Tag Archives: C90

The legacy of Lou Ottens

Lou Ottens, the Dutch inventor of the Compact Cassette as well as the Compact Disc died last month. He was in charge of a team of Philips engineers in Hasselt, Belgium who wanted to develop a portable tape recorder / dictation device and the associated tape cartridges for the home consumer. This was achieved by simplifying, miniaturising and re-imagining several existing concepts and products. Little could he know what legacy his personal frustration with open-reel tapes would leave. Continue reading

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Happy Birthday, Cassette!

The venerable cassette tape is 50 years old. It was on Friday the 30th of August 1963 when Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips introduced the EL-3300 “Pocket-Recorder” and a new magnetic tape format at the IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) in West Berlin. The “Compact Cassette” would eventually go on to revolutionise the way we experienced and shared music. Continue reading

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