Akai
| Akai Denki
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Kabushiki-gaisha (joint stock company) |
| founding | 1929 |
| resolution | 2000 |
| Reason for dissolution | insolvency |
| Seat | Tokyo , Japan |
| Branch | Electrical engineering / electronics |
| Website | www.akai.com |
Akai Denki KK ( Japanese 赤 井 電機 株式会社 , Akai Denki Kabushiki-gaisha , English Akai Electric Co., Ltd. ) was a Japanese electronics company named after its founder Masukichi Akai , which began operating outside of Japan in the 1960s and 1970s Most famous for his tape machines .
The company was founded in 1929 and initially produced electric motors for film projectors , and later also for turntables . The further company history contributed significantly to the introduction and market implementation of various innovations in magnetic tape-based audio technology. Around 1980 the music division "Akai Professional" was established with production and stage equipment for modern music. In 2000, Akai went bankrupt (Akai Professional, which has since been spun off, also in 2005). Third-party products are now marketed under the Akai brand.
history
Through the sales activities in the USA in the 1950s, contact was made with the American tape recorder manufacturer Roberts, who commissioned Akai to manufacture the electric motors for its devices. A little later, Akai began - inspired by a Roberts device sent as a demonstration piece - with the production of tape recorders, whereupon Roberts discontinued his own production and from then on sold Akai tape recorders in the USA under his own name. From the mid-1960s, identical devices were sold in parallel on the North American market under the brand names Akai and Roberts. A few years later, the Roberts brand disappeared from the market, the devices were only available under the Akai name.
In the following years Akai developed with sales successes in Europe and the USA into one of the largest manufacturers of tape recorders worldwide and enriched the mass market for these devices with many technical achievements, which were only marketed broadly through Akai's initiative. Particularly noteworthy are the Crossfield pre-magnetization, the almost wear-free glass ferrite heads ( called GX Heads at Akai ) and Autoreverse, i.e. the automatic change of direction at the end of the tape.
In the 1970s, Akai increasingly positioned itself with amplifiers , receivers, cassette decks , turntables and loudspeaker boxes as a full-range supplier in the hi-fi sector and also entered the still young market for video equipment .
In 1984 the company was realigned after financial difficulties. Like many other companies, Akai stopped manufacturing tape machines at this time and increased its commitment to the more profitable areas of cassette decks, VCRs and new CD players . In addition, a company division for electronic musical instruments was founded, the Akai Electronic Musical Instruments Corporation , which celebrated its premiere with the S612 audio sampler . This is considered to be one of the first affordable devices of its kind.
In the second half of the 1980s, Akai's sales in North America plummeted. The company countered this development in 1988 by withdrawing from the relevant markets. Persistent financial difficulties finally led to Akais being taken over by The Grande Holdings Ltd. in 1998. from Hong Kong , which marked the end of Akai as an independent manufacturer. The holding also holds the brands Nakamichi and Sansui .
On November 2, 2000, the company filed for bankruptcy under the Civil Reactivation Act ( 民事 再生 法 , minji-saisei-hō ), which led to delisting on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in February of the following year .
today
In 2011, the Akai brand belongs to the Singapore-based Akai Sales Pte Ltd , whose products sold today are all purchased from other companies, such as video devices from Samsung and televisions from the Turkish manufacturer Profilo-Telra .
Akai Professional
In 1999 the division for electronic musical instruments was spun off as Akai professional MIKK (AKAI professional MI 株式会社 ). The name Akai professional was used with a slightly different logo for the products of the division as early as 1984. The music division became known with its samplers of the S / Z series (S-612, S900 - S6000, Z4, Z8 and others), the MPCs used by many artists ( MPC 3000 (1994), MPC 2000 (1997), MPC 1000 , MPC 500 , MPC 2500 ), controllers for computer-based music production ( MPD16 , MPD24 , MPK49 ), a very popular 2 × stereo Magneto Optical DiskMOD recorder / editing system DD1000 and other products.
This company also ran into economic difficulties and in 2005, after a failed restructuring, filed for bankruptcy with a debt level of approximately 1.1 billion yen . The trademark rights as well as the customer service are now exercised by Pro Audio Japan KK.
Akai works closely with Ableton ; Together they developed the APC20 and APC40 controllers, which are matched to the Ableton Live 8 program, and the APC40mk2 as a further development.,
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ hifiengine.com 2020, Akai GX-630D , accessed May 31, 2020.
- ↑ Corporate Information. The Grande Holdings Limited, accessed January 19, 2011 .
- ↑ 赤 井 電機 株 券 . In: 株 式 投資 . Retrieved January 19, 2011 (Japanese).
- ↑ Contact. In: Akai. Archived from the original on November 4, 2011 ; accessed on November 21, 2014 (English).
- ↑ a b ア カ イ プ ロ フ ェ ッ シ ョ ナ ル エ ム ア イ が 破産 破産 手 続 き 開始 . In: kanalog.jp. December 7, 2005, archived from the original on June 28, 2006 ; Retrieved February 28, 2011 (Japanese).
- ↑ 会 社 概要 / COMPANY. In: Akai professional. Pro Audio Japan, accessed November 2, 2019 (Japanese).