1. clar I on \klar en\n 1 a medieval trumpet with clear shrill tones 2: the sound of or as if of a clarion

2. clarion adm 1 brilliantly clear; also loud and clear (a call to action)

Florida State University. Iowa State University. Michigan State University. It's not uncommon for a university to take its name from the state, county or even the state in which it's located. But how many of these universities also share their name with a major chain of hotels, a leading computer software manufacturer, even a hearing device for the deaf?

While Clarion University takes its name from its location in Clarion, Pennsylvania, it also has the distinction of sharing its name with a number of companies around the world. There's Clarion Environmental Technologies, an environmental consulting company in British Columbia that is traded on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. San Francisco's Clarion Music Center is widely recognized for carrying exotic musical instruments - and for providing the instruction for playing them. And Clarion Advertising Services Ltd. has locations throughout India.

So what has led so many companies to adopt the Clarion name? The word "clarion" has an ancient and rich musical ancestry. As its first entry in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary explains, the word clarion, when used as a noun, means "a medieval trumpet with clear shrill tones." As an adjective, it means "brilliantly clear" or "loud and clear."

With its connotation of a crisp, loud sound, it's not surprising that the word clarion appeared together with the names Edison and Pioneer on record labels as early as 1900, following Thomas Edison's revolutionary invention of the phonograph. Nor is it unusual that so many companies that want to get the word out about their products - loudly and clearly - have chosen the name Clarion.

Clarion Audio and Beyond

For a company that has built its reputation on the clear reproduction of sound in car audio components, there's no name more befitting than Clarion. Tokyo-based Clarion Co. Ltd. has earned special renown as an original equipment supplier of audio equipment to the international automobile industry. And any car audio enthusiast will tell you that Clarion makes some of the best and most innovative car stereo equipment on the market.

The company had its beginnings in 1940, when the Hakusan Wireless Electric Company began to manufacture and sell battery-operated radios for household use. The company launched the Clarion brand in 1947, and later registered an orange emblem of a clarion as its trademark in 1974. Today, the company's distinct Clarion logotype is known worldwide as a symbol of high quality, outstanding car audio products.

Throughout its history, Clarion Co. Ltd. achieved a number of firsts in the development and manufacture of audio electronics. It developed Japan's first car radio, bus amplifier, car stereo, and cassette car stereo, as well as the world's first fully transistorized car radio, auto-reverse cassette car stereo, motorcycle radio, and AM/FM noise suppression equipment.

Clarion's dedication to innovation is becoming even more pronounced as it expands into automotive electronic products, home audio systems, and electronic communications. The company recently introduced a new array of products in categories ranging from auto sound and security to telecommunications and car multimedia, including CD-ROM mobile navigation and mapping products. These new products support the corporation's new worldwide slogan, "Clarion. Car Audio and Beyond."

Car multimedia comprises the largest segment of the company's new products, and marks the merger of the consumer electronics and computer categories. One example is Clarion's IN-CAR NET which introduces consumers to a whole new world of in-car information and entertainment audio systems. It enables them to play and listen to their favorite music from CDs or cassettes, catch the latest new updates on the audio, and use a visual system that vividly transmits on-line information and provides entertainment.

The adoption of the "Car Audio and Beyond" slogan also signals a significant expansion of Clarion's successful Pro Audio product line, including CD changers, CD players, cassette receivers, active processors, equalizers, amplifiers, and speakers, including packages, separates, and subwoofers.

Come Stay at Clarion

For the corporate traveler who desires upscale, full-service accommodations

at an affordable rate, the name Clarion on a billboard or in a travel brochure is a "call to come to stay." According to Laura Rennie, media relations supervisor at Choice Hotels International, the parent company of Clarion, that's precisely the reason the chain of hotels got its name.

"If you look up 'clarion' in the dictionary, one of the definitions is a 'call to come.' We like to think that the Clarion name and logo is a call to travelers to come stay with us," Rennie says.

Clarion is the top of the line brand of hotels, suites, inns, and resorts owned by Choice Hotels International, based in Silver Springs. The Choice Hotels International system of over 3,200 inns, hotels, suites, and resorts include Sleep, Comfort, Quality, Clarion, Econo Lodge, Rodeway, and MainStay Suites.

"Clarion is positioned as our highest quality properties," Rennie says. "We primarily target the corporate traveler who seeks first-class accommodations. Our Clarion properties offer a number of amenities designed to make business travel easier and more enjoyable."

The Clarion Class Business Room, featured at most Clarion Hotels, includes such amenities as a coffee maker, iron and ironing board, compact refrigerator, hair dryer, and 25-inch television. The room also offers Clarion's signature Class One Office workstation, with an oversized desk, speakerphone with data port, ergonomic desk chair on casters, bright task light, office supplies, and more. An on-site BizNet business center, equipped with all the conveniences of a home office, is available for use by guests.

A wide range of amenities at Clarion's resort properties and landmark hotels have also helped the hotel chain attract a large segment of the pleasure travel market. Among them is the Clarion Class Leisure Room, featured at resort locations, which is geared for families and offers a microwave oven and large table with chairs.

The Clarion system was initially established in 1984 as a collection of upscale hotels operated by Denver-based AIRCOA (Associated Inns and Restaurants Company of America). Quality Inns International and AIRCOA formed a joint venture to develop and market their chains of upscale hotels and resorts under the Clarion name. Choice International acquired Clarion in 1987.

Today, there are 114 Clarion hotels and inns worldwide and another 31 under development. In addition to being found coast to coast in the United States, Clarion Hotels are found in Canada, Mexico, France, Ireland, Norway, Russia, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand.

A Language of Its Own

Clarion isn't just a popular name for companies. It's a language - a computer language that is. It's also the name of some of the computer industry's easiest to use application development tools and software.

Clarion software has an illustrious history that parallels some of the biggest advances in computer technology. It began with the founding of Clarion Software Corporation in 1982 by Bruce Barrington, co-founder of HBO Company. HBO, a $1 billion health services company had been named for Barrington and his cofounders, Walter Huff and Dick Owens. The technology that produced HBO's phenomenal growth was a hospital information system built on a proprietary operating system that Barrington developed for the For Phase line of computers.

Barrington founded Clarion Software to apply the rapid application development technology he had created for HBO to the new IBM PC. According to Barrington, he named the company Clarion because the new software was "brilliantly clear." Industry reviewers seemed to agree. Clarion 4, the latest version of the software, has been hailed as "one of the hottest development tools around" by InfoWorld in its June 1997 edition. In its June/July 1995 issue, PC Techniques called Clarion for Windows "...arguably the best Windows development tool the market today."

In 1986, Clarion Version 1.0 was introduced, and two years later, Clarion introduced Clarion Professional Developer Version 2. This landmark product included Designer, the first of the template driven application generators that have come to characterize the Clarion product line. But by 1990, Barrington knew that the Clarion product line required a major infusion of new technology.

During this time, the company JPI had spun out from Borland International in 1987 when Niels Jensen and the entire language development team left in a disagreement over compiler quality. Jensen had previously founded Borland in Copenhagen in 1979 to produce software for the emerging microcomputer market. Jensen earned his plaque in the computer hall of fame by perfecting the integrated development environment-the underlying framework of all modern software development tools.

Drawing on his expertise with word processors and menuing systems, Jensen envisioned a Pascal programming environment consisting of tightly integrated high-quality components. Jensen believed that an intuitive and efficient user interface was the key to improving programmer productivity. Borland's first hit product, Turbo Pascal, proved to be enormously popular, selling 300,000 copies in less than two years. Jensen's team quickly followed that success with SideKick, another smash hit. In the meantime, the team moved to London and began writing compilers for C, an emerging language standard, and Modula-2, the successor language to Pascal. The three compilers were compiled into a common independent that would produce optimized machine code. In 1989, this approach yielded the TopSpeed line of compilers which proved superior to all other compiler technology at the time.

In the summer of 1990, Clarion Software licensed the TopSpeed compiler technology from JPI and began writing a new compiler. The project drew the two companies together, culminating in a merger two years later. The merger of these two leading technology companies fused together the TopSpeed Compiler and the Clarion Rapid Application Development technologies into a best of breed database development tool called Clarion for Windows. The end result was the creation of leading-edge technologies for Rapid Application Development, Compiler and Project Systems, Portable Database Access, and Remote Application Interfaces - and the recognition of the name Clarion as one of the leading applications development tools in the computer industry.

Loud and Clear

Perhaps no product is more deserving of the Clarion name than Advanced Bionics' CLARION Cochlear Implant. The CLARION Cochlear Implant is a bionic device which restores hearing to the profoundly deaf.

"Clarion means 'loud and clear.' When providing the only treatment for deafness, one must use an aptly impressive name like CLARION to do justice to the device's capability," explains Douglas Lynch, marketing communications manager for the Sylmar, California based company.

Drawing on its experience in implantable prostheses and miniaturization (the company evolved from the second largest cardiac pacemaker manufacturer and the world's largest manufacture of implantable external insulin pumps), Advanced Bionics introduced CLARION in 1991. The cochlear implant incorporates some of the latest advances in electronic circuitry, computer hardware and software, and speech processing technology.

The internal components are those parts of the system that are surgically implanted under the skin behind the ear and referred to as the implant. The external components include the speech processor, which is usually worn on a belt or carried in a pocket, a thin cable and integrated single-unit headpiece, which is worn on the head just behind the ear. As new processing strategies are developed, the CLARION system is designed to accept them through simple software upgrades.

As part of its patient advocacy program, Advanced Bionics developed the CLARION Circle. When new candidates for the implant, patients, or families want to communicate with an experienced CLARION user or family member, Advanced Bionics puts them in touch with individual and families that have volunteered to share their personal experiences and to answer questions about day-to-day living with a CLARION Cochlear Implant.

The Clarion Name Goes On

While some of the companies carrying the Clarion name aren't internationally recognized, they do stand above the crowd within their own disciplines. New York-based Clarion Books, a unit of publishing giant Houghton Mifflin, is widely recognized for its extensive list of award-winning children's books. Another publisher, Clarion Call, publishes contemporary spiritual literature grounded in ancient India's sacred heritage.

The Clarion Shadow Theatre, a shadow puppet theater founded by David and Donna Wisniewski of Maryland, has performed at the Smithsonian Institution's Discovery Theater program and Kennedy Center's Programs for Children and Youth. The troupe has garnered two grants from the prestigious Henson Foundation (founded by the late Jim Henson, founder of The Muppets, to "foster excellence in the field of American puppetry") and a Citation of Excellence from the UNIMA (Union Internationale de Marionette).

The Clarion Connection

Although none of these companies have a direct link to Clarion University, one organization bearing the Clarion name does trace its roots directly back to the university. In the world of science fiction and fantasy writing, one name stands out: Clarion. Now in its 30th year, the Clarion Workshop in Science Fiction and Fantasy is the most widely regarded science fiction writing workshop in the country and boasts some of the leading names in science fiction among its teachers and moderators.

Clarion was founded by Robin Scott Wilson in 1968 at Clarion State College. Wilson built his system partly on the traditions of mutual criticism in use at the Milford Science Fiction Writers Conference, a workshop for professional writers. Each summer, a small number of apprentice writers from diverse backgrounds enroll for six weeks of intensive training at either the Clarion Workshop in Science Fiction which was held this year in Michigan or in the Clarion West Workshop held in Seattle. Many of these writers go on to become best-selling science fiction authors.

The Name Continues

A look in the local Clarion phone book shows that the name Clarion is also popular in its hometown, with companies ranging from Clarion Coach to Clarion Florists. These companies probably chose their names more for their location than because of the meaning of the word clarion. But as the popularity of the name among companies around the world, the name Clarion is one that can be heard loud and clear.