It is widely believed that when choosing a diameter for a compact red, engineers were guided by a consideration: the recording of the ninth symphony of Beethoven lasting 74 minutes 33 seconds should completely fit on the medium. We checked whether this is really so.

When the President of Sony Norio of the OG died in 2011, many media emphasized: it was a man thanks to whom the German composer influenced the development of music after a century and a half, because it was the ORA who broke the decision on the size of the CD. Similar necologists have published The Guardian, BBC, CBS, The Los Angeles Times, ABC And many others. Ten years before, the question of the connection of Beethoven and the diameter of the compact disc Sounded In the American television show "Who wants to be a millionaire?"

In 2018, authoritative journal Nature Published An article by the Dutch engineer and inventor Kees Imminka "How we created a CD." After graduating from the Eindho Technological University, he worked in Philips for more than 30 years, where, in particular, he participated in a joint project with Sony to create CD. Immin also participated in the development of DVD and Blu-ray formats, wrote more than a hundred scientific works and received Several prestigious academic awards. In 2000, the Queen of the Netherlands granted the immigrant knightly rank.

In his article in Nature and less famous text In 2007, Immin talks about the problems that Philips and Sony faced with collaboration. In 1979 and 1980, the Dutchman took part in a series of expert meetings, who alternately took place in Tokyo and Eindhoven. At these meetings, representatives of the two companies discussed various parameters of the future CD, including its size. One of the leaders of Philips Lu Podons offered a diameter of 115 mm, under which it would not be necessary to reorganize production lines. In turn, Sony representatives planned to develop the portable player market and therefore offered a smaller diameter, only 100 mm. In December 1979, at the next meeting in Tokyo, it was decided that the diameter of the CD will be 120 mm-this will allow you to record an audio road 74 minutes long.

Why did the experts dwell on this diameter, although initially Philips and Sony planned to make a disk less? According to the "official" versions that were published On the sites of both companies, Beethoven, the vice president of Sony Norio Oga and his wife were very fond of. It was they who insisted: its ninth symphony should be completely placed on one medium. The OGA informed his colleagues that the longest of the records known at that time was the execution of the orchestra under the guidance of Wilhelm Furtwengler in 1951, it lasts 74 minutes and 33 seconds. According to another version, the condition Put it Conductor Herbert von Karayan, who was asked to support the invention (although this symphony was executed Played Almost 10 minutes faster). In order to fully fit the Furtwengler orchestra to the disk, its diameter and it was necessary to increase from 115 to 120 mm.

Although the OGA could indeed be a big fan of Beethoven, Immink saw other reasons in the lobbying of a 120-mm disk. Firstly, Philips could produce a CD with a diameter of 115 mm with much lower cost, because the equipment in factories and the players sold by the company already were already configured for this format. During the development of the PHILIPS CDs, a large factory in Hanover, set up for the production of 115 mm carriers, opened, and Sony did not have such capacities. Secondly, by December 1979, when the final decision on the diameter was made, experts have not yet agreed on the channel coding method-how exactly the data will be recorded on the carrier. Immin has developed an EFM code, which allowed to increase the maximum recording duration by 30%without increasing the diameter of the disk. Surprisingly, his proposal was not accepted, although this made it possible to produce 100 mm CDs, as they originally wanted in Sony. It is very likely that the story of Beethoven was an inventive cover for the true motive of the Japanese company-to deprive Philips of technological, and therefore a commercial advantage, when the music begins to be released on compact disks.

According to Immin, he found the final confirmation of his guess more than 30 years later. In 2017, in Tokyo, he dined with his colleague, engineer Sony Toshitada Doi. When the Imminka shared his doubts about Beethoven’s “official” version of Beethoven with his doubts, he replied: “Of course, you're right, but it was a beautiful story, right?”