Our Story
Our Start
ComSonics is an employee owned corporation with roots stretching to the late 1960’s, when Dr. Warren Braun founded the company in the basement of his Harrisonburg, Virginia home. Dr. Braun spent the prior thirty years in broadcast engineering and wanted to apply his knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit in the budding cable television industry. The company was known as Warren Braun Consulting in the early days. In 1972, the company incorporated under the unique name of ComSonics. “Com” representing communications and “Sonics” reflecting Dr. Braun’s early endeavors in audio design and installation.
Employee Ownership
In addition to Dr. Braun’s entrepreneurial and engineering fingerprint on the company, he pioneered employee ownership. He began transferring ownership to his employees in 1975. Dr. Braun often said, “I believe in people. I’ve always believed in people.” He was a founding member of the Employee Stock Ownership Council of America, as well as its inaugural president. He authored, “On the Way to Employee Ownership,” which has been published in numerous languages worldwide. The book speaks to Dr. Braun’s experience transferring ComSonics’ ownership to its employees as an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
ComSonics is one of the oldest ESOP’s in the United States, and has received numerous honors throughout the years. Earned ESOP awards include: The 2010 ESOP Company of the Year, 22 Annual Awards for Communications Excellence (AACE), two Employee Ownership Month Poster awards, The Silver ESOP Award (25 years as an ESOP). Two employees have been selected as National Employee Owner of the Year, Keith Robertson in 2001, and Markita Madden-Puckett in 2013.
Finding Our Niche
By 1972, ComSonics carved out a growing repair niche for cable television electronics and begun a field engineering services arm. This offered cable plant design, troubleshooting, and proof of performance testing. In 1975, ComSonics developed the industry’s first RF leakage detector, Sniffer® I. The Sniffer® gave system operators a tool for finding points of egress in their cable plants. This innovative product set the stage for other leading test instruments. The ComSonics Window®, presented in 1985, was the cable industry’s first signal level meter possessing a spectral display. The flame of innovation still burns bright within the ComSonics QAM egress detection product line, the first of its kind when introduced in 2014. ComSonics has been awarded 27 intellectual patents for these and other revolutionary designs.
Building For The Future
As ComSonics’ product business grew, our repair business grew into national prominence for quality electronics and fiber optics repair and refurbishment. By late 2001, ComSonics had expanded its repair, opening depot operations in California, Indiana, and Virginia, as well as a mobile fleet of laboratories providing onsite calibrations. In addition to cable electronics and fiber optics, ComSonics has been an authorized calibration and repair provider for public safety equipment (speed-detection) since 2011. In 2014, ComSonics became the first and only repair company to receive an ISO 9001: 2015 Certification quality management system by Intertek.
Our manufacturing facility, located in Weyers Cave, Virginia, opened its doors in 2003 in order to support our own growing test instrument business, and in recognition of the burgeoning demand for contract electronics services. ComSonics Manufacturing Solutions (CMS) provides state-of-the-art electronics manufacturing services. These include surface mount and through-hole board builds, BGA capability, full box build, and fulfillment capabilities across multiple industries. In 2015, we acquired cable harness assembly manufacturer, Cable Connections of GA. In 2022, we acquired custom cable, wire harness, and electro-mechanical assembly business SHINE wire. Both of our sister companies further enhance ComSonics’ manufacturing offering. ComSonics’ manufacturing endeavors are ISO 9001:2015 Certified quality management system by Intertek, ITAR registered and SAM registered.
Thank you for taking time to read our story and learn more about ComSonics’ history as a world class design, manufacturing, sales, and repair solutions provider. Our employee owners proudly build products and provide services to the following industries: aerospace, cable/broadband, communications, computing, defense, medical, meteorology, public safety, power monitoring and rail.