplifier or tube amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier that makes use of vacuum tubes to increase the power and/or amplitude of a signal. Low to medium power valve amplifiers for frequencies below the microwaves were largely replaced by solid state amplifiers during the 1960s and...
s commonly used at the time; the company revised and improved it several times over the years.
During the years that followed, Peiker Acustic achieved one historic milestone after another: In 1957, American balloonist Major David G. Simons was the first person to travel to more than 30,000 meters in altitude, wearing a special microphone from Peiker built into his helmet as he did so. Four years later, the Peiker hand microphone TM70 for UHER Report brand audiotape devices was the first microphone used on a climb in the Himalayas.
The company relocated its head office, in 1962, to the town of Ober-Eschbach, and in 1967 the company name was also changed, to Peiker Acustic, Fabrik Elektroakustischer Geräte, Heinrich Peiker GmbH & Co. KG. Ten years later, Heinrich Peiker was awarded the Cross of Merit
Cross of Merit
There are hundreds of decorations that bear the name "Cross of Merit". As a rule a cross of merit is higher than a medal but not as esteemed as the grade of Knight in an order of merit.- The Netherlands :...
of the Federal Republic of Germany by the then Minister of Economics of the German state of Hesse, Heinz-Herbert Karry, in honor of his entrepreneurial and social achievements. The company continued to bring out new microphones and speakers. To ensure that the firm stayed in the family, Andreas Peiker (who had been managing director since 1981) took over as the head of the company in 1983, following the death of his father.
Over the next few years, changes took shape within the company's portfolio: With the development of handsets for mobile telephony, the first Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
hands-free kit for in-car use for Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
, and the first digital answering machine for Alcatel
Alcatel
Alcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China....
, Peiker Acustic entered a new product segment as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer
Original Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
). The company's focus increasingly shifted to supplying communications solutions for the mobile phone market and automotive industry, and this gradually replaced microphone manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
as the mainstay of Peiker's business.
In 1992, the company relocated its headquarters and changed its name for the last time. Now, Peiker Acustic GmbH & Co. KG has its headquarters in the industrial zone on Max-Planck-Strasse in Friedrichsdorf. At the same time, Pei Tel Communications GmbH was established in the town of Teltow, in Greater Berlin. The new company was founded for the development and sale of the Peiker standard product range. In addition, the company established a partnership with ALAC GmbH, a manufacturer of multimedia hands-free kits. In 1993, Peiker established its first foreign subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
, Peiker France S.a.r.l. (now Peiker France SAS), based in Paris. In 1996, the company expanded its activities in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
with its new subsidiary, Peiker Acustic, Inc., originally based in Auburn
Auburn, Georgia
As of 2010 Auburn had a population of 6,887. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 85.3% white, 4.9% black or African American, 0.4% Native American, 4.1% Asian, 3.3% from some other race and 2.1% reporting two or more races...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, USA. This branch location was ultimately relocated to Dallas, Texas in 1999.
In 2000, Peiker succeeded, in cooperation with ELSA
Elsa
-Places:*Elsa, California, an unincorporated community*Elsa, Texas, a city*Elsa, Yukon, a privately-owned mining town-ELSA:*ELSA Technology, a manufacturer of computer hardware*European Law Students' Association*European League of Stuttering Associations...
, in launching one of the world's first Bluetooth hands-free kits for vehicles. A year later, Peiker opened a technical office in Detroit. In 2004, another production site was opened, Peiker México, in Ciudad Juárez. The same year, the company also established its competency center in the town of Böblingen
Böblingen
Böblingen is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, seat of Böblingen District. Physically Sindelfingen and Böblingen are continuous.-History:Böblingen was founded by Count Wilhelm von Tübingen-Böblingen in 1253. Württemberg acquired the town in 1357, and on 12 May 1525 one of the bloodiest battles...
, Germany, dedicated primarily to speech input
Speech recognition
Speech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
systems and vehicle connections. In 2005, Peiker developed the first full in-car integration system for the Apple iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
. In June 2006, Peiker dedicated its new logistics center, occupying more than 3000 m² of space, on the grounds of its headquarters in Friedrichsdorf. In 2008, the company decided to purchase a neighboring plot of land offering 12,000 m2 of space, with an eye to further expansion.