Karlheinz Brandenburg facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Karlheinz Brandenburg
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Brandenburg in May 2010
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| Born | 20 June 1954 |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | University of Erlangen-Nuremberg |
| Known for | MP3 |
| Awards | IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | Fraunhofer Society, Technische Universität Ilmenau |
Karlheinz Brandenburg (born 20 June 1954) is a German electrical engineer and mathematician. He is widely known as the "father of the MP3" format. Along with his team, he helped create the popular MP3 method for making audio files smaller. He also did important work in audio coding, how we measure sound, and psychoacoustics, which is about how humans hear sound.
Brandenburg has won many national and international awards for his work. Since 2000, he has been a professor at the Technical University Ilmenau. He also helped start the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) and is currently its director.
Contents
The Story of MP3: Making Music Files Smaller
Karlheinz Brandenburg studied at Erlangen University. He earned degrees in Electrical Engineering (1980) and Mathematics (1982). In 1989, he received his PhD for his work on digital audio coding. This means he figured out how to turn sound into computer data and make it smaller.
His professor, Dieter Seitzer, had a big idea in the early 1980s. He wanted to create a "digital jukebox." This system would let people listen to music on demand over phone lines called ISDN. The problem was that ISDN lines were too slow for CD-quality music.
The Big Challenge: Compressing Music
A standard music CD uses a lot of data. About 1.4 million bits are needed for just one second of stereo sound. To send music over ISDN lines, Professor Seitzer needed to make the file almost 12 times smaller. He even tried to get a patent for his idea, but it was rejected. The patent office said what he wanted to do was "impossible."
Professor Seitzer gave Brandenburg the task of finding out if this compression was truly impossible. At first, Brandenburg thought the patent office was right. But as he studied it more, he realized that making the files much smaller might actually be possible.
How MP3 Changed Music
Brandenburg's research became the foundation for MPEG-1 Layer 3, which we know as MP3. It also led to other modern ways of compressing audio. An international group called MPEG later made MP3 an official ISO standard. This meant it could be used all over the world.
From 1989 to 1990, Brandenburg worked in the U.S. at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He continued his work on audio compression there. In 1990, he returned to Erlangen University. In 1993, he became the head of the Audio/Multimedia department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits.
Today, he is a full professor at the Institute for Media Technology at Technical University of Ilmenau. He also leads the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT. Brandenburg is a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), a group for sound engineers. He has also helped create many U.S. patents related to audio technology.
Awards and Recognition
Karlheinz Brandenburg has received many awards for his groundbreaking work, especially for the MP3 format. Here are some of them:
- 2023: The SMPTE Digital Processing Medal for his work on digital audio compression.
- 2015: Technology Award of the Eduard Rhein Foundation.
- 2014: IMTC Leadership Award for his work on audio coding and the MP3 standard.
- 2014: Elected into the Internet Hall of Fame for his important role in developing the MP3 format and its impact on the internet.
- 2009: Honorary PhD degree from Leuphana University of Lüneburg.
- 2009: Elected into the "German Research Hall of Fame."
- 2007: Elected into the "CE Hall of Fame" of the Consumer Electronics Association.
- 2006: Received the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
- 2004: IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for his major contributions to digital audio coding.
- 2001: German Internet Award NEO for developing and marketing the MP3 format.
- 2000: Deutscher Zukunftspreis, a top German award for technology and innovation.
- 1998: Silver Medal Award of the Audio Engineering Society (AES).
See also
- German inventors and discoverers
- How Music Got Free
