IFA History - The years 1970-1979

100 years of IFA: From the "Große Deutsche Funkausstellung" to the world's largest and most important trade fair for consumer electronics and home appliances

IFA, the world's largest and most important trade fair for consumer electronics and home appliances, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. IFA was first held in December 1924 as the "Great German Radio Exhibition" in Berlin. Since then, IFA has stood for innovation, technology and entertainment.

To mark this anniversary, the industry organisation gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH, owner of the IFA trademark rights, is reviewing 100 years of technical development in the consumer electronics and household appliance industry. Episode five deals with the years 1970 to 1979.

The first part of the following sections deals with the actual IFA in the respective year, the second part reports on the industry in general.

1970

The 27th "Deutsche Funkausstellung Düsseldorf" from 21 to 30 August was a combined event with the "hifi'70-International Exhibition with Festival". There were 226 exhibitors and 603,000 visitors. Nevertheless, the focus was on colour televisions. 218 TV types, 99 of which were colour TVs, were shown by 14 German manufacturers. A new feature was the 66 cm (26 inch) picture tube with 100 degree deflection technology, which allowed smaller housing depths, but at a price that was DM 200 to 250 higher. The radio found its way into the kitchen and could be mounted under wall cabinets. Portable radios continued to be in great demand and the range of cassette recorders increased; one model was specially designed for dubbing slide series. One speciality was a spherical speaker with twelve loudspeaker systems. Special shows included "Living with High Fidelity", an "Antenna Street" and the "Music Parade of Records". Behind the scenes, there were rumblings about the long-overdue opening of the Funkausstellung to international exhibitors and the decision to make Berlin the exclusive venue.

On 19 March, the SFB inaugurated the new television centre in Berlin. The aspect ratio changed from 5:4 to 4:3 and an electro-optical effect was discovered in Switzerland, which is the basis for liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. The first teletext experiments were undertaken in England. The daily news was now available in colour. The memory disc was invented this year.

1971

The 28th "International Radio Exhibition" from 27 August to 5 September in Berlin marked the opening of the exhibition to international exhibitors (mainly from Japan at first). Consequently, this was also indicated by the name. The three letters I F A still stand for the trade fair today and Berlin is now a permanent venue. The number of exhibitors totalled 285 and almost 599,000 visitors were counted. The iconic signet, the so-called "Funk Otto", had its premiere at this IFA. The colour television receivers were further improved in terms of circuitry and semiconductor technology was used more consistently. A new feature was the sensor buttons, which allowed switching programmes with a light touch and without mechanical effort. There was a wide range of portable black-and-white sets, including a model in the silver "Apollo housing" with a chrome-plated rotating base. A colour picture record player was announced and colour video recorders were shown. more than 70 companies presented hi-fi devices, including those with quadrophony, i.e. four-channel playback for surround sound. "The home radio receiver in its former form is slowly dying out", was the message. The first full stereo car radios came onto the market. In the phono sector, there were new magnet systems and specially polished scanning diamonds for optimum record playback. As part of a special show, Deutsche Bundespost presented a car telephone with direct dialling.

The INTELSAT II satellite had capacity for 4,000 telephone/data lines and two television channels. The first e-mail was sent via the Arpanet and the first microprocessor Intel 4004 was presented, it had 2,300 transistors.

1972

There was no radio exhibition in this year.

The Laservision disc player was presented. However, the market launch was still six years away. "Pong" was the name of the first, still quite "primitive" video game on a machine. The Olympic Games were held in Munich, with the first TV production in colour. The traffic radio transmitter identification ARI (Auto-Rundfunk-Information) was tested on VHF from 1 December. The B network for radio telephones was launched.

1973

The 29th "International Radio Exhibition" took place from 31 August to 9 September with 371 exhibitors from 24 countries and 603,000 visitors. There were reports of increasingly fierce competition for television sets. Transistorisation had prevailed. Wireless remote control, sensor buttons and modular technology were now standard. Sets with smaller picture sizes were the domain of Japanese manufacturers, but German companies also presented new colour portables with a 36 cm picture. The "Audiovision" area was mentioned for the first time, with picture discs and video recorders. The colour-capable camera recorder portable was described as a surprise. The first clock radio with a digital clock and seven-segment display came onto the market. The elimination of mechanics allowed silent operation and setting times to the minute. Hi-fi devices offered a high level of technical comfort with various display instruments. Tape recorders and record players focussed on hi-fi. Some cassette decks had auto-reverse operation. A "model workshop" for service operations and "Environments from five decades of German broadcasting history" were on display in the special shows area. In terms of media policy, there were discussions about the establishment of cable television networks and community antenna systems.

The history of the gfu began on 6 June when eleven leading consumer electronics companies founded the "gfu - Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Unterhaltungselektronik". The founders defined the purpose of the company as the organisation of trade fairs, in particular the International Consumer Electronics Fair. The first liquid crystal displays (LCD) were introduced in Japan. "Berlin" was the name of a car radio model that was operated via a remote gooseneck. The first ceramic hobs were launched on the market.

1974

There was no IFA in this year.

The ARI traffic radio system was introduced. The decision was made to develop the compact disc (CD). The first computerised switchboard goes into operation in Munich. The "Eurosignal" paging system became a new communication service for the "mobile citizen". It could transmit four "beeps" for four prearranged pieces of information. In the USA, the "Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol" TCP/IP was developed in this year, which was declared mandatory by the US Department of Defence for the Arpanet (Arpa = Advanced research projects agency). In addition, the demonstration and testing phase of the "Global Positioning System" (GPS) began, which lasted until 1979.

Continue reading IFA history - the years 1970 to 1979 - GFU

The history of the IFA can be found at gfu.de/ifa-berlin/100-jahre-ifa/.

Sources

The history of consumer electronics, Jochen Wiesinger

70 years of the Funkausstellung, Heide Riedel

From steam radio to multimedia, Claus Reuber