IFA History - The years 1990-1999

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 seven deals with the years 1990 to 1999.

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.

1990

There was no IFA in this year.

Teletext broadcasting became standard operation. The first trial broadcasts in high-definition television HDTV took place on the occasion of the Football World Cup in Italy. The National HDTV Platform Germany was founded, as was the National DAB Platform (Digital Audio Broadcast). Semiconductor memory without moving parts was used for the first time as sound storage in studio operation. The Digital Compact Cassette DCC and the Photo CD were announced. A voice-controlled video recorder was demonstrated in Japan. The "Super Mario World" games are launched on the market.

On 3 October, the GDR decides to join the Federal Republic of Germany.

1991

The 38th "Internationale Funkausstellung", from 30 August to 8 September, had 571 exhibitors from 29 countries and attracted almost 516,000 visitors. After decades, it was once again an all-German consumer electronics exhibition. The focus topics of this IFA were the official start of broadcasting for the European standard D2-MAC on the one hand and the widescreen or cinema format 16:9, to which TV broadcasting was to be converted, on the other. Accordingly, there were TVs with 92 cm (36 inch), 82 cm (32 inch) and 71 cm (28 inch) screens. A TV projection device with a screen diagonal of 142 cm (56 inches) in 16:9 was shown. A video recorder with an "archive system" was presented. It created an electronic index card for each recording. This should make it possible to keep your own recordings more organised. Another centre of attraction was satellite reception. The focus here was on systems for several participants. The CD was given some "offshoots": CD-R, Photo-CD and CD interactive (CD-i). From the audio sector, the presentation of the "DCC", the further developed compact cassette with data compression and digital recording, should be mentioned. At the same time, the "Mini Disc" (MD) was shown. The small disc with a diameter of 6.4 cm offered a playing time of 74 minutes. From the overall success of the IFA, the final report singled out the "HiFi High End" area, an area that has felt at home at the trade fair since IFA 1991. Another focal point was the telecommunications sector, which presented itself at IFA for the second time. Innovations from the telephone (cordless and wired), answering machine, fax and mobile phone categories were presented. It was reported in the press at the time that the market was expected to grow by 30 per cent due to falling prices. ARD and ZDF shared the location and equipment of Hall 5 and Sommergarten on a daily basis. The appearances by Thomas Gottschalk and Günther Jauch in the Sommergarten were legendary. The special shows covered topics such as PALplus, DAB, HDTV cinema, multimedia applications and fibre to the home (FTTH). In addition, a comparison between FM and DAB was presented in the "Technical and Scientific Programme", which demonstrated the clear advantages of digital transmission. The programme was rounded off by a lecture programme for trade and crafts and a data protection symposium. For the first time, the IFA was also referred to as the "world's leading trade fair".

The first meeting of the national HDTV platform (later renamed the German TV Platform) dealt with the format changeover and it was noted that a 16:9 television could be recognised by the new format even when switched off - the television would finally regain one of its strongest selling points, namely prestige. It was also interesting to note that there were a total of 36 suppliers of camcorders with over 280 models on the German market this year. The dimensions and weight of the camcorders became smaller, only 580 grams for example.

In January, the Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications declared that it was no longer necessary to register parabolic antennas for the reception of radio and television with the authorities as part of an individual licence subject to a fee. The first pay-TV programme began on 28 February. The Astra 1 B satellite was launched on 2 March. The first GSM call (Global System for Mobile Communications, digital network for radio telephones) took place on 1 July.

1992

There was no IFA in this year.

The first HDTV test transmissions in HD-MAC took place at the Winter Olympics in Albertville and the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. They could be seen in 800 so-called "viewing sites" in Europe. The D-networks based on the GSM standard were launched in Germany on 1 July. The first LCD TVs with 21.7 cm (8.5 inch) for private use made their debut. The data compression standard for moving images presented by the Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) allowed compression ratios of 200:1. DCC and MD were launched on the European market, as well as the Photo CD, on which up to 100 images could be stored digitally. Camcorders were equipped with a colour viewfinder monitor and a digital image stabiliser to prevent blurred images. A memory chip in the car radio could store four minutes of traffic reports that could be played back on demand.

1993

The 39th "Internationale Funkausstellung" took place from 27 August to 5 September with 571 exhibitors from 29 countries and just over 446,000 visitors. It was noted that the advancing digitalisation was noticeable in the ease of use, but otherwise technical sensations were in short supply. With so-called OSD (On Screen Display) technology, necessary settings could be made from the comfort of your armchair with the help of on-screen menus. More and more 16:9 sets were on show and surround sound was introduced. Exclusive design TVs from renowned design studios (e.g. F.A. Porsche or Luigi Colani) were presented. PALplus with improved picture quality and 16:9 format switching should convince buyers. A laser TV, which was presented for the first time, also caused a sensation. Dolby Pro Logic for surround sound was introduced in the TVs. Stand-by consumption was a major topic for televisions, which could be reduced to one watt or less. One surprise was a television with a stainless steel housing as an environmentally friendly prototype. In the area of video recorders, the introduction of "ShowView" was discussed. The system made it possible to programme the video recorders using a numerical code that was printed in the programme guides. Unlike the so-called "Voice Commander", which allowed programming by voice. The so-called "youth-free bit" in the VPS signal, a content-dependent parental control, was also intended for video recorders. The telecommunications sector already took up 20 per cent of the exhibition space at IFA. The increasingly handy D-network mobile phones could be admired there. ARD and ZDF now shared space and time in blocks for cost reasons. Among the private programme providers, SAT.1, RTL and Pro 7 were represented at the IFA with entertainment programmes, while n-tv presented news programmes. The wealth of specialist events was summarised in the "International Media Dialogue Berlin 1993". Widescreen format, 16:9, Eureka 95 HDTV, digital transmission, fibre optic networks and an international press colloquium were among the buzzwords. Art installations with TV sets, for example in the shape of a large turtle, also caused a stir. Deutsche Telekom presented a radio pager as a "beeper".

The third Astra satellite (1 C) was launched on 12 May, and from 27 August it also transmitted ARD and ZDF, as well as programmes from private providers and some third channels for the first time. With these three satellites, the Astra satellite system conquered around 90 per cent of the parabolic antennas in Germany. Now 50 television programmes could be received via this satellite position. The Eutelsat system offered a total of around 100 transponders for European communication, such as current affairs reporting via satellite or programme exchange within the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Deutsche Telekom's Kopernikus satellite, on the other hand, lacked future-proof programme concepts and became a discontinued model. There were already a total of 3.8 million satellite TV households in reunified Germany. Jeff Bezos founded his company Amazon on 5 July in Bellevue, Washington. On 10 September, an agreement on "harmonised digital video broadcasting" was adopted, marking the birth of the globally successful DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) project. After 20 years of development, the "Digital Mirror Device", a TV projection technology with 440,000 small square mirrors on a silicon chip, was presented. The technology is also known as "Digital Light Processing" (DLP) and can be found in projectors today. Starwing" was the first 3D game to be marketed on a large scale in Japan. Carin (Car Information and Navigation System) was the name of a navigation system for vehicles that was finally trialled that year. Navigation was provided by voice and display. The first "personal digital assistants" (PDAs) came onto the market. The first 32-bit microprocessor, known as the "Pentium", was introduced. CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, released the "World Wide Web", better known today as the "Internet". "Mosaic" was the name of the first graphics-capable Internet browser. The first hoovers without dust bags came onto the market in Europe. CFCs were banned from refrigerators and freezers.

Continue reading IFA history - the years 1990-1999 - 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