Audio Signal Processing and Coding

PREFACE

Audio processing and recording has been part of telecommunication and entertainment systems for more than a century. Moreover bandwidth issues associated with audio recording, transmission, and storage occupied engineers from the very early stages in this field. A series of important technological developments paved the way from early phonographs to magnetic tape recording, and lately compact disk (CD), and super storage devices. In the following, we capture some of the main events and milestones that mark the history in audio recording and storage.¹

Prototypes of phonographs appeared around 1877, and the first attempt to market cylinder-based gramophones was by the Columbia Phonograph Co. in 1889. Five years later, Marconi demonstrated the first radio transmission that marked the beginning of audio broadcasting. The Victor Talking Machine Company, with the little nipper dog as its trademark, was formed in 1901. The “telegraphone”, a magnetic recorder for voice that used still wire, was patented in Denmark around the end of the nineteenth century. The Odeon and His Masters Voice (HMV) label produced and marketed music recordings in the early nineteen hundreds. The cabinet phonograph with a horn called “Victrola” appeared at about the same time. Diamond disk players were marketed in 1913 followed by efforts to produce sound-on-film for motion pictures. Other milestones include the first commercial transmission in Pittsburgh and the emergence of public address amplifiers. ...