Rio Rancho is known far and wide as the City of Vision.

To customers of Lectrosonics, though, it's probably more appropriate to call it the City of Sound.

Lectrosonics, founded in Albuquerque in 1971, has had its headquarters in Rio Rancho since 1988, thrice expanded and with plans for yet another expansion. The company, which employs 130 full-timers, is on Laser Road, facing Northern Boulevard. Business is good for this nicely kept secret, which has had roles, so to speak, in quite a few movies, among them "Driving Miss Daisy," "Pearl Harbor" and "The Green Mile," not to mention numerous NFL productions and reality TV shows.

So, you're probably asking yourself, just what is Lectrosonics?

Good question.

The Reader's Digest answer to that question, according to director of business development Karl Winkler, is a sound facilitator; the company makes three product groups.

Lectrosonics built its reputation on the Long Ranger 4, a high-powered bullhorn system typically found in the hands of auctioneers, band leaders, cops on the scene of activity, and movie sets. It's a portable unit easily carried by the user, with messages boomed out loud and clear.

Lectrosonics also makes the Lecnet 2, which Winkler said does "audio processing and control." It automatically mixes the inputs and has routing capabilities. 'It's a growth opportunity for us," Winkler said. "One (such unit) has 16 inputs and 24 outputs."

The typical application for the Lecnet 2 is a board of directors or other large meeting, with board members seated in front of their own microphones, which are routed into the Lecnet 2 and directed to stockholders seated in an auditorium.

Lectrosonics third mainstay is wireless microphones, which because of their high quality are seeing more and more use on movie sets. They're powered by AA batteries, and hidden on actors by belt-packs, for the most part. Thus, a camera can be filing and recording the dialog of two actors who may be hundreds of feet away -- without the Lectrosonics gear picking up airplanes flying overhead or a chatty sort near the set.

"It's our biggest revenue-generating product line," Winkler said, estimating an 80 percent share of the market of film and TV production.

Movie sets require wireless sound equipment, and Lectrosonics seemingly fits the bill. Often, boom microphones are used on sets; sometimes, though, those just aren't practical, especially when the actors are on the move, or several cameras are filing the action and it's hard to keep the boom and its operator off screen. (Winkler said he remembered a scene in "The Patriot" in which a boom mic is evident for a split second.)

"Reality TV has been a boom for us," he said. "Our stuff lasts a long time and performs under adverse conditions."

An interesting story about one of Lectrosonics' products, the "Super Mini," was reported in its Spring 2006 brochure. It seems during filming of "The Flock" in the Albuquerque area, actress Claire Danes went into a restroom and inadvertently dropped her transmitting mic into a toilet.

The production's sound mixer decided to call Lectrosonics, spoke to Winkler, and soon had two replacements.

The "SM" caught the eye of actor Richard Gere, who preferred it to the one he had been using and had the SM taped to his ankle.

Lectrosonics isn't resting on its reputation in the industry, Winkler said, with two engineers working full-time on upgrading the product line.

"Now it's a digital hybrid; it's cutting edge. ... It's a very cool system and it works real well," he said, "(but) the future is digital." And, to go along with that, Winkler said, "The demand now is for smaller and smaller wireless devices."

A tour of the plant, led by Winkler, reveals a lot of mind-boggling production techniques, from laser engraving to careful hand and visual inspections by employees, which precedes computer testing of every piece of equipment that leaves the plant.

Speaking of the employees, Winkler said there's very little turnover and some of the recent college and even high school graduates who enter the firm as interns wind up expanding their knowledge and opportunities with Lectrosonics.

Lectrosonics doesn't mind being one of the city's best-kept secrets -- "We hear that a lot," Winkler said -- because all of its customers are professionals, from film and TV production to theater and touring groups. The Dixie Chicks even has equipment manufactured in Rio Rancho, he said.

"People feel pride in what they do (at Lectrosonics)," Winkler said, having worked in the industry after taking care of the sound for the U.S. Air Force jazz band on its travels.

A 1984 graduate of Highland High School, who studied a degree at the University of Arizona and obtained a degree in music production at the University of Southern California, leaped at the opportunity to return to his native New Mexico two years ago.

"I knew about the company and I was working for a competitor at the time; it was great to move back home," he said.

"It's a fairly small company and the fact we make stuff that is the envy of the industry, one of a handful of the top-respected (companies)," Winkler said, noting the company has "about 800 accounts."

Growth has been very steady since Lectrosonics moved to Rio Rancho 18 years ago, he said.

Better yet: "Demand is higher than the supply," Winkler said.

Sounds like a good business.