Kornelis Antonie (Kees) Schouhamer Immink (born
18 December,
1946 in
Rotterdam) is a
Dutch scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, who pioneered and advanced the era of digital audio, video, and data recording including popular digital media such as
Compact Disc,
DVD and
Blu-Ray Disc
[ ]. He has been a prolific and influential engineer, who holds more than 1100 US and international patents
. The impact of his work on consumer electronics is so large that it is virtually impossible to enjoy digital audio or video that does not reflect his work
. His contributions to coding systems jump started the digital video and audio revolution, by enabling reliable data storage at information densities previously thought unattainable
.
Immink received several tributes that summarize the impact of his contributions to the digital audio and video revolution. Among the accolades received are the
Edison Medal for a career of creative contributions to the technologies of digital video, audio, and data recording, and an individual Technology Emmy award by the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).
Beatrix,
Queen of the
Netherlands bestowed him a knighthood in 2000.
Currently, Immink holds the position of president of
Turing Machines Inc, which was founded in 1998. During his career, Immink, in addition to his practical contributions, has contributed to
Information Theory . He wrote over 120 articles and four books including
Codes for Mass Data Storage Media . He has been an adjunct professor at the
Institute for Experimental Mathematics,
University of Duisburg and Essen,
Germany, since 1994, as well as affiliated with the
National University of Singapore (NUS) as a visiting professor since 1997.
Education
Immink received a Bachelor's degree from the
Rotterdam Academy of Arts and Engineering Sciences (1967), a Masters degree in
electrical engineering (1974, cum laude) and a
PhD (1985) from
Eindhoven University of Technology on a
thesis entitled
Properties and Constructions of Binary Channel Codes.
Early years at Philips Research
Fresh from engineering school, in 1967, he joined
Philips Research Labs in
Eindhoven, where he spent thirty years in a fruitful association. The renowned physicist
Hendrik Casimir was director of Philips Research till 1972. Immink worked in various groups. In 1974, he joined the research group
Optics, where pioneering work was done on optical
laserdisc systems. He contributed mainly to the
electronics and
servo technology of the video disc . In a joint effort,
MCA and Philips brought the laserdisc system to the market. Laserdisc was first available in
Atlanta in 1978, two years after the
VHS and four years before the
CD. The Laserdisc never managed a significant presence in market share. The Philips/MCA Laserdisc operation was not successful and discontinued in 1981.
Compact Disc
Around 1976, Philips and Sony showed prototypes of digital audio disc players, which were based on optical
videodisc technology. In 1979, Philips and Sony decided to join forces, and Immink took part in the joint
Sony/
Philips task force, which developed the
Compact Disc standard, the
Red Book. He contributed to
the
EFM and
CIRC coding schemes .
In the article, ‘’Shannon, Beethoven, and the Compact Disc’’
, Immink presents a historical review of the years leading up to the launch of the cd, and the various crucial decisions made. He strongly refutes the urban legend that the compact disc's diameter was increased from 115 to 120mm to hold the 74 minutes playing time of
Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony conducted by
Wilhelm Furtwängler.
After the CD standard was set in 1980, Immink and his co-workers conducted pioneering experiments with
magneto-optical audio recording on pre-grooved discs. They also found a simple method to extend the analog
videodisc standard with digital sound. The new systems were brought to market as
MiniDisc and
CD Video.
Laserdisc’s fabricated after 1984 have digitally encoded sound signals.
DVD and Blu-Ray Disc
In 1993,
Toshiba engineers developed the
Super Density Disc, the successor of the
Compact Disc. Immink was member of the
Philips and
Sony task force, which developed a competing disc format, called MultMedia CD. Immink created
EFMPlus, a more efficient successor of
EFM used in
CD. The electronics industry feared a repeat of the format war between
VHS and
Betamax in the 1980s. IBM's president,
Lou Gerstner, urged them to adopt Immink’s EFMPlus coding scheme as
EFM has a proven record
. In September 1995, an agreement was made among the major industries: Philips/Sony surrendered to Toshiba's SuperDensity Disc and Toshiba accepted the
EFMPlus modulation. The DVD encompasses the sound-only
Super Audio CD (SACD) and
DVD-audio formats, developed independently by
Sony and
Toshiba, which are incompatible formats for delivering very
high-fidelity audio content. SACD is in a
format war with
DVD-Audio, but neither has yet managed to replace audio CDs.
Immediately after the DVD standard was settled in 1996, Philips and Sony, disappointed after the DVD failure, decided to develop a next-generation blue-
laser-based
digital video recorder (DVR), which would be positioned as
DVDs high-density successor
. Philips and Sony set up a joint task force, where Immink and his co-workers developed
DVRs, later called
Blu-Ray's, code design. In 2005, seven years after its design, the Blu-ray disc was brought to market. In 2002, the
DVD forum adopted an alternative format, the
HD DVD. The two resulting standards had
significant differences that made each incompatible with the other. The blue-laser
format war with Toshiba’s
HD DVD was settled in early 2008 when Toshiba withdrew their system effectively ending the
high definition optical disc format war.
DV and DCC
In 1985, Immink joined Philips’
magnetic recording group, where he contributed to the design of coding technologies of the digital video tape recorder,
DV[ ] and the
Digital Compact Cassette (DCC)
. The DCC was short-lived: introduced in 1992 and discontinued in 1996. The
DV, launched in 1994, has become a popular tape standard for home and semi-professional video production.
Turing Machines Inc.
After more than thirty years, Immink left
Philips Research in 1998, and founded Turing Machines Inc, where he currently serves as its president. The small research institute has been successful in creating new coding technology, and was granted around ten US patents.
Service to engineering society
Immink has served in officer and board positions for a number of technical societies, government and academic organizations - including the
Audio Engineering Society,
IEEE,
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, and several universities. He is a trustee of the Shannon Foundation, and was a governor of the
IEEE Consumer Electronics and Information Theory Societies. He was on the governors board of the
Audio Engineering Society for over 10 years, and was its president in 2002-2003.
Awards and honors
Foreign associate, National Academy of Engineering, 2007.
SMPTE Progress Medal awarded by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
(SMPTE), 2004, For the central role played in research and development of audio and video recording products.
Heyser Memorial lecturer awarded by the Audio Engineering Society, May 2004. Technology and Engineering Emmy Award awarded by the National Television Academy 2003, For coding technology for optical recording formats. Inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame, (CEA), 2003. Knighthood in the Order of Orange-Nassau awarded by Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands, 2000. Honorary member, Netherlands Electronics and Radio Society (NERG), 2000. Millennium Medal awarded by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
(IEEE), 2000. AES Gold Medal awarded by the Audio Engineering Society, (AES), 1999,
For significant contributions to the advancement of consumer audio technology. IEEE Edison Medal, 1999, For a career of creative
contributions to the technologies of digital video, audio, and data recording. Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation awarded by the IEEE Information Theory Society, 1998, For the invention of constrained codes for commercial recording systems. AES 50th Anniversary Commemorative Medal awarded by the Audio Engineering Society, 1998.Academician, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, (KNAW) 1996. Fellow, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE),1996. IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award
awarded by the IEEE, 1996, For pioneering contributions to consumer digital audio and video recording products Alexander M. Poniatoff Gold Medal Award for Technical Excellence awarded by
the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, 1994, For outstanding contributions to the development of new techniques and/or equipment that have
contributed to the advancement of audio or video magnetic recording and reproduction. Sir J.J. Thomson Medal awarded by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE),
1993, For distinguished contributions to electronics. AES Silver Medal awarded by the Audio Engineering Society, 1992, For major contributions to the development of digital audio recording systems.
