Technology TED Talks

Happy 30th birthday, compact disc! Watch a demo from the first TED, in 1984

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Happy 30th birthday, compact disc. The CD was introduced on October 1, 1982 — but in early 1984 it was still slowly rolling out to consumer markets. In this surprising demo onstage at the very first TED, in February 1984, Mickey Schulhof of the Sony Corporation describes and then demonstrates the use of “compact disc digital audio.”

In the screengrab above, Mickey Schulhof of Sony is saying: “The disc itself is about 5 inches in diameter. It can record one hour of stereo music on one side — and it is only a one-sided disc, it’s not meant to be played on two sides…”

Love this? Watch another talk from TED1 in 1984 — Nicholas Negroponte’s 4 predictions for the future (3 of them correct).

PS: The inevitable animated gif: