Audac Audio Associates Ltd
Audac Audio Associates Ltd was formed in Staines in the 50's by Walter Edward Armstead (known as Alan).
Audac dominated the UK market for radio microphones in the late 1960s and early 1970s. [There is no connection to the modern company Audac, based in Hasselt, Belgium]
Their equipment was used exclusively by Des O'Connor, Val Doonican, Sasha Distel, Cliff Richard, Bruce Forsyth and the like for live shows as well as TV broadcasts.
The London Palladium, and many other venues around the UK, used Audac as part of the in-house system.
Using Shure R65 microphone capsules (and later SM58) the sound quality was considered superior to competitors and they were the first to go completely wireless with an antenna built around the microphone capsule.
Another innovation was the receiver built into a small attaché case which was very popular with travelling artists. That model was called a Europa.
Alan Armstead was ex-RAF and was part of a group of ex-RAF engineers that worked on post war technology largely derived from wartime developments, in particular RF.
This group included Geoff Blundell of Audio Ltd with whom Armstead had a good but obviously competitive relationship.
Audio Ltd had the BBC sewn up so Audac focused elsewhere and Geoff's main focus was on the lavalier mic and hip pack transmitter while Audac, although they made the hip pack for pantomime etc. favoured the hand held mic.
Alan's early work was on tape recorders, pioneer electronic cash registers (for Lyons Tea Houses) and VHF security systems.
In 1966, Audac relocated to Wareham, Dorset, where the company remained until 1976. Audac took the first factory on the new Westminster Estate in Wareham.
This was mostly to accommodate the work for Lyons and negotiations for a second factory unit were commencing when fate intervened as Lyons business model changed which in turn badly effected Audac.
However, Audac had by this time (1966) developed a wireless mike - called at the time the Hike Mic due to its portability. They also developed a hearing aid system based on the same technology for children in classrooms. The teacher having the microphone which transmitted to "hard of hearing" children allowing them to participate in normal class activities. They were not entirely dependant on the Lyons business but a huge body blow nonetheless.
It was around 1970 that Audac, reeling from the collapse of the business with Lyons and facing closure teamed up with Derritron (Reslo) from Hastings and the business continued at a smaller factory in Johns Road Wareham.
Times were tough in the 70's - the oil crisis, credit crunches, the miner's strike and the 3 day week plus the introduction of VAT.
Derritron decided to relocate the business to their main factory in Essex to reduce costs and this is when I believe Gerry & Maureen Saunders formed EDC (Elcom).
Ernie Hobden a very skilled RF engineer who had relocated to Dorset with Audac as chief engineer in 1966 became chief design engineer for EDC and I believe Gerry was also quite talented. It was understandable that they did not want to relocate as Dorset was their home. Alan Armstead had a 2 year non-compete clause in his Derritron contract and worked for them in Essex (commuting from Dorset) but reformed Audac as soon as he could, back in Dorset.
While the other radiomics on the market had the external antenna Audac had been working on the integrated aerial and this along with the Europa became their point of difference.
However, EDC succeeded in the miniaturization and although their electret microphone was not popular with vocalists it was a nice package.
Their 1980's Sirius mic was very similar to one Audac intended to launch circa 1977 which was a narrow tube handle with the Shure SM58 capsule, integrated antenna and a screw on battery pack.
That would have been the smallest quality radio mic on the market but was never officially launched although several were in use.
Des O'Connor would not use any other product. The Audac mic was on TV just about every Saturday night with one or other of the artists who favoured them, and in use in clubs and pantomimes all around the country. His personal assistant/road manager Peter Huggett was a great supporter and family friend and was devastated when he had to tell Des there was no more Audac in 1979.
Alan was at Elstree Studios so much for various TV special productions, that it seemed like he was on studio staff.
Audac users included the aforementioned Des O'Connor, Val Doonican, Sasha Distel, Cliff Richard, Bruce Forsyth, but The Bachelors, Freddie Starr, Leo Sayer, Danny La Rue, Marie Matthieu and many others were also happy customers.
The new internal antenna was designed by a "boffin" called Spenny, surname Spencer, who was one of the senior wartime engineers for radar and had worked at the MOD Research facilty near Swanage, and may have been involved in MI5 early in his career.
The very first British cassette mini tape recorder was manufactured in 1956 many years before Phillips released their first cassette recorder in the late 1960's. The "Paulette" as it was called was because my brother Paul was born in 1956. Last time I checked there were still patents in existence. Dad had been consulting for a Swiss company FI-Cord - owned by British interests - again part of that group of ex-military engineers. We nearly went to live in Switzerland but a year or so later went to Dorset.
Audac also manufactured the microphone stands for Shure that were sold throughout the UK.
In 1977, Audac relocated to South Wales seeking further funding from the Welsh Development Agency, to cover R&D costs. Coal and Iron had ceased being the all-powerful employer in the Welsh valleys and new industry was being recruited to fill employments needs. The Welsh Development Agency (WDA) existed to facilitate this and large grants were available. A new factory was opened and it employed 20 - 30 people in the period 1976 - 1978.
Unfortunately, immediately the first payment from the WDA arrived the Welsh businessman departed!! $5 million was a lot of money in 1978 and it would have gone a long way to achieve the goal of developing new product based on integrated circuit technology and phase locked loop oscillators and the diversity technology to help prevent signal dropout.
Alan negotiated with the receiver after the business closed and was able to secure all the Audac assets (which had not been paid for by the Welsh) in order to provide ongoing repair & maintenance obligations for the previous company which occurred until 1980 when a family tragedy occurred.
Audac finally folded in 1981 mainly due to the realisation that major investment in R&D was required to compete with the new products coming from the USA.