Karlheinz and Kees

I had the pleasure of meeting Karlheinz Brandenburg and Kees Schouhamer Immink at the IEEE International Consumer Electronics Symposium held in Reading last year, two unsung pioneers of the digital entertainment revolution. I've just discovered that the BBC have done a short guide to one of Karlheinz's big contributions - the invention of the MP3 standard.

"However, behind the huge business headlines and ringing cash registers remains a story that has remained mostly untold; the story of a man whose combined knowledge of maths, sound and electronics brought the whole thing about - but, amazingly, for no personal profit.

It is also a tale of how a small scale German government project to explore how music could be fed down a phone line later helped create an Internet music standard which has all the hallmarks of becoming a postfix to stand alongside audio CDs and PAL televisions."

Kees invented CDs (amongst many other things). So well done BBC for recognising Professor Brandenburg's contribution but it could do with updating and let's see a similar tribute to Kees Schouhamer Immink.