1.
Yokohama
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Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan by population and most populous municipality of Japan. It is the city of Kanagawa Prefecture. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the island of Honshu. It is a commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area. Yokohamas population of 3.7 million makes it Japans largest city after the Special Wards of Tokyo, Yokohama was a small fishing village up to the end of the feudal Edo period, when Japan held a policy of national seclusion, having little contact with foreigners. It was initially agreed that one of the ports to be opened to ships would be the bustling town of Kanagawa-juku on the Tōkaidō. However, the Tokugawa shogunate decided that Kanagawa-juku was too close to the Tōkaidō for comfort, the Port of Yokohama was officially opened on June 2,1859. Yokohama quickly became the base of trade in Japan. Kannai, the trade and commercial district, was surrounded by a moat. To protect British commercial and diplomatic interests in Yokohama a military garrison was established in 1862, with the growth in trade increasing numbers of Chinese also came to settle in the city. Recreational sports introduced to Japan by foreign residents in Yokohama included European style horse racing in 1862, cricket in 1863, after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the port was developed for trading silk, the main trading partner being Great Britain. In 1887, a British merchant, Samuel Cocking, built the citys first power plant, at first for his own use, this coal-burning plant became the basis for the Yokohama Cooperative Electric Light Company. The city was incorporated on April 1,1889. The early 20th century was marked by growth of industry. Entrepreneurs built factories along reclaimed land to the north of the city toward Kawasaki, much of Yokohama was destroyed on September 1,1923 by the Great Kantō earthquake. The Yokohama police reported casualties at 30,771 dead and 47,908 injured, fuelled by rumours of rebellion and sabotage, vigilante mobs thereupon murdered many Koreans in the Kojiki-yato slum. Many people believed that Koreans used black magic to cause the earthquake, martial law was in place until November 19. Rubble from the quake was used to land for parks
2.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
3.
Japanese yen
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The yen is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the exchange market after the United States dollar. It is also used as a reserve currency after the U. S. dollar, the euro. Before the Meiji Restoration, Japans feudal fiefs all issued their own money, hansatsu, in an array of incompatible denominations. The New Currency Act of 1871 did away with these and established the yen, the former han became prefectures and their mints private chartered banks, which initially retained the right to print money. To bring an end to this situation the Bank of Japan was founded in 1882, following World War II the yen lost much of its prewar value. To stabilize the Japanese economy the exchange rate of the yen was fixed at ¥360 per $1 as part of the Bretton Woods system, when that system was abandoned in 1971, the yen became undervalued and was allowed to float. The yen had appreciated to a peak of ¥271 per $1 in 1973, then underwent periods of depreciation and appreciation due to the 1973 oil crisis, arriving at a value of ¥227 per $1 by 1980. Since 1973, the Japanese government has maintained a policy of intervention. The Japanese government focuses on an export market, and tries to ensure a low yen value through a trade surplus. Since that time, however, the yen has greatly decreased in value, the Bank of Japan maintains a policy of zero to near-zero interest rates and the Japanese government has an extreme anti-inflation policy. Yen derives from the Japanese word 圓, which is cognate with the Chinese yuan, originally, the Chinese had traded silver in mass called sycees and when Spanish and Mexican silver coins arrived, the Chinese called them silver rounds for their circular shapes. The coins and the name appeared in Japan. While the Chinese eventually replaced 圓 with 元, the Japanese continued to use the same word, the spelling and pronunciation yen is standard in English. This is because mainly English speakers who visited Japan at the end of the Edo period to the early Meiji period spelled words this way, ゑん /wen/ in historical kana orthography. In the 16th century, Japanese /e/ and /we/ both had been pronounced and Portuguese missionaries had spelled them ye, some time thereafter, by the middle of the 18th century, /e/ and /we/ came to be pronounced as in modern Japanese, although some regions retain the pronunciation. In the early Meiji era, James Curtis Hepburn, following Medhurst, spelled all es as ye in his A Japanese and that was the first full-scale Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary, which had a strong influence on Westerners in Japan and probably prompted the spelling yen. Hepburn revised most of yes to e in the 3rd edition in order to mirror the contemporary pronunciation and this was probably already fixed and has remained so ever since
4.
JVC Kenwood
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JVCKenwood Corp. is a multinational electronics company headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. It was formed from the merger of Victor Company of Japan, Ltd, upon creation, Haruo Kawahara of Kenwood was the holding companys chairman, while JVC President Kunihiko Sato was the companys president. On October 1,2008, JVC and Kenwood agreed to, the joint holding company was named JVC KENWOOD Holdings, Inc. On Monday, May 31,2010, JVCKENWOOD announced that it would end production in Japan by March 2011. On August 1,2011, JVC KENWOOD Holdings, Inc. was renamed to JVC KENWOOD Corporation and this officially ended the 2 separate companies. On March 25,2014, JVCKENWOOD acquired 100% ownership of EF Johnson Technologies, in order to increase its P25 North American public safety, EF Johnson became a wholly owned subsidiary. JVC Kenwood Teichiku Records EF Johnson Technologies Zetron Victor Entertainment JVC, Kenwood officially hook up via CNet JVCKENWOOD Corporation About JVCKENWOOD
5.
JVC Kenwood Victor Entertainment
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It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the RCA Victor label. April 1972, Victor Music Industries, Inc. spun off as subsidiary of JVC February 1984, Sales and marketing department of JVC spun off as Nihon AVC, April 1993, Nihon AVC and Victor Music Industries merge and the name is changed to Victor Entertainment, Inc. March 1999, Moved main office April 2014, Changed corporate name to JVC Kenwood Victor Entertainment Corporation, listed alphabetically by group or first name
6.
Tokyo Stock Exchange
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The Tokyo Stock Exchange, which is called Tōshō or TSE/TYO for short, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the fourth largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization of its listed companies. It had 2,292 listed companies with a market capitalization of US$4.09 trillion as of April 2015. In July 2012 a planned merger with the Osaka Securities Exchange was approved by the Japan Fair Trade Commission, the resulting entity, the Japan Exchange Group, was launched on January 1,2013. The TSE is incorporated as a kabushiki gaisha with nine directors, four auditors and its headquarters are located at 2-1 Nihonbashi-Kabutochō, Chūō, Tokyo, or Kabuto-chō, which is the largest financial district in Japan. Its operating hours are from 8,00 to 11,30 a. m. from April 24,2006, the afternoon trading session started at its usual time of 12,30 p. m. Stocks listed on the TSE are separated into the First Section for large companies, the Second Section for mid-sized companies, as of October 31,2010, there are 1,675 First Section companies,437 Second Section companies and 182 Mothers companies. Ninety-four domestic and 10 foreign securities companies participate in TSE trading, see, Members of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Other TSE-related institutions include, The exchanges press club, called the Kabuto Club, which meets on the third floor of the TSE building. Most Kabuto Club members are affiliated with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Kyodo News, Jiji Press, or business television broadcasters such as Bloomberg LP, the Kabuto Club is generally busiest during April and May, when public companies release their annual accounts. On 15 June 2007, the TSE paid $303 million to acquire a 4. 99% stake in Singapore Exchange Ltd. The Tokyo Stock Exchange was established on May 15,1878, as the Tokyo Kabushiki Torihikijo under the direction of then-Finance Minister Okuma Shigenobu, trading began on June 1,1878. In 1943, the exchange was combined with ten other stock exchanges in major Japanese cities to form a single Japanese Stock Exchange, the combined exchange was shut down and reorganized shortly after the bombing of Nagasaki. The Tokyo Stock Exchange reopened under its current Japanese name on May 16,1949, a new facility, called TSE Arrows, opened on May 9,2000. In 2010, the TSE launched its Arrowhead trading facility, in 2001, the TSE restructured itself as a stock company, before this time, it was structured as an incorporated association with its members as shareholders. The interruption in trading was the worst in the history of the exchange, trading was suspended for four-and-a-half hours. Mizuho failed to catch the error, the Tokyo Stock Exchange initially blocked attempts to cancel the order, on 11 December, the TSE acknowledged that its system was at fault in the Mizuho trade. On 21 December, Takuo Tsurushima, chief executive of the TSE, and two other senior executives resigned over the Mizuho affair. On January 17,2006, the Nikkei 225 fell 2. 8%, its fastest drop in nine months, the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed early on January 18 due to the trade volume threatening to exceed the exchanges computer systems capacity of 4.5 million trades per day
7.
Consumer electronics
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Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic or digital equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications, and home-office activities, in British English, they are often called brown goods by producers and sellers, to distinguish them from white goods such as washing machines and refrigerators. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, later products included telephones, personal computers, MP3 players, audio equipment, televisions and calculators. In the 2010s, consumer electronics stores often sell GPS, automotive electronics, video game consoles, electronic instruments, karaoke machines, digital cameras. Stores also sell digital cameras, camcorders, cell phones, some consumer electronics stores, such as Best Buy have also begun selling office and baby furniture. Consumer electronics stores may be bricks and mortar retail stores, online stores. The CEA estimated the value of 2015 consumer electronics sales at US$220 billion, for its first fifty years the phonograph turntable did not use electronics, the needle and soundhorn were purely mechanical technologies. However, in the 1920s radio broadcasting became the basis of production of radio receivers. The vacuum tubes that had made radios practical were used with record players as well, television was soon invented, but remained insignificant in the consumer market until the 1950s. The transistor, invented in 1947 by Bell Laboratories, led to significant research in the field of semiconductors in the early 1950s. The transistors advantages revolutionized that industry along with other electronics, by 1959 Fairchild Semiconductor had introduced the first planar transistor from which come the origins of Moores Law. Integrated circuits followed when manufacturers built circuits on a substrate using electrical connections between circuits within the chip itself. One overriding characteristic of consumer products is the trend of ever-falling prices. This is driven by gains in manufacturing efficiency and automation, lower costs as manufacturing has moved to lower-wage countries. Semiconductor components benefit from Moores Law, a principle which states that, for a given price. While consumer electronics continues in its trend of convergence, combining elements of many products, there is an ever increasing need to keep product information updated and comparable, for the consumer to make an informed choice. Style, price, specification, and performance are all relevant, there is a gradual shift towards e-commerce web-storefronts. Many products include Internet connectivity using technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, products not traditionally associated with computer use now provide options to connect to the Internet or to a computer using a home network to provide access to digital content
8.
Corporation
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A corporation is a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity and recognized as such in law. Early incorporated entities were established by charter, most jurisdictions now allow the creation of new corporations through registration. Corporations chartered in regions where they are distinguished by whether they are allowed to be for profit or not are referred to as for profit and not-for-profit corporations, there is some overlap between stock/non-stock and for profit/not-for-profit in that not-for-profit corporations are always non-stock as well. A for profit corporation is almost always a stock corporation, registered corporations have legal personality and are owned by shareholders whose liability is limited to their investment. Shareholders do not typically actively manage a corporation, shareholders instead elect or appoint a board of directors to control the corporation in a fiduciary capacity, in American English, the word corporation is most often used to describe large business corporations. In British English and in the Commonwealth countries, the company is more widely used to describe the same sort of entity while the word corporation encompasses all incorporated entities. In American English, the company can include entities such as partnerships that would not be referred to as companies in British English as they are not a separate legal entity. Despite not being human beings, corporations, as far as the law is concerned, are legal persons. Corporations can exercise human rights against real individuals and the state, Corporations can be dissolved either by statutory operation, order of court, or voluntary action on the part of shareholders. Corporations can even be convicted of offenses, such as fraud. However, corporations are not considered living entities in the way humans are. While not a corporation, this new type of entity became very attractive as an alternative for corporations not needing to issue stock, in Germany, the organization was referred to as Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung or GmbH. In the last quarter of the 20th Century this new form of organization became available in the United States and other countries. Since the GmbH and LLC forms of organization are technically not corporations they will not be discussed in this article, the word corporation derives from corpus, the Latin word for body, or a body of people. By the time of Justinian, Roman law recognized a range of corporate entities under the names universitas and these included the state itself, municipalities, and such private associations as sponsors of a religious cult, burial clubs, political groups, and guilds of craftsmen or traders. Such bodies commonly had the right to own property and make contracts, to receive gifts and legacies, to sue and be sued, private associations were granted designated privileges and liberties by the emperor. Entities which carried on business and were the subjects of rights were found in ancient Rome. In medieval Europe, churches became incorporated, as did local governments, such as the Pope, the point was that the incorporation would survive longer than the lives of any particular member, existing in perpetuity
9.
Television
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Television or TV is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in monochrome, or in color, and in two or three dimensions and sound. The term can refer to a set, a television program. Television is a medium for entertainment, education, news, politics, gossip. Television became available in experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, a form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses. During the 1950s, television was the medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the US, for many reasons, the storage of television and video programming now occurs on the cloud. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity, another development was the move from standard-definition television to high-definition television, which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats, 1080p, 1080i, in 2013, 79% of the worlds households owned a television set. Most TV sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs, major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. In the near future, LEDs are gradually expected to be replaced by OLEDs, also, major manufacturers have announced that they will increasingly produce smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s, Television signals were initially distributed only as terrestrial television using high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the signal to individual television receivers. Alternatively television signals are distributed by cable or optical fiber, satellite systems and. Until the early 2000s, these were transmitted as analog signals, a standard television set is composed of multiple internal electronic circuits, including a tuner for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is correctly called a video monitor rather than a television, the word television comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε, meaning far, and Latin visio, meaning sight. The Anglicised version of the term is first attested in 1907 and it was. formed in English or borrowed from French télévision. In the 19th century and early 20th century, other. proposals for the name of a technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote. The abbreviation TV is from 1948, the use of the term to mean a television set dates from 1941
10.
VHS
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The Video Home System is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes. Developed by Victor Company of Japan in the early 1970s, it was released in Japan in late 1976, from the 1950s, magnetic tape video recording became a major contributor to the television industry, via the first commercialized video tape recorders. At that time, the devices were used only in professional environments such as television studios. In the 1970s, videotape entered home use, creating the video industry and changing the economics of the television. The television industry viewed videocassette recorders as having the power to disrupt their business, in the 1980s and 1990s, at the peak of VHSs popularity, there were videotape format wars in the home video industry. Two of the formats, VHS and Betamax, received the most media exposure, VHS eventually won the war, dominating 60 percent of the North American market by 1980 and emerging as the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period. Optical disc formats later began to better quality than analog consumer video tape such as standard. The earliest of these formats, LaserDisc, was not widely adopted, however, after the introduction of the DVD format in 1997, VHSs market share began to decline. By 2008, DVD had replaced VHS as the preferred method of distribution. After several attempts by other companies, the first commercially successful VTR, at a price of US$50,000 in 1956, and US$300 for a 90-minute reel of tape, it was intended only for the professional market. Kenjiro Takayanagi, a broadcasting pioneer then working for JVC as its vice president, saw the need for his company to produce VTRs for the Japan market. In 1959, JVC developed a video tape recorder. In 1964, JVC released the DV220, which would be the companys standard VTR until the mid-1970s, in 1969 JVC collaborated with Sony Corporation and Matsushita Electric in building a video recording standard for the Japanese consumer. The effort produced the U-matic format in 1971, which was the first format to become a unified standard, U-matic was successful in business and some broadcast applications, but due to cost and limited recording time very few of the machines were sold for home use. Soon after, Sony and Matsushita broke away from the collaboration effort, Sony started working on Betamax, while Matsushita started working on VX. JVC released the CR-6060 in 1975, based on the U-matic format, Sony and Matsushita also produced U-matic systems of their own. In 1971, JVC engineers Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano put together a team to develop a consumer-based VTR, by the end of 1971 they created an internal diagram titled VHS Development Matrix, which established twelve objectives for JVCs new VTR. These included, The system must be compatible with any television set
11.
Panasonic
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Panasonic Corporation, formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Japan. The company was founded in 1918 and has grown to one of the largest Japanese electronics producers alongside Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba. In addition to electronics, it offers non-electronic products and services such as home renovation services, Panasonic is the worlds fourth-largest television manufacturer by 2012 market share. Panasonic has a listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Nikkei 225. It has a listing on the Nagoya Stock Exchange. From 1935 to October 1,2008, the name was Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. On January 10,2008, the announced that it would change its name to Panasonic Corporation, in effect on October 1,2008. The name change was approved at a meeting on June 26,2008 after consultation with the Matsushita family. Panasonic was founded in 1918 by Kōnosuke Matsushita as a vendor of duplex lamp sockets, in 1927, it began producing bicycle lamps, the first product which it marketed under the brand name National. After the war, Panasonic regrouped as a Keiretsu and began to supply the boom in Japan with radios and appliances. Matsushitas brother-in-law, Toshio Iue, founded Sanyo as a subcontractor for components after World War II, Sanyo grew to become a competitor to Panasonic, but was later acquired by Panasonic in December 2009. In 1961, Konosuke Matsushita traveled to the United States and met with American dealers, the company began producing television sets for the U. S. market under the Panasonic brand name, and expanded the use of the brand to Europe in 1979. The company used the National brand outside of North America from the 1950s to the 1970s, the company also developed a line of home appliances such as rice cookers for the Japanese and Asian markets. Rapid growth resulted in the company opening manufacturing plants around the world, the company debuted a hi-fidelity audio speaker in Japan in 1965 with the brand Technics. This line of high quality stereo components became worldwide favorites, the most famous products being its turntables, such as the SL-1200 record player, known for its high performance, precision and durability. In 1973, Matsushita formed a joint venture with Anam Group, in 1983, Matsushita launched the Panasonic Senior Partner, the first fully IBM PC compatible Japanese-made computer. In November 1990, Matsushita agreed to acquire the American media company MCA Inc. for US$6.59 billion, Matsushita subsequently sold 80% of MCA to Seagram Company for US$7 billion in April 1995. In 1998, Matsushita sold Anam National to Anam Electronics, on May 2,2002, Panasonic Canada marked its 35th anniversary in that country by giving $5-million to help build a music city on Torontos waterfront
12.
Kenwood Corporation
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Established in 1946 as the Kasuga Radio Co. Ltd. in Komagane City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, in 1960 the company was renamed Trio Corporation. In 1963 the first overseas office was founded in Los Angeles County, in the early 1960s, Trios products were rebranded by the Lafayette Radio Company, with a focus on citizens band radio. The brand recognition of Kenwood eventually surpassed that of Trios, and in 1986 Trio bought Kenwood, george Aratani was the first chairman of Kenwood USA Corporation and succeeded by Kasuga. Kenwood merged with JVC in 2008 as JVC Kenwood, Kenwood introduced its Sovereign line of components in 2001. Kenwood is a brand of JVCKENWOOD Corporation, Kenwood has offered lines of HF, VHF/UHF, and portable amateur radio models, including some with built-in digital data modes and modems needed to send and receive these protocols. Among the product lines are the TS series of HF transceivers which cover the HF bands, other series include the 100,500, and the 2000 series. Kenwood also offers a B model, which is a transceiver without display or controls and is controlled by a remote computer or a separate control unit. Radios with built-in digital data modes and modems Kenwoods series of Integrated Amplifier stereo power amplifiers, launched in 1977, the design for most of these items features a true dual-mono path for stereo output. Front plates were made in brushed aluminum with aluminum knobs and switches, glass covers. Each one is dealt with separately, NV-301/701 The NV-301 and NV-701 were probably the top-of-the-range models of the NV series. Both shared a three-layered half-mirrored sleek design, the difference mainly lay in the specification of the two systems. The NV-301 was the model with two speakers and with a simple phono input while the NV-701 was a 5.1 Dolby surround sound model with A/V inputs. Both featured a carousel, a cassette player with Dolby B noise reduction, a natural display, intelligent features. Kenwood had clearly taken huge advantage of microcomputers as evident in the functions that are featured, had old methods been used and these features had never been matched by other manufacturers, with other designs being rather crude by comparison. 1949, High-frequency transformer passes the NHK approval certificate for the first time in Japan,1955, Establishes the Tokyo and begins mass production of audio, communications and measuring equipment. 1958, Company’s first amateur radio goes on sale,1962, Launches the industry’s first transistor amplifier. 1963, Sets up in the U. S. and begins full-scale overseas operations,1966, Introduces fully transistorised audio products for the first time in the industry. 1969, The Trio TR-7100, 144MHz amateur radio car transceiver goes on sale,1978, Introduces its first professional analogue two-way radios
13.
His Master's Voice
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His Masters Voice, abbreviated HMV, is a famous trademark in the music and recording industry and was for many years the unofficial name of a large British record label. The name was coined in the 1890s as the title of a painting of a dog named Nipper, in the original painting, the dog was listening to a cylinder phonograph. The trademark image comes from a painting by English artist Francis Barraud and it was acquired from the artist in 1899 by the newly formed Gramophone Company and adopted by the Victor Talking Machine Company in the United States. According to contemporary Gramophone Company publicity material, the dog, a terrier named Nipper, had belonged to Barrauds brother. When Mark Barraud died, Francis inherited Nipper, with a cylinder phonograph, Francis noted the peculiar interest that the dog took in the recorded voice of his late master emanating from the horn, and conceived the idea of committing the scene to canvas. In early 1899, Francis Barraud applied for copyright of the painting using the descriptive working title Dog looking at. The image was first used on the companys catalogue dated December 1899, Victor used the image more aggressively than its UK partner, and from 1902 most Victor records had a simplified drawing of Barrauds dog-and-gramophone image on their labels. Magazine advertisements urged record buyers to look for the dog, in British Commonwealth countries, the Gramophone Company did not use the dog on its record labels until 1909. The following year the Gramophone Company replaced the Recording Angel trademark in the half of the record labels with the Nipper logo. The company was not formally called HMV or His Masters Voice, Records issued by the company before February 1908 were generally referred to as G&Ts, while those after that date are usually called HMV records. This image continued to be used as a trademark by Victor in the U. S. Canada, and Latin America, and then by Victors successor, in Commonwealth countries it was used by subsidiaries of the Gramophone Company, which ultimately became part of EMI. The trademarks ownership is divided among different companies in different countries, the name HMV is used by a chain of music shops owned by HMV, mainly in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan. In 1921 the Gramophone Company opened the first HMV shop in London, in 1929 RCA absorbed Victor, and with it a major shareholding in the Gramophone Company, which Victor had owned since 1920. In 1931 RCA was instrumental in the creation of EMI, which continued to own the His Masters Voice name, in 1935 RCA sold its stake in EMI but continued to own Victor and the rights to His Masters Voice in the Americas. HMV continued to distribute RCA recordings until RCA severed its ties with EMI in 1957, RCA Victors Japanese subsidiary, the Victor Company of Japan, became independent, and today they still use the Victor brand and Nipper in Japan only. In 1968, RCA introduced a logo and restricted the use of Nipper to the album covers of Red Seal Records. The trademark was reinstated to most RCA record labels in the Western Hemisphere beginning in late 1976 and was again widely used in RCA advertising throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. The dog reappeared for a time on RCA television sets and was used on the RCA CED videodisc system
14.
Victor Talking Machine Company
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The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American flagship record company headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. The company was founded by Eldridge R. Johnson, who had previously made gramophones to play Emile Berliners disc records, Victor Talking Machine Co. was incorporated officially in 1901 shortly before agreeing to allow Columbia Records use of its disc record patent. Victor had acquired the Pan-American rights to use the trademark of the fox terrier Nipper listening to a gramophone when Berliner. Barraud noticed that whenever he played a recorded by his brother. Barrauds original depicts Nipper staring intently into the horn of an Edison-Bell while both sit on a wooden surface. The London branch was managed by an American, William Barry Owen, Barraud paid a visit with a photograph of the painting and asked to borrow a horn. Owen gave Barraud an entire gramophone and asked him to paint it into the picture, the original painting still shows the contours of the Edison-Bell phonograph beneath the paint of the gramophone when viewed in the correct light. Only 13 originally commissioned His Masters Voice paintings were commissioned by the company, in 1915, the His Masters Voice logo was rendered in immense circular leaded-glass windows in the tower of the Victrola factory building. The tower remains today with replica windows installed during Radio Corporation of Americas ownership of the plant in its later years, today, one of the original windows is located at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D. C. There are different accounts as to how the Victor name came about, a second account is that Johnson emerged as the Victor from the lengthy and costly patent litigations involving Berliner and Frank Seamans Zonophone. A third story is that Johnsons partner, Leon Douglass, derived the word from his wifes name Victoria, finally, a fourth story is that Johnson took the name from the popular Victor bicycle, which he had admired for its superior engineering. Of these four accounts the first two are the most generally accepted, perhaps coincidentally, the first use of the Victor title on a letterhead, on March 28,1901, was only nine weeks after the death of British Queen Victoria. Before 1925, recording was done by the purely mechanical. No microphone was involved and there was no means of amplification, the recording machine was essentially an exposed-horn acoustical record player functioning in reverse. The sound-vibrated center of the diaphragm was linked to a stylus that was guided across the surface of a very thick wax disc. The wax was too soft to be played back even once without seriously damaging it, although test recordings were sometimes made, although sound quality was gradually improved by a series of small refinements, the process was inherently insensitive. From the start, Victor innovated manufacturing processes and soon rose to preeminence by recording famous performers, in 1903, it instituted a three-step mother-stamper process to produce more stampers and records than previously possible. These new celebrity recordings bore red labels, and were marketed as Red Seal records, for many years these records were single-sided, only in 1923 did Victor begin offering Red Seals in double-sided form
15.
Phonograph
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The phonograph is a device invented in 1877 for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. In its later forms it is called a gramophone. To recreate the sound, the surface is rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it. In later electric phonographs, the motions of the stylus are converted into an electrical signal by a transducer. The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison, while other inventors had produced devices that could record sounds, Edisons phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a sheet wrapped around a rotating cylinder. A stylus responding to sound vibrations produced an up and down or hill-and-dale groove in the foil, in the 1890s, Emile Berliner initiated the transition from phonograph cylinders to flat discs with a spiral groove running from the periphery to near the center. Later improvements through the years included modifications to the turntable and its system, the stylus or needle. The disc phonograph record was the dominant audio recording format throughout most of the 20th century, from the mid-1980s on, phonograph use on a standard record player declined sharply because of the rise of the cassette tape, compact disc and other digital recording formats. Records are still a favorite format for some audiophiles and DJs, vinyl records are still used by some DJs and musicians in their concert performances. Musicians continue to release their recordings on vinyl records, the original recordings of musicians are sometimes re-issued on vinyl. Usage of terminology is not uniform across the English-speaking world, in more modern usage, the playback device is often called a turntable, record player, or record changer. When used in conjunction with a mixer as part of a DJ setup, the term phonograph was derived from the Greek words φωνή and γραφή. The similar related terms gramophone and graphophone have similar root meanings, the roots were already familiar from existing 19th-century words such as photograph, telegraph, and telephone. In British English, gramophone may refer to any sound-reproducing machine using disc records, the term phonograph was usually restricted to machines that used cylinder records. Gramophone generally referred to a wind-up machine, after the introduction of the softer vinyl records, 33 1⁄3-rpm LPs and 45-rpm single or two-song records, and EPs, the common name became record player or turntable. Often the home record player was part of a system that included a radio and, later, from about 1960, such a system began to be described as a hi-fi or a stereo. In American English, phonograph, properly specific to machines made by Edison, was used in a generic sense as early as the 1890s to include cylinder-playing machines made by others
16.
Phonograph record
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The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. The phonograph disc record was the medium used for music reproduction until late in the 20th century. It had co-existed with the cylinder from the late 1880s. Records retained the largest market share even when new formats such as compact cassette were mass-marketed, by the late 1980s, digital media, in the form of the compact disc, had gained a larger market share, and the vinyl record left the mainstream in 1991. The phonograph record has made a resurgence in the early 21st century –9.2 million records were sold in the U. S. in 2014. Likewise, in the UK sales have increased five-fold from 2009 to 2014, as of 2017,48 record pressing facilities remain worldwide,18 in the United States and 30 in other countries. The increased popularity of vinyl has led to the investment in new, only two producers of lacquers remains, Apollo Masters in California, USA, and MDC in Japan. Vinyl records may be scratched or warped if stored incorrectly but if they are not exposed to heat or broken. The large cover are valued by collectors and artists for the space given for visual expression, in the 2000s, these tracings were first scanned by audio engineers and digitally converted into audible sound. Phonautograms of singing and speech made by Scott in 1860 were played back as sound for the first time in 2008, along with a tuning fork tone and unintelligible snippets recorded as early as 1857, these are the earliest known recordings of sound. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, unlike the phonautograph, it was capable of both recording and reproducing sound. Despite the similarity of name, there is no evidence that Edisons phonograph was based on Scotts phonautograph. Edison first tried recording sound on a paper tape, with the idea of creating a telephone repeater analogous to the telegraph repeater he had been working on. The tinfoil was wrapped around a metal cylinder and a sound-vibrated stylus indented the tinfoil while the cylinder was rotated. The recording could be played back immediately, Edison also invented variations of the phonograph that used tape and disc formats. A decade later, Edison developed a greatly improved phonograph that used a wax cylinder instead of a foil sheet. This proved to be both a better-sounding and far more useful and durable device, the wax phonograph cylinder created the recorded sound market at the end of the 1880s and dominated it through the early years of the 20th century. Berliners earliest discs, first marketed in 1889, but only in Europe, were 12.5 cm in diameter, both the records and the machine were adequate only for use as a toy or curiosity, due to the limited sound quality
17.
RCA
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RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. General Electric took over the company in late 1985 and split it up the following year, after World War I began in August 1914, radio traffic across the Atlantic Ocean increased dramatically after the western Allies cut the German transatlantic telegraph cables. In 1917 the government of the United States took charge of the owned by the major companies involved in radio manufacture in the United States to devote radio technology to the war effort. All production of equipment was allocated to the U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, U. S. Marine Corps. The War Department and the Navy Department sought to maintain a monopoly of all uses of radio technology. The wartime takeover of all radio systems ended late in 1918, the war ended in November of that year. The ending of the governments monopoly in radio communications did not prevent the War. On 8 April 1919, naval Admiral W. H. G. Bullard, the proposal presented by the government was that if GE created an American-owned radio company, then the Army and Navy would effect a monopoly of long-distance radio communications via this company. This marked the beginning of a series of negotiations through which GE would buy the American Marconi company, the Army and the Navy granted RCA the former American Marconi radio terminals that had been confiscated during the War. Admiral Bullard received a seat on the Board of Directors of RCA for his efforts in establishing RCA, the result was federally-created monopolies in radio for GE and the Westinghouse Corporation and in telephone systems for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company. The first chief officer of RCA was Owen D. Young. RCAs incorporation papers required that a majority of its stock be held by American citizens, as the years went on, RCA either took over, or produced for itself, a large number of patents, including that of the superheterodyne receiver invented by Edwin Armstrong. Over the years, RCA continued to operate international services, under its subsidiary RCA Communications, Inc. GE used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales from 1919, Westinghouse also marketed home radios through RCA until 1930. In 1929, RCA purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the worlds largest manufacturer of phonographs and this included a majority ownership of the Victor Company of Japan. The new subsidiary then became RCA Victor, with Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the Nipper His Masters Voice trademark. This trademark is used by the British music & entertainment company HMV. RCA began selling the first electronic turntable in 1930, in 1931, RCA Victor began selling 33⅓ rpm records
18.
Radio
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When radio waves strike an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. The information in the waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form, Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it, for example using amplitude modulation or angle modulation. Radio systems also need an antenna to convert electric currents into radio waves, an antenna can be used for both transmitting and receiving. The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected, the electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna. Radio frequencies occupy the range from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, a radio communication system sends signals by radio. The term radio is derived from the Latin word radius, meaning spoke of a wheel, beam of light, however, this invention would not be widely adopted. The switch to radio in place of wireless took place slowly and unevenly in the English-speaking world, the United States Navy would also play a role. Although its translation of the 1906 Berlin Convention used the terms wireless telegraph and wireless telegram, the term started to become preferred by the general public in the 1920s with the introduction of broadcasting. Radio systems used for communication have the following elements, with more than 100 years of development, each process is implemented by a wide range of methods, specialised for different communications purposes. Each system contains a transmitter, This consists of a source of electrical energy, the transmitter contains a system to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it. This modulation might be as simple as turning the energy on and off, or altering more subtle such as amplitude, frequency, phase. Amplitude modulation of a carrier wave works by varying the strength of the signal in proportion to the information being sent. For example, changes in the strength can be used to reflect the sounds to be reproduced by a speaker. It was the used for the first audio radio transmissions. Frequency modulation varies the frequency of the carrier, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal. FM has the capture effect whereby a receiver only receives the strongest signal, Digital data can be sent by shifting the carriers frequency among a set of discrete values, a technique known as frequency-shift keying. FM is commonly used at Very high frequency radio frequencies for high-fidelity broadcasts of music, analog TV sound is also broadcast using FM. Angle modulation alters the phase of the carrier wave to transmit a signal
19.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
20.
Videosphere
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Videosphere was a JVC CRT television that was shaped in the form of a space helmet. It was first introduced in 1970 and was sold up until the early-1980s and it was popular for its modern design, the alarm clock base was an option, most units have a plain base. Videospheres were produced in quantities in white, red, black. The sci-fi look of the TV saw a red model appear as a prop in the 1999 film The Matrix. In the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, a black videosphere was shown with a color capable tube, humorously, the color image on the videosphere goes from being rectangular in one scene to round in another scene. With spare parts becoming an issue for restorers of videospheres, is not uncommon to see spare parts sold on online auctions, replacement visor screens are particularly sought after. Video artist Nam June Paik used a white videosphere for his installation TV Buddha in 1974, millers 20th Century Design Buyers Guide
21.
Cathode ray tube
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The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube that contains one or more electron guns and a phosphorescent screen, and is used to display images. It modulates, accelerates, and deflects electron beam onto the screen to create the images, the images may represent electrical waveforms, pictures, radar targets, or others. CRTs have also used as memory devices, in which case the visible light emitted from the fluorescent material is not intended to have significant meaning to a visual observer. In television sets and computer monitors, the front area of the tube is scanned repetitively and systematically in a fixed pattern called a raster. An image is produced by controlling the intensity of each of the three beams, one for each additive primary color with a video signal as a reference. A CRT is constructed from an envelope which is large, deep, fairly heavy. The interior of a CRT is evacuated to approximately 0.01 Pa to 133 nPa. evacuation being necessary to facilitate the flight of electrons from the gun to the tubes face. That it is evacuated makes handling an intact CRT potentially dangerous due to the risk of breaking the tube and causing a violent implosion that can hurl shards of glass at great velocity. As a matter of safety, the face is made of thick lead glass so as to be highly shatter-resistant and to block most X-ray emissions. Flat panel displays can also be made in large sizes, whereas 38 to 40 was about the largest size of a CRT television, flat panels are available in 60. Cathode rays were discovered by Johann Hittorf in 1869 in primitive Crookes tubes and he observed that some unknown rays were emitted from the cathode which could cast shadows on the glowing wall of the tube, indicating the rays were traveling in straight lines. In 1890, Arthur Schuster demonstrated cathode rays could be deflected by electric fields, the earliest version of the CRT was known as the Braun tube, invented by the German physicist Ferdinand Braun in 1897. It was a diode, a modification of the Crookes tube with a phosphor-coated screen. In 1907, Russian scientist Boris Rosing used a CRT in the end of an experimental video signal to form a picture. He managed to display simple geometric shapes onto the screen, which marked the first time that CRT technology was used for what is now known as television. The first cathode ray tube to use a hot cathode was developed by John B. Johnson and Harry Weiner Weinhart of Western Electric and it was named by inventor Vladimir K. Zworykin in 1929. RCA was granted a trademark for the term in 1932, it released the term to the public domain in 1950. The first commercially made electronic television sets with cathode ray tubes were manufactured by Telefunken in Germany in 1934, in oscilloscope CRTs, electrostatic deflection is used, rather than the magnetic deflection commonly used with television and other large CRTs
22.
Alarm clock
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An alarm clock is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of individuals at specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to people from their nights sleep or short naps. Most use sound, some use light or vibration, some have sensors to identify when a person is in a light stage of sleep, in order to avoid waking someone who is deeply asleep, which causes tiredness, even if the person has had adequate sleep. To stop the sound or light, a button or handle on the clock is pressed, a classic analog alarm clock has an extra hand or inset dial that is used to specify the time at which to activate the alarm. Alarm clocks are also found on mobile phones and watches, in some models, the back encasement of the clock itself acts as the bell. In an electric bell-style alarm clock, the bell is rung by a circuit and armature that turns the circuit on. Digital alarm clocks can make other noises, simple battery-powered alarm clocks make a loud buzzing or beeping sound to wake a sleeper, while novelty alarm clocks can speak, laugh, sing, or play sounds from nature. Some alarm clocks have radios that can be set to playing at specified times. Some alarm clocks can set multiple alarms, a feature for couples who have different waking up schedules. A progressive alarm clock, still new in the market, can have different alarms for different times, most modern televisions, mobile phones and digital watches have alarm clock functions to turn on or make sounds at a specific time. The late Roman senator Cassiodorus advocated in his rulebook for monastic life the water clock as an alarm for the soldiers of Christ. The Christian rhetorician Procopius described in detail prior to 529 a complex public striking clock in his home town Gaza which featured an hourly gong and figures moving mechanically day, in China, a striking clock was devised by the Buddhist monk and inventor Yi Xing. The Chinese engineers Zhang Sixun and Su Song integrated striking clock mechanisms in astronomical clocks in the 10th and 11th centuries, a striking clock outside of China was the water-powered clock tower near the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, which struck once every hour. It was constructed by the Arab engineer al-Kaysarani in 1154, the most famous original striking clock tower still standing is possibly the one in St Marks Clocktower in St Marks Square, Venice. The St Marks Clock was assembled in 1493, by the famous clockmaker Gian Carlo Rainieri from Reggio Emilia, where his father Gian Paolo Rainieri had already constructed another famous device in 1481. In 1497, Simone Campanato moulded the great bell, which was put on the top of the tower where it was beaten by the Due Mori. User-settable mechanical alarm clocks date back at least to 15th-century Europe and these early alarm clocks had a ring of holes in the clock dial and were set by placing a pin in the appropriate hole. Another mechanical alarm clock was created by Levi Hutchins, of New Hampshire in the United States and this device he made only for himself however, and it only rang at 4 AM, in order to wake him for his job
23.
Quadraphonic sound
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Quadraphonic audio was the earliest consumer product in surround sound and thousands of quadraphonic recordings were made during the 1970s. It was a failure due to many technical problems and format incompatibilities. Quadraphonic audio formats were more expensive to produce than standard two-channel stereo, playback required additional speakers and specially designed decoders and amplifiers. Also, there were inexpensive derived solutions that provided back ambience channels. Quadraphonic systems based on tape were introduced, based on new equipment capable of playing four discrete channels. A full, four-channel system will reproduce the Left Front, Left Back, Right Front, discrete reproduction is the only true Quadraphonic system. This is defined as a 4–4–4 system, uD-4 / UMX / BMX CD-4 / Quadradisc Quad-8 / Quadraphonic 8-Track Q4 / Quadraphonic Reel to Reel With Matrix formats, the four channels are converted down to two channels. These are then passed through a transmission medium before being decoded back to four channels. To transmit 4 individual audio signals in a manner, there must be four simultaneous linear equations to reproduce the original 4 audio signals at the output. The term compatible indicates that, A single-channel system will reproduce all four audio signals in its one speaker, a two-channel system will reproduce the Left Front & Left Back audio signals in the Left speaker and the Right Front & Right Back signals in the Right Speaker. The original systems were basic and suffered from low front L/R separation, the poor decode performance was the main reason for their disappearance once the improved matrix systems arrived based on the work by Peter Scheiber. His basic formula utilized 90-degree phase-shift circuitry to enable enhanced 4-2-4 matrix systems to be developed and this 4,2,4 process could not be accomplished without some information loss. That is to say, the four channels produced at the stage were not truly identical to those with which the process had begun. Matrix H SQ / Stereo Quadraphonic QS / RM DY / Dynaquad EV / Stereo-4 Derived formats were inexpensive electronic solutions that provided back ambiance channels from regular stereo records, there was not a deliberate placement of individual instruments on the back channels. All available 4 tracks were used in one direction on the tape, RCA Records followed, in April 1970, with its announcement of a 4 channel version of the 8-track tape, named Quad-8 or Quadraphonic 8-Track Tape. These eventually appeared in Sept.1970, there were automobile players as well as home versions. The format was almost identical in appearance to stereo 8-tracks, except for a small sensing notch in the left corner of the cartridge. This signaled a quadraphonic 8-track player to combine the odd tracks as channels for Program 1
24.
Boombox
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Boombox is a common term for a portable transistorized cassette tape recorder/player and AM/FM radio with an amplifier, two or more loudspeakers and a carrying handle. A boombox is a device capable of receiving radio stations. Many models are capable of recording onto cassette tapes from radio. Designed for portability, boomboxes can be powered by batteries as well as by line current, the boombox was introduced to the American market during the mid-1970s. The desire for louder and heavier bass led to bigger and heavier boxes, by the 1980s, most boomboxes were battery-operated, leading to extremely heavy, bulky boxes. The boombox quickly became associated with society in the United States, particularly African American. Cities petitioned for the banning of boomboxes from public places, the boombox became closely linked to American hip hop culture and was instrumental in the rise of hip hop music. The first boombox was developed by the inventor of the compact cassette. Their first Radiorecorder was released in 1966, the Philips innovation was the first time that radio broadcasts could be recorded onto cassette tapes without the cables or microphones that previous stand-alone cassette tape recorders required. Although sound quality of tape recordings was poor, improvements in technology and the introduction of stereo recording, chromium tapes. Several European electronics brands, such as Grundig, also introduced similar devices, boomboxes were soon also developed in Japan in the early 1970s and became popular there due to their compact size and impressive sound quality. The Japanese brands soon took over a portion of the European boombox market and were often the first Japanese consumer electronics brands that a European household might purchase. The Japanese innovated by creating different sizes, form factors, and technology, introducing such advances as stereo boomboxes, removable speakers, in-built TV receivers, and inbuilt CD players. The boombox was introduced to the American market during the mid-1970s, with the bulk of production being carried out by Panasonic, Sony, Marantz, and General Electric. It was immediately noticed by the urban adolescent community and soon had a market, especially in metropolitan centers such as New York, Los Angeles. The development of audio jacks brought the boombox to the height of its popularity, consumers enjoyed the portability and sound quality of boomboxes, but one of the most important features, especially to the youth market, was the bass. The desire for louder and heavier bass led to bigger and heavier boxes, most units can be powered by AC or DC cables in addition to batteries. As boomboxes grew in popularity, they became more complex in design
25.
Cassette deck
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A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio compact cassettes. Although the two terms used interchangeably, a recorder is typically thought of as a low-fidelity portable device. The first consumer tape recorder to employ a tape reel permanently housed in a removable cartridge was the RCA tape cartridge. The tape width was 1⁄8 inch and tape speed was 1.875 inches per second, giving a decidedly non Hi-Fi frequency response, early recorders were intended for dictation and journalists, and were typically hand-held battery-powered devices with built-in microphones and automatic gain control on recording. Tape recorder audio-quality had improved by the mid-1970s, and a deck with manual level controls. Cassettes became extremely popular for automotive and other portable music applications, although pre-recorded cassettes were widely available, many users would combine songs from their vinyl records or cassettes to make a new custom mixtape cassette. In 1970, the Advent Corporation combined Dolby B noise reduction system with chromium dioxide tape to create the Advent Model 200, Dolby B uses volume companding of high frequencies to boost low-level treble information by up to 9 dB, reducing them on playback. CrO2 used different bias and equalization settings to reduce the noise level. Together these allowed a flat frequency response beyond 15 kHz for the first time. Both featured an unusual single VU meter which could be switched between or for both channels, most manufacturers adopted a standard top-loading format with piano key controls, dual VU meters, and slider level controls. Mechanical controls were replaced with push buttons controlling solenoid mechanical actuators. Some models could search and count gaps between songs, Cassette decks soon came into widespread use and were designed variously for professional applications, home audio systems, and for mobile use in cars, as well as portable recorders. From the mid-1970s to the late 1990s the cassette deck was the music source for the automobile. A major boost to the cassettes popularity came with the release of the Sony Walkman personal cassette player in 1979, although the vast majority of such players eventually sold were not Sony products, the name Walkman has become synonymous with this type of device. Cassette decks were eventually manufactured by almost every well known brand in home audio, Cassette decks reached their pinnacle of performance and complexity by the mid-1980s. Cassette decks from companies such as Nakamichi, Revox, and Tandberg incorporated advanced features such as multiple tape heads, auto-reversing decks became popular and were standard on most factory installed automobile decks. Three-head technology uses separate heads for recording and playback and this allows different record and playback head gaps to be used. A narrower head gap is optimal for playback than for recording, separate record and playback heads also allow off-the-tape monitoring during recording, permitting immediate verification of the recording quality
26.
JVC HR-3300
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The JVC HR-3300 VIDSTAR is the worlds first VHS-based VCR to be released to the market, introduced by the president of JVC at the Okura Hotel on September 9,1976. Sales started in Japan under the name Victor HR-3300 on 31 October 1976, foreign sales followed in 1977 with the HR-3300U in the United States, and HR-3300EK in the United Kingdom. In 2008, the HR-3300 became the first VCR to be registered with the National Museum of Nature and Science, based in Tokyo and it was noted as one of the 85 most disruptive ideas by Business Week in 2014. The first VCR system sold directly to users was 1963s Telcan from the UK. Sonys CV-2000 was a system based on commercial 1⁄2-inch tape on open reels. In order to tape, the system recorded every other frame of the television signal. Similar models from Ampex and RCA followed that year, the number of open-reel VCRs continued to increase during the late 1960s, leading to the EIAJ-1 standard for 1⁄2-inch tape on a 7 inch reel. The follow-up EIAJ-2 built the take-up reel into the VCR body, in September 1971, Sony introduced the U-matic format, aimed at professional users, which replaced the open reels with a cassette. The next year Philips introduced the Video Cassette Recording format specifically for home users, over the next five years, a number of companies introduced similar cassette-based home formats, all of which were incompatible. Among the better examples are Sanyos V-Cord from 1974, Sonys Betamax from 1975. JVC engineers Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano led the effort in developing the VHS tape format starting in 1971, the project started off by designing guidelines for VHS, creating a matrix on a blackboard called the VHS Development Matrix. Included in the matrix was a list of objectives in building a video recording unit. The HR-3300 is a result of these objectives, soon after the matrix was produced, the commercial video recording industry in Japan took a financial hit. As a result, JVC cut its budgets and restructured its video division - even going as far as shelving the VHS project, however, despite the lack of funding for the VHS project, Takano and Shiraishi continued to work on the project in secrecy within the video division. By 1973, the two engineers successfully produced a prototype of the HR-3300. The first HR-3300 was released in 1976 and these early units used two large rotary knobs for tuning television signals for recording, one for VHF and another for UHF. Separate antenna inputs and pass-throughs were provided for both frequencies, as composite video in and out via RCA jacks. An electronic timer with four seven-segment displays was located in the left of the front panel allowed the user to automatically record programs
27.
Akihabara
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Akihabara is a common name for the area around Akihabara Station in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, Japan. The area called Akihabara mainly belongs to Sotokanda district, Akihabara gained the nickname Akihabara Electric Town shortly after World War II for being a major shopping center for household electronic goods and the post-war black market. Nowadays, Akihabara is considered by many to be a cultural center and a shopping district for video games, anime, manga. Icons from popular anime and manga are displayed prominently on the shops in the area, the main area of Akihabara is located on a street just west of Akihabara Station, where most of the major shops are situated. Most of the shops are just west of the station, and the anime and manga shops. As mentioned above, the area called Akihabara now ranges over some districts in Chiyoda ward, Sotokanda, Kanda-Hanaokachō, the administrative district called Akihabara exists in Taitō ward and borders on Sotokanda at the middle of Akihabara and Okachimachi stations, but its half is occupied by JR tracks. The area that is now Akihabara was once near a city gate of Edo and this made the region a home to many craftsmen and tradesmen, as well as some low class samurai. The locals nicknamed the shrine Akiba after the deity that could fire. After Akihabara Station was built in 1888, the shrine was moved to the Taitō ward where it resides today. Since its opening in 1890, Akihabara Station became a freight transit point. Then, in the 1920s, the station saw a large volume of passengers after opening for public transport, and after World War II, the black market thrived in the absence of a strong government. This disconnection of Akihabara from government authority has allowed the district to grow as a market city and this new specialization brought in a new type of consumer, computer nerds or otaku. The market in Akihabara naturally latched onto their new customer base that was focused on anime, manga, on Sunday 8 June 2008 at 12,33 JST, a man drove into a crowd with a truck, then stabbed at least 17 people using a dagger. Seven died and ten were injured, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested Tomohiro Katō,25, on suspicion of attempted murder, and arrested him again weeks later on suspicion of murder. Kato was eventually sentenced to death by the Tokyo District Court in 2011, the influence of otaku culture has shaped Akihabaras businesses and buildings to reflect the interests of otaku and gained the district worldwide fame for its distinctive imagery. Akihabara tries to create an atmosphere as close as possible to the game and anime worlds of customers interest, the streets of Akihabara are covered with anime and manga icons, and cosplayers line the sidewalks handing out advertisements, especially for maid cafés. The idol group AKB48, one of Japans highest selling contemporary musical acts, runs its own theater in Akihabara, the design of many of the buildings serves to create the sort of atmosphere that draws in otaku. Akihabaras role as a market has also allowed a large amount of amateur work to find a passionate audience in the otaku who frequent the area
28.
Sony
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Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation that is headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified business includes consumer and professional electronics, gaming, entertainment, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony was ranked 116th on the 2015 list of Fortune Global 500 and these make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. The group consists of Sony Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Financial Holdings and others. Sony is among the Semiconductor sales leaders by year and as of 2013, the companys current slogan is BE MOVED. Their former slogans were make. believe, like. no. other, Sony has a weak tie to the SMFG keiretsu, the successor to the Mitsui keiretsu. Sony began in the wake of World War II, in 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a department store building in Tokyo. The company had $530 in capital and a total of eight employees, in the following year he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo 東京通信工業. The company built Japans first tape recorder, called the Type-G, in 1958 the company changed its name to Sony. When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TTK, the company occasionally used the acronym Totsuko in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was Tokyo Teletech until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name, the name Sony was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word sonus, which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was sonny, a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a boy. In the 1950s Japan sonny boys, was a word into Japanese which connoted smart and presentable young men. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955, at the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition, TTKs principal bank at the time and they pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Banks chairman gave their approval, according to Schiffer, Sonys TR-63 radio cracked open the U. S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics
29.
Betamax
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Betamax is a consumer-level analog-recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10,1975, the first Betamax introduced in the United States was the LV-1901 console, which included a 19-inch color monitor, and appeared in stores in early November 1975. The cassettes contain 0. 50-inch-wide videotape in a similar to that of the earlier, professional 0. 75-inch-wide. Betamax is obsolete, having lost the videotape format war to VHS, production of Betamax recorders ceased in 2002, new Betamax cassettes were available until March 2016, when Sony stopped making and selling them. Like the rival videotape format VHS, Betamax has no guard band, the suffix -max, from the word maximum, was added to suggest greatness. In 1977, Sony issued the first long-play Betamax VCR, the SL-8200 and this VCR had two recording speeds, normal, and the newer half speed. This provided two hours recording on the L-500 Beta videocassette, the SL-8200 was to compete against the VHS VCRs, which allowed up to 4, and later 6 and 8, hours of recording on one cassette. Sanyo marketed a version as Betacord, which also was casually called Beta, in addition to Sony and Sanyo, Beta-format video recorders were manufactured and sold by Toshiba, Pioneer, Murphy, Aiwa, and NEC. The Zenith Electronics Corporation and WEGA Corporations contracted with Sony to produce VCRs for their product lines, the department stores Sears and Quelle sold Beta-format VCRs under their house brands, as did the RadioShack chain of electronic stores. Betamax and VHS competed in a format war, which saw VHS win in most markets. For the professional and broadcast video industry, Sony derived Betacam from Betamax, released in 1982, Betacam became the most widely used videotape format in ENG, replacing the.75 in wide U-matic tape format. But in the key area of recording, Betacam and Betamax are completely different. Sony also offered a range of industrial Betamax products, a Beta I-only format for industrial and institutional users and these were aimed at the same market as U-Matic equipment, but were cheaper and smaller. The arrival of Betacam reduced the demand for both industrial Beta and U-Matic equipment, Betamax also had a significant part to play in the music recording industry, when Sony introduced its PCM digital recording system as an encoding box/PCM adaptor that connected to a Betamax recorder. The Sony PCM-F1 adaptor was sold with a companion Betamax VCR SL-2000 as a digital audio recording system. Many recording engineers used this system in the 1980s and 1990s to make their first digital master recordings and this feature is discussed in more detail on Peep Search. Sony believed that the M-Load transports used by VHS machines made copying these trick modes impossible, betaSkipScan is now available on miniature M-load formats, but even Sony was unable to fully replicate this on VHS. BetaScan was originally called Videola until the company made the Moviola threatened legal action
30.
Videotape
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Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either a signal or digital signal. Videotape is used in video tape recorders or, more commonly, videocassette recorders and camcorders. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the produced by an electrocardiogram. Tape is a method of storing information and thus imposes delays to access a portion of the tape that is not already under the heads. The early 2000s saw the introduction and rise to prominence of high quality video recording media such as hard disks. Since then, videotape has been relegated to archival and similar uses. The electronics division of entertainer Bing Crosbys production company, Bing Crosby Enterprises, overall the picture quality was still considered inferior to the best kinescope recordings on film. Bing Crosby Enterprises hoped to have a version available in 1954. The BBC experimented from 1952 to 1958 with a high-speed linear videotape system called VERA and it used half-inch tape traveling at 200 inches per second. RCA demonstrated the magnetic recording of both black-and-white and color television programs at its Princeton laboratories on December 1,1953. The high-speed longitudinal tape system, called Simplex, in development since 1951, could record, the color system used half-inch tape to record five tracks, one each for red, blue, green, synchronization, and audio. The black-and-white system used quarter-inch tape with two tracks, one for video and one for audio, both systems ran at 360 inches per second. RCA-owned NBC first used it on The Jonathan Winters Show on October 23,1956 when a song sequence by Dorothy Collins in color was included in the otherwise live television program. BCE demonstrated a color system in February 1955 using a longitudinal recording on half-inch tape. CBS, RCAs competitor, was about to order BCE machines when Ampex introduced the superior Quadruplex system, BCE was acquired by 3M Company in 1956. Quad employed a transverse four-head system on a tape. On January 22,1957, the NBC Television game show Truth or Consequences, produced in Hollywood, Ampex introduced a color videotape recorder in 1958 in a cross-licensing agreement with RCA, whose engineers had developed it from an Ampex black-and-white recorder
31.
Videotape format war
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VHS ultimately emerged as the preeminent format. The first video recorder to become available was the U-matic system. U-matic was designed for commercial or professional television production use, and was not affordable or user-friendly for home videos or home movies, the first consumer-grade VCR to be released was the Philips N1500 VCR format in 1972, followed in 1975 by Sonys Betamax. This was quickly followed by the competing VHS format from JVC, subsequently, the Betamax–VHS format war began in earnest. Other competitors, such as the Avco Cartrivision, Sanyos V-Cord, Sony had demonstrated a prototype videotape recording system it called Beta to the other electronics manufacturers in 1974, and expected that they would back a single format for the good of all. But JVC in particular decided to go with its own format, despite Sonys appeal to the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry, manufacturers also introduced other systems such as needle-based, record-style discs and Philips LaserDisc. None of these disc formats gained much ground as none was capable of recording, however. Contrary to popular misconception, pornographic movies market wasnt a key factor in the format war. Sony had met with Matsushita executives in late 1974 or early 1975 to discuss the forthcoming home video market, both had previously cooperated in the development and marketing of the U-Matic video cassette format. Sony brought along a Betamax prototype for Matsushitas engineers to evaluate, Sony at the time was unaware of JVCs work. While VHS machines lower retail price was a factor, the principal battleground proved to be recording time. JVCs VHS could manage 120 minutes, followed by RCAs entrance into the market with a 240-minute recorder and these challenges sparked a mini-war to see who could achieve the longest recording time. RCA had discussions with Sony, but RCA felt the time was too short. Sony engineers knew that the technology available to manufacture video heads wasnt up to the task yet, however, the picture quality would be degraded severely, and at that time Sony engineers felt the compromise was not worthwhile. Soon after, RCA met with execs at the Victor Corporation of Japan, but JVC also refused to compromise the picture quality of their format by allowing a four-hour mode. JVCs parent corporation, Matsushita, later met with RCA, RCA would go on to market four hours, $999, forcing a price war and also a tape length war. Betamax eventually achieved 5 hours at Beta-III speed on an ultra-thin L-830 cassette, slower tape speeds meant a degradation in picture quality, as adjacent video bands created crosstalk and noise in the decoded picture. When Betamax was introduced in Japan and the United States in 1975, however the introduction of Beta II speed,0.79 ips, to compete with VHS two-hour Standard Play mode reduced Betamaxs horizontal resolution to 240 lines
32.
Video High Density
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Video High Density is a videodisc format which was marketed predominantly in Japan by JVC. There was also a variant, Audio High Density. VHD discs are 25 centimetres in diameter, and store up to 60 minutes of video per side, each disc is stored in a caddy—like the CED system from RCA, also known as SelectaVision VideoDisc, the user never handled the disc directly. The entire caddy is inserted into the player, and then withdrawn, leaving the disc inside where it will be loaded, at the end of the side the disc must be removed, turned over and re-inserted. Like the RCA system, the signal is recorded on the discs as variations in capacitance, a diamond stylus reads the signal, though unlike CED there are no actual grooves—the stylus follows the tracks electronically, like a compact disc. Naturally this means less wear, though there is still physical contact so some wear would still occur, the discs contain two frames per revolution, and play in CAV mode. The VHD system had advantages over both the RCA Capacitance Electronic Disc system and the MCA/Philips LaserVision system, in active mode it had a greater capacity than LaserVision. It also had the ability to carry 99 randomly accessible chapters and had the same autostop capability and these two functions had to be programmed into the master tape from which the videodisc was made, along with the two-frame freeze frame function. This made videotape master editing a highly specialist operation requiring precise insertion of vertical interval codes into the video signal, applications included interactive adventure games, and car engine diagnostic tools. Constructing an interactive disc required a lot of planning as well as the specialist video master editing, VHD was first demonstrated in 1978, and after numerous advertisements in 1981/1982 National Geographic magazines, it was eventually released in Japan in 1983. By this time, both LaserDisc and CED were already suffering from the onslaught of VHS and Betamax VCRs, despite demonstrating the player at several Consumer Electronics Shows, JVC opted not to release VHD as a consumer product in North America. In the UK Thorn EMI, which was the leading provider of the VHS tape system, saw VHD as the next step in the market. VHD remained on the market in the UK primarily as an educational and training tool, usually linked to a computer and it found its main niche as a karaoke system, and was also used in anime video games and interactive training systems. Commercial versions were available in the UK for training, demonstration, a stereoscopic system was also sold in Japan, these 3D VHD systems achieved the 3D effect using double-speed discs with alternate-eye images and LCS glasses to pass the correct view to each eye. VHD was essentially defunct after 1986, discs continued to be manufactured up until the early 1990s. VHD was not a success as a consumer product. VHD has something of a following in Japan, and discs. Total Rewind - The Virtual Museum of Vintage Video VHD DiscWorld The LaserDisc Database - LD/CED/VHD discs, profiling and marketplace
33.
Capacitance Electronic Disc
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First conceived in 1964, the CED system was widely seen as a technological success which was able to increase the density of a long-playing record by two orders of magnitude. Sales for the system were nowhere near projected estimates, and by 1984 RCA had discontinued the project, losing an estimated $600 million in the process. RCA had initially intended to release the SKT425 CED player with their high end Dimensia system in 1984, the format was commonly known as videodisc, leading to much confusion with the contemporaneous LaserDisc format. LaserDiscs are read optically with a beam, whereas CED videodiscs are read physically with a stylus. The two systems are mutually incompatible, RCA used the brand SelectaVision for the CED system, a name also used for some early RCA brand VCRs, and other experimental projects at RCA. RCA began videodisc research in 1964, in an attempt to produce a method of reproducing video. The first CED prototype discs were multi-layered, consisting of a substrate, nickel conductive layer, glow-discharge insulating layer. However, failure to solve the stylus and disc wear. The final disc was crafted using PVC blended with carbon to allow the disc to be conductive, to preserve stylus and groove life, a thin layer of silicone was applied to the disc as a lubricant. CED videodiscs were originally meant to be sold in jackets and handled by hand similar to audio records, but during testing, it was shown that exposure to dust caused skipped grooves. Thus, an idea was developed in which the disc would be stored and handled in a caddy from which the CED would be extracted by the player so that exposure to dust would be minimized. After 17 years of research and development, the first CED player was released on March 22,1981, a catalog of approximately 50 titles was released at the same time. The first title to be manufactured was Race for Your Life, fifteen months later, RCA released the SGT200 and SGT250 players, both with stereo sound. Models with remote controls and random access hit the market in spring and fall 1983, several problems doomed the new CED system almost from the start. The long period of development—caused in part by political turmoil and a deal of turnover in the high command of RCA—also contributed to the demise of the CED system. RCA had originally slated the videodisc system for a 1977 release, however, the discs were still not able to hold more than thirty minutes of video per side, and the nickel-like material used by RCA to make discs was not sturdy enough to put into manufacturing. Signal degradation was also an issue, as the handling of the discs was causing them to more rapidly than expected. RCA had hoped that by 1981 CED players would be in close to 50% of American homes, after this announcement, however, the sale of discs declined sharply, prompting RCA to abandon disc production after only two years
34.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
35.
Walkman
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Walkman is a Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette/tape players in the late 1970s. In the 2010s, it was used to market Sonys portable audio, the original Walkman actually introduced a change in music listening habits by allowing people to carry recorded music with them and listen to music through lightweight headphones. Owners of the Walkman were able to back their lost time, commuting for example. It was the privatization and personalization offered by the Walkman that led to its success, the prototype was built in 1978 by audio-division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka. Ibuka wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent trans-Pacific plane trips, the original idea for a portable stereo is credited to Brazilian-German inventor Andreas Pavel. The first Walkman was marketed in 1979 in Japan, using the name Walkman, from 1980, it was known as the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden, and the Stowaway in the UK. Advertising, despite all the languages, still attracted thousands of buyers in the US specifically. The names Walkman, Pressman, Watchman, Scoopman, Discman, and Talkman are trademarks of Sony, the name Walkman was based on its precursor, the Pressman tape recorder. An initial prototype of the Walkman was in fact made by replacing the monophonic recording circuit, head and speaker from the Pressman with a stereo playback-only head and amplifier. Sony continues to use the Walkman brand name for most of their portable audio devices, the marketing of the Walkman introduced the idea of Japanese-ness into global culture, synonymous with miniaturization and high-technology. The Walk-men and Walk-women in advertisements were created to be the ideal reflections of the subject watching, the advertising of the Sony Walkman served to portray it as a possession that was not only fashionable but culturally definitive. Owning one proved the owner was up to date and financially able to buy newly marketed commercial products, rather than waiting for them to become established and it became one of the most successful launches of any new product in the past half-century. A major component of the Walkman advertising campaign was personalization of the device, prior to the Walkman, the common device for portable music was the portable radio, which could only offer listeners standard music broadcasts. Having the ability to customize a playlist was a new and exciting revolution in music technology, potential buyers had the opportunity to choose their perfect match in terms of mobile listening technology. The ability to play your own music and listen privately was a selling point of the Walkman, especially amongst teens. Despite all this technological diversity, there must be one which is the choice for you. Sony accomplished the feat of mass individualized and targeted advertisement. Today, Walkman still maintains its role in culture, albeit a diminished one due to the large number of competitors in mobile audio devices today
36.
Personal computer
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A personal computer is a multi-purpose electronic computer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. PCs are intended to be operated directly by a end-user, rather than by an expert or technician. In the 2010s, PCs are typically connected to the Internet, allowing access to the World Wide Web, personal computers may be connected to a local area network, either by a cable or a wireless connection. In the 2010s, a PC may be, a multi-component desktop computer, designed for use in a location a laptop computer, designed for easy portability or a tablet computer. In the 2010s, PCs run using a system, such as Microsoft Windows, Linux. The very earliest microcomputers, equipped with a front panel, required hand-loading of a program to load programs from external storage. Before long, automatic booting from permanent read-only memory became universal, in the 2010s, users have access to a wide range of commercial software, free software and free and open-source software, which are provided in ready-to-run or ready-to-compile form. Since the early 1990s, Microsoft operating systems and Intel hardware have dominated much of the computer market, first with MS-DOS. Alternatives to Microsofts Windows operating systems occupy a minority share of the industry and these include Apples OS X and free open-source Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and Berkeley Software Distribution. Advanced Micro Devices provides the alternative to Intels processors. PC is an initialism for personal computer, some PCs, including the OLPC XOs, are equipped with x86 or x64 processors but not designed to run Microsoft Windows. PC is used in contrast with Mac, an Apple Macintosh computer and this sense of the word is used in the Get a Mac advertisement campaign that ran between 2006 and 2009, as well as its rival, Im a PC campaign, that appeared in 2008. Since Apples transition to Intel processors starting 2005, all Macintosh computers are now PCs, the “brain” may one day come down to our level and help with our income-tax and book-keeping calculations. But this is speculation and there is no sign of it so far, in the history of computing there were many examples of computers designed to be used by one person, as opposed to terminals connected to mainframe computers. Using the narrow definition of operated by one person, the first personal computer was the ENIAC which became operational in 1946 and it did not meet further definitions of affordable or easy to use. An example of an early single-user computer was the LGP-30, created in 1956 by Stan Frankel and used for science and it came with a retail price of $47, 000—equivalent to about $414,000 today. Introduced at the 1965 New York Worlds Fair, the Programma 101 was a programmable calculator described in advertisements as a desktop computer. It was manufactured by the Italian company Olivetti and invented by the Italian engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto, the Soviet MIR series of computers was developed from 1965 to 1969 in a group headed by Victor Glushkov
37.
Zilog
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Zilog, Inc. previously known as ZiLOG, is an American manufacturer of 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers. Its most famous product is the Z80 series, 8-bit microprocessors that were compatible with the Intel 8080, the Z80 was widely used during the 1980s in many popular home computers such as the TRS-80 and the ZX81. Both 16- and 32-bit processors were produced by the company. From the 1990s the company focused primarily on the microcontroller market, the name is an acronym of Z integrated logic, also thought of as Z for the last word of Integrated Logic. Zilog was started in California in 1974 by Federico Faggin and Ralph Ungermann, masatoshi Shima, who also worked with Faggin on the 4004 and 8080, joined Zilog in 1975. Ungermann had an out with Faggin and left Zilog in 1978. The company became a subsidiary of Exxon in 1980, but the management and employees bought it back in 1989, Zilog went public in 1991, but was acquired in 1998 by Texas Pacific Group. Curtis Crawford replaced Dr. Sack and changed the direction towards 32-bit Data Communications Processors. Jim Thorburn led Zilog back into profitability, and by FY2007, during this time, the company developed the Z8 Encore. 8-bit Flash MCU and ZNEO 16-bit Flash MCU product families, in February 2007, Zilog hired Darin Billerbeck to replace Jim Thorburn as President and CEO. The last year Zilog introduced any new 8-bit microcontroller products was 2007, with no new product roadmap, FY2008 sales fell 20% to $67.2 million. Sales fell 46% in FY2009 to $36.2 million, in January 2008, Zilog declined an unsolicited proposal made by Universal Electronics Inc. to acquire the company. Zilog sold these assets for $31 million cash, in December 2009, IXYS Corporation bought the company for $62. 4m in cash, which was significantly below the market valuation of Zilogs stock at the time. Details of the acquisition have been under investigation, many Texas Instruments graphing calculators used the Z80 as the main processor, and the chip found continued use in some game consoles such as the Sega Mega Drive as a dedicated sound controller. The CP/M operating system was known to be the Z80 disk operating system, as well as producing processors, Zilog has produced several other components. One of the most famous was the Zilog SCC serial communications controller as found on early Apple Macintosh, Sun SPARCstations, Zilog also formed a Systems Division, which designed the Zilog System 8000, a Z8000- or Z80000-based multiuser computer system running a Unix derivative called ZEUS. Zilog attempted to enter the 32-bit microcontroller market in February 2006 with the demonstration of ARM9-based Point-Of-Sale microcontroller product line, the final product was released in 2007 called Zatara. Sales were disappointing and the entire ARM9 series was sold to Maxim Integrated Products in 2009, Zilog also produced Zdots single board computers
38.
MSX
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Microsoft conceived the project as an attempt to create unified standards among various hardware makers of the period. They were popular mostly in Japan, and several other countries and it is difficult to estimate how many MSX computers were sold worldwide, but eventually 5 million MSX-based units were sold in Japan alone. The Metal Gear series, for example, was written for MSX hardware. The exact meaning of the MSX abbreviation remains a matter of debate, at the time, most people seemed to agree it meant MicroSoft eXtended, referring to the built-in Microsoft eXtended BASIC, specifically adapted by Microsoft for the MSX system. Another suggested source for the abbreviation was Matsushita-Sony, however, according to Kazuhiko Nishi, MSX could also stand for Machines with Software eXchangeability. In 1985, Kazuhiko Nishi told that he named MSX after the MX missile, the hardware design of these computers and the various dialects of their BASICs were incompatible. Other Japanese consumer electronics such as Panasonic, Canon, Casio, Yamaha, Pioneer. Nishi proposed MSX as an attempt to create an industry standard for home computers. Inspired by the success of VHS as a standard for video recorders, many Japanese electronic manufacturers along with GoldStar, Philips and Spectravideo built. Any piece of hardware or software with the MSX logo on it was compatible with MSX products of other manufacturers, in particular, the expansion cartridge form and function were part of the standard, any MSX expansion or game cartridge would work in any MSX computer. Nishis standard was built around the Spectravideo SV-328 computer, the standard consisted primarily of several off-the-shelf parts, the main CPU was a 3. This was a choice of components that was shared by other home computers and games consoles of the period, such as the ColecoVision home computer. To reduce overall system cost, many MSX models used a custom IC known as MSX-Engine, however, almost all MSX systems used a professional keyboard instead of a chiclet keyboard, driving the price up compared to the original SV-328. Consequently, these components alongside Microsofts MSX BASIC made the MSX a competitive, though somewhat expensive, the Japanese companies avoided the intensely competitive U. S. home computer market, which was in the throes of a Commodore-led price war. Only Spectravideo and Yamaha briefly marketed MSX machines in the U. S, by the time the MSX was launched in Europe, several more popular 8-bit home computers had also arrived, and it was far too late to capture the extremely crowded European 8-bit computer market. A problem for some software developers was that the method by which MSX-1 computers addressed their video RAM could be quite slow compared to systems that gave direct access to the video memory. Some minor compatibility issues also plagued ported Spectrum games, later games tended to use the MSX-1 joystick port or used MSXs official arrow keys and space bar, or offered the option to choose other keys with which to control the program, solving the problem. Moreover, the MSXs BIOS did not provide information either
39.
Floppy disk
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Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive. Floppy disks, initially as 8-inch media and later in 5¼-inch and 3½-inch sizes, were a form of data storage and exchange from the mid-1970s into the mid-2000s. These formats are usually handled by older equipment and these disks and associated drives were produced and improved upon by IBM and other companies such as Memorex, Shugart Associates, and Burroughs Corporation. The term floppy disk appeared in print as early as 1970, in 1976, Shugart Associates introduced the first 5¼-inch FDD. By 1978 there were more than 10 manufacturers producing such FDDs, there were competing floppy disk formats, with hard- and soft-sector versions and encoding schemes such as FM, MFM and GCR. The 5¼-inch format displaced the 8-inch one for most applications, the most common capacity of the 5¼-inch format in DOS-based PCs was 360 kB and in 1984 IBM introduced the 1.2 MB dual-sided floppy disk along with its PC-AT model. IBM started using the 720 kB double-density 3½-inch microfloppy disk on its Convertible laptop computer in 1986 and these disk drives could be added to older PC models. In 1988 IBM introduced a drive for 2.88 MB DSED diskettes in its top-of-the-line PS/2 models, throughout the early 1980s, limitations of the 5¼-inch format became clear. Originally designed to be practical than the 8-inch format, it was itself too large, as the quality of recording media grew. A number of solutions were developed, with drives at 2-, 2½-, 3-, 3½-, the large market share of the 5¼-inch format made it difficult for these new formats to gain significant market share. A variant on the Sony design, introduced in 1982 by a number of manufacturers, was then rapidly adopted. By the end of the 1980s, 5¼-inch disks had been superseded by 3½-inch disks, by the mid-1990s, 5¼-inch drives had virtually disappeared, as the 3½-inch disk became the predominant floppy disk. Floppy disks became ubiquitous during the 1980s and 1990s in their use with computers to distribute software, transfer data. Before hard disks became affordable to the population, floppy disks were often used to store a computers operating system. Most home computers from that period have a primary OS and BASIC stored as ROM, by the early 1990s, the increasing software size meant large packages like Windows or Adobe Photoshop required a dozen disks or more. In 1996, there were a five billion standard floppy disks in use. Then, distribution of packages was gradually replaced by CD-ROMs, DVDs. External USB-based floppy disk drives are available, many modern systems provide firmware support for booting from such drives
40.
Pioneer Corporation
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Pioneer Corporation commonly referred to as Pioneer, is a Japanese multinational corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products, based in Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded by Nozomu Matsumoto in 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair shop, the company works with optical disc and display technology and software products and is also a manufacturer. In March 2010, Pioneer stopped producing televisions, announced on 12 February 2009, on June 25,2009, Sharp Corporation agreed to form a joint venture on their optical business to be called Pioneer Digital Design and Manufacturing Corporation. 1937, Pioneer’s founder, Nozomu Matsumoto develops the A-8 dynamic speaker, January 1938, Fukuin Shokai Denki Seisakusho is founded in Tokyo. May 1947, Fukuin Denki is incorporated, december 1953, Hi-Fi Speaker PE-8 introduced. June 1961, Company name changed to Pioneer Electronic Corporation, October 1961, Shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Second Section. June 1962, Introduces the world’s first separate stereo system, March 1966, Establishes sales companies in Europe and the U. S. February 1968, Shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section. April 1968, Shares are listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange, February 1969, Shares are listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. U. S. GAAP consolidated financial reporting starts November 1975, december 1976, Shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. December 1977, Introduces the world’s first two-way addressable CATV system in the U. S.1978, Introduces SX-1980 receiver, February 1979, Introduces the industry-use Laserdisc player. June 1980, Introduces VP-1000 LD player for use in the U. S. October 1981. October 1982, Introduces the LD Karaoke system for business use, september 1984, Introduces the world’s first LD combination player compatible with CDs and LDs. October 1984, Releases the world’s first car CD player, december 1985, Introduces the 40-inch projection monitor. June 1990, Introduces the world’s first CD-based GPS automotive navigation system, June 1992, Pioneer Corporation established its regional subsidiary in Southeast Asia, Pioneer Electronics AsiaCentre Pte. Ltd. October 1992, Introduces the world’s first 4x CD-ROM changer, June 1996, Tokorozawa Plant earns ISO14001 certification. Pioneer inaugurates and launches Pioneer Karaoke Channel, an Astro satellite television channel for music video, december 1996, Introduces DVD/CD player and the world’s first DVD/LD/CD compatible player for home use. May 1997, Starts supplying digital satellite broadcast set-top boxes in Europe, June 1997, Introduces the world’s first DVD-based GPS automotive navigation system. October 1997, Introduces the world’s first DVD-R drive, November 1997, Introduces the world’s first OEL-equipped car audio product
41.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
42.
VHS-C
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VHS-C is the compact VHS videocassette format introduced in 1982 and used primarily for consumer-grade compact analog recording camcorders. The format is based on the video tape as is used in VHS. Though quite inexpensive, the format is largely obsolete even as a standard and has been replaced in the marketplace by digital video formats. The magnetic tape on VHS-C cassettes is wound on one main spool and it can also be moved by hand. This development hampered the sales of the Betamax system somewhat, because the Betamax cassette geometry prevented a similar development, VHS-C cassette was larger than Video8 cassette, but was compatible with VHS tape recorders, using a special adapter cassette. The adapter contains a standard full-size engagement hub for the VCRs takeup sprocket, when the VHS-C cartridge is to be removed from the adapter, a geared retraction system pulls in the excess loose tape when the swing arm retracts. A higher quality version of VHS-C was released, based on S-VHS, known as S-VHS-C, that competed against Hi8, compared with Video8, VHS-C had similar video quality but a shorter run time,90 versus 30 minutes at SP speed,180 versus 60 for longer-running modes. JVC did market 45-minute and 60-minute SP Mode tapes with the Extra High Grade formulation for a time, similarly, Video8 spawned a 120-minute version of the cassette. The later Hi8 and S-VHS-C systems both have a quality similar to the laserdisc system, early VHS-C cassettes did not have a mechanism to ratchet or lock the supply reel when not in use, making them susceptible to spilling tape inside the shell. Consequently, manufacturers placed a label on their camcorders and adapters to warn the user to check that the tape is not slackened before inserting a cassette, the user could dissipate the slack by manually turning the take-up gear. Later cassettes corrected this problem by adding teeth to the reel to lock it in place when no upward pressure is applied. The spindle of the camcorder or VCR supplies pressure to float the reels turntable and teeth above the shell, if a tape with slack was loaded into a VHSC-C adaptor, the tape could sit on the wrong side of a tape guide when the adaptor loaded. The result would be a tape and cassette combination that would not play in a video deck, VHS-C cassettes have a switch to inhibit recording of a cassette. Not all adapters propagate the state of this switch to the VCR itself, to reduce the size of cameras, the VHS-C mechanism uses a two-thirds size head drum. The wrap angle is 270 degrees instead of VHSs 180 degrees, the drum rotates at a proportionately higher speed, and four rotary video heads are used to trace out exactly the same helical recording path as a standard sized VHS drum. By adding more heads, the same small VHS-C drum can record, youtube. com How to put VHS-C videos into Computer - Easy. Youtube. com V2 Tech Video View - Dynex VHS-C -to- VHS Cassette Adapter MediaCollege. com The VHS-C Format panasonic. com VHS-C FAQ
43.
8 mm video format
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The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats for the NTSC and PAL/SECAM television systems. These are the original Video8 format and its improved successor Hi8 and their user base consisted mainly of amateur camcorder users, although they also saw important use in the professional television production field. In 1985, Sony of Japan introduced the Handycam, one of the first Video8 cameras with commercial success, much smaller than the competitions VHS and Betamax video cameras, Video8 became very popular in the consumer camcorder market. The three formats are very similar, featuring both the same magnetic tape width and near-identical cassette shells, measuring 95 ×62.5 ×15 mm. This gives a measure of compatibility in some cases. One difference between them is in the quality of the tape itself, but the differences lie in the encoding of the video when it is recorded onto the tape. Video8 was the earliest of the three formats, and is entirely analog and it was followed by Hi8, a version with improved resolution. Although this was still analog, some professional Hi8 equipment could store additional digital stereo PCM sound on a reserved track. Digital8 is the most recent 8mm video format and it retains the same physical cassette shell as its predecessors, and can even record onto Video8 or Hi8 cassettes. However, the format in which video is encoded and stored on the tape itself is the entirely digital DV format, some Digital8 camcorders support Video8 and Hi8 with analog sound, but this is not required by the Digital8 specification. In all three cases, a length of 8mm-wide magnetic tape is wound between two spools and contained within a hard-shell cassette and these cassettes share similar size and appearance with the audio cassette, but their mechanical operation is far closer to that of VHS or Betamax videocassettes. Standard recording time is up to 180 minutes for PAL and 120 minutes for NTSC, like most other videocassette systems, Video8 uses a helical-scan 40mm head drum to read from and write to the magnetic tape. The drum rotates at high speed while the tape is pulled along the drums path, because the tape and drum are oriented at a slight angular offset, the recording tracks are laid down as parallel diagonal stripes on the tape. Unlike preceding systems, 8mm did not use a track on the tape to facilitate the head following the diagonal tracks. Instead 8mm recorded a sequence of four sine waves on each video track such that adjacent tracks would produce one of two heterodyne frequencies if the head mistracked, the system automatically adjusted the tracking such that the two frequencies produced were of equal magnitude. This system was derived from the track following used by the Philips Video 2000 system. Sony rechristened the system as automatic track following as the 8mm system lacked the ability of the heads to physically move within the head drum. The main disadvantage of the ATF system was that unlike in the case of a control track and this made editing using a non linear editing system problematic
¥658.4 billion (Fiscal year ended March 31, 2008)[1]
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