AV Blog from 1st Audio Visual: All Things AV

The Names Behind the Brand Names

by admin on 27/05/09 at 11:37 am

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We all know the big names in the field of audio visual equipment and follow their advancements in what seems to be daily improvements in technology, but have you ever wondered where it all began? Who are the faces and brains behind Sony and Samsung, LG and the other major players? Who woke up one day and thought hey lets head off in the direction of home entertainment and work our way to the top.

I have to admit it has never crossed my mind to become a major player in the world of wires, diodes and digitally mastered sound and vision

Sony, a name synonymous with high end top quality audio visual components, started of life as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. The Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company’s roots stretch back half a century, 1946 to be exact when Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita got their heads together during the crippled post war Japanese economy and made a living repairing radios and manufacturing voltmeters while scratching their heads looking for futuristic designs to propel them and their company into the future. Their first success came with the automatic rice cooker, which like their later discovered products, continues to find its way into our homes today.

Global thinkers Ibuka and Morita saw the need to expand into Europe and cross not only land but language boarders and changed their company name to Sony, the name became official in 1958. The first Sony branded product was the TR55 transistor radio and soon followed by the world first pocket sized transistor radio putting them on the road that lead them to where they are today.

Sony UK was born in 1968 and in 1974 became the first Japanese company to open a factory in the UK where 2 remain today in Bridgend and Pencoed Wales. Sony Headquarters is based at Brooklands in Surrey and Sony employs around 4500 people in the UK today.

Samsung sprang from very different beginnings when in 1938 in Korea Lee Byung Chull, with 30,000 won in his pocket created Samsung (three stars in Korean) a company that traded and exported dried fish, fruit and vegetables, expanded into flour mills and confectionary machines later evolved into the global corporation that is it today.

Initially successful the Communist invasion in 1950 forced Lee to start over in Suwon but just a year later the companies assets, damaged by the invasion, had grown 20 fold and Lee created a sugar refinery, the first after the Korean War. Lee, determined to be the top of which ever game he played, led the company into insurance, securities and a department store and in 1970, having taken loans from foreign companies moved into mass communication and launched a radio and television station. Having invested heavily in the late 80,s and early 90,s into research and development Samsung manufactured and sold electronic products across the world, built a television assembly plant in Portugal and New York and then the UK and established themselves as the brand we know and trust today, Samsung Electronics.

In 1947 Koo In Hwoi established the Lak Hui Chemical Industrial Corp and became the first company to enter the plastics industry in Korea. In 1958 Lak Hui established GoldStar, the company we know as LG Electronics today, and based his business plan primarily on the production of radios. In 1959 Goldstar converted from a private business to a corporation and sold the first South Korean radio under that name as well as selling household products under the name of Lucky Brand. Goldstar started exporting products in 1962 but it was not until 1995 the name LG was born, an abbreviation of Lucky Goldstar who more recently changed its tag line to Life’s Good and in January this year bought the domain name LG.com. Today LG has 52 companies in the electronics, chemicals and telecommunication and services industries. The LG Group is South Korea’s third largest conglomerate and operates subsidiaries in over 80 countries as well as sponsoring the LG Cup Baduk Tournament.

It seems these three major players, although from different backgrounds, all have one thing in common, from humble beginnings but with big dreams they have not only transformed their companies and the lives of those involved with their achievements but played a major role in the progress and technological advancements that have resulted in how we enjoy home entertainment today.