TV Makers Sony, RCA Become SRS Labs Clients

SRS Labs in Newport Beach, created this summer when an investment group purchased the rights to a type of sound technology from Hughes Aircraft Co., has already signed up two television manufacturers as clients.

Formed by managers of the Hughes division and the president of an Irvine investment banking firm, SRS Labs began in July to market and further develop the technology, called the sound retrieval system.

“This technology allows us three-dimensional surround sound with just two stereo speakers,” said Jennifer Drescher, marketing manager at privately held SRS Labs. “What’s unique for a 90-day-old company is that our technology is already being licensed for Sony and RCA for use in their high-end televisions.”

When Hughes decided to sell its non-core business functions, like the sound system, James Lucas, then national sales manager for Hughes Audio Products, contacted investment banker Walter Cruttenden and Stephen Sedmak, a 20-year telecommunications industry veteran.