For decades, the idea of using screens to advertise and inform rather than static billboards has been seen as the norm for much of the western world. Throughout this transition, Spectra has always been there behind the scenes, providing the right display technology at the right price.
From humble beginnings
The Spectra Displays we all know and love began life back in the late 1960s as Spectra-Tek. At this time, LED and plasma displays were still very much in their infancy and, as such, many of the technologies surrounding these displays were limited to industrial purposes.
In these early years, Spectra-Tek became a pioneer in the development of numeric driver systems and semiconductors such as the gas plasma driver IC 8880, which is still used today. We provided these forward-thinking technologies to the mining, automotive, pharmaceutical and oil industries and continued to grow in these specialist areas throughout the 1970s.
By the early 1980s, Spectra had become a world leader in the field but we were not done growing just yet. Far from it, in fact.
Born in the 80s
In 1981, a team of engineers working for the digital mapping technologies company Laser Scan on the Cambridge Science Park set up a new company to develop mobile telemetry systems and vehicle tracking technologies. This company, dubbed “Spectronics Micro Systems” saw the exciting work Spectra-Tek was doing and acquired their display division.
Despite the division being solely acquired as a means to fund research into mobile data, a small team was employed to continue the development of display technologies. It was at this point that the Spectra of today first started to reveal itself coinciding with the time that the first commercially viable alphanumeric, full dot matrix LED display systems were developed.
Forging a path for the future
By the mid-80s, the modular dot matrix systems that Spectronics were producing were more reliable and robust and had opened the door to new marketplaces, including smaller-scale manufacturing. By 1989, it had won several major contracts for its radio telemetry systems and was able to fund itself without the need for the displays division. Spectra Displays was formed this year, on the cusp of the 1990s.
In the ensuing three decades, the company has continued to build on its success in the displays marketplace by investing heavily in digital technology, developing new systems and forging deep relationships with industry partners. Today, that’s resulted in the most comprehensive portfolio of quality information and display systems in the UK.
In recent years, as technologies have become more readily available, we’ve taken our skills and expertise into the smaller retail and public information markets, whilst maintaining our strong ties to the manufacturing and industry sectors as well. Despite the more forgiving nature of these markets we still maintain that same level of quality that has kept Spectra as a shining light in the ever-growing digital display sector.
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