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In late August 1979, joint development between Sony and Philips got under way. In 1966, both companies had signed a free cross-licensing contract for video tape recorders. Following the start of development on the digital audio disc, the companies renegotiated the original contract to cover a wide range of matters, which included discs.
Meetings were held every few months in Tokyo and Eindhoven where research findings were exchanged and discussed. Members of Sony's Audio Technology Center, including Nakajima, Doi, Hiroshi Ogawa, Shunsuke Furukawa, and Kentaro Kodaka attended the meetings. Other participants included Miyaoka and Yosuke Naruse of the Disc Development Division and Akihiro Mizushima of the Technology Planning Department. Discussions began rather calmly, with the comment,  Let's start by deciding on how to record a signal. Substantive discussions began soon after, as the researchers became inspired by each other's abundant enthusiasm.
One topic that caused considerable debate was the issue of the number of quantization bits, which determines the accuracy of quantization. From the beginning, Philips argued for 14 bits, whereas Doi who represented Sony favored 16 bits. Achieving a higher number of quantization bits became more difficult and expensive. Doi believed that it was worth trying to produce a 16-bit system that would last well into the 21st century. When Philips researchers asked, Will a 11.5 cm disc with sixty minutes of recording time be okay? Sony researchers said, No, we want a 12 cm disc with seventy-five minutes of recording time.
Each argument was valid. Philips argued for a 11.5 cm disc because this was the same length as the diagonal length of an audiocassette. Also, this size satisfied the DIN standard and thus would be the right size for a car audio system in the European market. But it was Ohga, a trained musician, who decisively presented Sony's argument for a 12 cm, seventy-five minute disc. He argued that, Just as a curtain is never lowered halfway through an opera, a disc should be large enough to hold all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Ohga believed that the disc needed to be of a practical size for music aficionados and that 95% of all classical music pieces would fit onto a seventy-five minute disc. Therefore, a 12 cm disc was necessary to guarantee seventy-five minutes of playing time.
After hearing Ohga's argument, researchers at Philips said, A 12 cm disc won't fit into a suit jacket pocket. Well, let's see if it does or not, replied the Sony researchers. They measured the top pockets of a Japanese, an American and European suit jackets. The results showed that There's no suit jacket with a top pocket size less than 14 cm wide. A 12 cm disc will be fine. It was decided that the maximum playing time would be seventy-five minutes (seventy-four minutes and forty-two seconds to be exact) and the diameter of the disc would be 12 cm. Philips also agreed to Sony's proposals for a 44.1kHz sampling frequency and 16 bits.
The next topic was error correction, and it was now Doi's turn to handle matters. Since making the first digital audio disc, he continued to develop digital technology. The Sony researchers visited Eindhoven to study Philips disc technology. Philips' researchers visited Sony, learning what they could about digital signal processing and signal error correction. The capabilities of both research teams grew, as they competed and cooperated with each other. Their relationship was a partnership to establish disc standards. At the same time, they were rivals.
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Members of the Sony and Philips research teams, including Nakajima (front row, second from right), Miyaoka (back row, third from left), and Doi (back row, fourth from right). |
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Ibuka, who opposed the move to digital audio in the beginning, had changed his stance. Instead of saying, Forget digital audio, he started saying, Let's make this work.
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