The GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) is a 16/9 widescreen 100Hz digital scan color television.The GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) was first color television in Europe with the 16/9 screen format and 100Hz digital scan feature.
The GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) was even marketed under the brand name BLAUPUNKT and was coded as Blaupunkt CS92-101 DIGITAL PRO.
The GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) tv set was even first GRUNDIG color telvision with 100Hz digital picture processing and first with 16/9 widescreen format.In the existing television system, a so-called interlaced scanning system is carried out. That is, one picture (frame) is transmitted by two vertical scannings (fields). This interlaced scanning system is considered in order to increase the number of scanning lines as much as possible in a limited frequency band without a flicker being perceived by a viewer.
However, in the CCIR system employed mainly in European countries, the field frequency is 50 Hz. By this frequency, the flicker can not be removed completely and the flicker becomes conspicuous particularly when the brightness of the television picture is high.
A 100HZ TELEVISION In a known arrangement, the frame rate of a television signal is doubled by using a field store. In a first operating mode, each field of the television signal is entered into the field store in this arrangement and read out twice at twice the frequency. In a second mode, only every second field is entered into the field store and read out four times at twice the frequency. In an arrangement for converting an original picture signal representing a sequence of frames, each of which is composed of two interlaced fields, into a converted picture signal which has a double field frequency with respect to the original picture signal, is for doubling the field frequency, for the purpose of noise reduction, motion compensation and line flicker reduction.
The GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) It's an IDTV an improved definition television (IDTV) set including a motionsensing circuit for sensing motion of images and generating a motion sensing signal, a motion adaptive Y/C separating circuit separating a composite video signal into a luminance signal and a chrominance signal on the basis of the motion sensing signal, chroma demodulation and matrix circuit generating three primary color signals of red, green, and blue from separate luminance and chrominance signals separated at the Y/C separating circuit, and a motion adaptive scanning line converting circuit for converting a line scanning method of the three primary color signals to a progressive line scanning, while effecting a field or line interpolation operation to the three primary color signals. The television set is characterized by a first selector for alternatively supplying external luminance and chrominance signals supplied from the outside or the separate luminance and chrominance signals to the chroma demodulation and matrix circuit, and a second selector for alternatively supplying, the external luminance signal or a summing signal of said external luminance and chrominance signals, or the composite video signal to the motion sensing circuit.
IDTV represents a television set adapted for receiving a video signal of the present television broadcast standard, and improving the quality of picture only on the set's side by a signal processing operation using a field memory or a frame memory. Such IDTV sets were being introduced in the market from 1989 from GRUNDIG but enhanced further by PHILIPS.
GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) WIDE SCREEN TELEVISION The invention relates to the field of televisions, for example those televisions having a wide display format ratio screen, which must interpolate video data to implement various display formats. Most televisions today have a format display ratio, horizontal width to vertical height, of 4:3. A wide format display ratio corresponds more closely to the display format ratio of movies, for example 16:9. The invention is applicable to both direct view televisions and projection televisions. Televisions having a format display ratio of 4:3, often referred to as 4 X 3, are limited in the ways that single and multiple video signal sources can be displayed. Television signal transmissions of commercial broadcasters, except for experimental material, are broadcast with a 4 X 3 format display ratio. Many viewers find the 4 X 3 display format less pleasing than the wider format display ratio associated with the movies. Televisions with a wide format display ratio provide not only a more pleasing display, but are capable of displaying wide display format signal sources in a corresponding wide display format. Movies "look" like movies, not cropped or distorted versions thereof. The video source need not be cropped, either when converted from film to video, for example with a telecine device, or by processors in the television.
Televisions with a wide display format ratio are also suited to a wide variety of displays for both conventional and wide display format signals, as well as combinations thereof in multiple picture displays. However, the use of a wide display ratio screen entails numerous problems. Changing the display format ratios of multiple signal sources, developing consistent timing signals from asynchronous but simultaneously displayed sources, switching o between multiple sources to generate multiple picture displays, and providing high resolution pictures from compressed data signals are general categories of such problems. Such problems are solved in a wide screen television according to this invention. A wide screen television according to various inventive arrangements is capable of providing high resolution, single and multiple picture displays, fromsingle and multiple sources having similar or different format ratios, and with selectable display format ratios.
Televisions with a wide display format ratio can be implemented in television systems displaying video signals both at basic or standard horizontal scanning rates and multiples thereof, as well as by both interlaced and noninterlaced scanning. Standard NTSC video signals, for example, are displayed by interlacing the successive fields of each video frame, each field being generated by a raster scanning operation at a basic or standard horizontal scanning rate of approximately 15,734 Hz. The basic scanning rate for video signals is variously referred to as fπ, 1fH, and 1 H. The actual frequency of a 1fH signal will vary according to different video standards. In accordance with efforts to improve the picture quality of television apparatus, systems have been developed for i s displaying video signals progressively, in a noninterlaced fashion. Progressive scanning requires that each displayed frame must be scanned in the same time period allotted for scanning one of the two fields of the interlaced format. Flicker free AA-BB displays require that each field be scanned twice, consecutively. In each case, the horizontal scanning frequency must be twice that of the standard horizontal frequency. The scanning rate for such progressively scanned or flicker free displays is variously referred to as 2fπ and 2H. A 2fH scanning frequency according to standards in the United States, for example, is approximately 31 ,468 Hz.
A wide screen television according to the inventive arrangements taught herein has all of the capabilities and advantages described above.
And furthermore it has a D2-MAC incorporated decoder.
MAC TECHNOLOGY IN BRIEF.
Among the family of MAC or Multiplexed Analog Components systems for television broadcasting, D-MAC is a reduced bandwidth variant designed for transmission down cable.
- The data is duo-binary coded with a data burst rate of 20.25Mbit/s so that 0° as well as ±90° phasors are used.
- D-MAC has a bandwidth of 8.4 MHz versus 27 MHz for C-MAC.
- Most cable systems work on EBU 7 MHz channel spacing, so this approach did not work universally.
- D-MAC's bandwidth problems were later fixed by D2-MAC.
History and Politics
MAC was developed by the UK's Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and in 1982 was adopted as the transmission format for the UK's forthcoming direct broadcast satellite (DBS) television services (evntually provided by British Satellite Broadcasting). The following year MAC was adopted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as the standard for all DBS.By 1986, despite there being two standards, D-MAC and D2-MAC, favoured by different countries in Europe, an EU Directive imposed MAC on the national DBS broadcasters, to provide a stepping stone from analogue PAL and Secam formats to the eventual high definition and digital television of the future, with European TV manufacturers in a privileged position to provide the equipment required.
However, the Astra satellite system was also starting up at this time (the first satellite, Astra 1A was launched in 1989) and that operated outside of the EU’s MAC requirements. Through the 1990s, a battle raged between the proponents of PAL on Astra and MAC on the DBS satellites. Despite further pressure from the EU (including a further Directive originally intended to make MAC provision compulsory in TV sets, and a subsidy to broadcasters to use the MAC format), the broadcasters and viewers preferred the ease and lower cost of PAL equipment and voted with their dishes, choosing the pan-European PAL broadcasts of Astra over the national DBS satellites.
By the mid-1990s, the unexpectedly rapid rise of digital broadcasting technology rendered the arguments irrelevant, and the use of D-MAC and D2-MAC faded away.
Audio and scrambling (selective access)
- Audio, in a format similar to NICAM was transmitted digitally rather than as an FM subcarrier.
- The MAC standard included a standard scrambling system, EuroCrypt, a precursor to the standard DVB-CSA encryption system.
Luminance and chrominance
MAC transmits luminance and chrominance data separately in time rather than separately in frequency (as other analog television formats do, such as composite video).D2-MAC: A fix for D-MAC
D-MAC consumed too much bandwidth for many applications, so D2-MAC was designed for European cable TV systems.D2-MAC was created to solve D-MAC's bandwidth problem on European cable systems.
- D2-MAC uses half the data rate of D-MAC {10.125Mb/s}
- D2-MAC has a reduced vision bandwidth, about 1/2 that of D-MAC.
- D2-MAC retains most of the quality of a D-MAC signal -- but consumes only 5MHz of bandwidth.
MAC transmits luminance and chrominance data separately in time rather than separately in frequency (as other analog television formats do, such as composite video).
Audio and Scrambling (selective access)
- Audio, in a format similar to NICAM was transmitted digitally rather than as an FM sub-carrier.
- The MAC standard included a standard scrambling system, EuroCrypt, a precursor to the standard DVB-CSA encryption system.
AND This receiver exhibits a circuit for separating the luminance signal from the chrominance signals in accordance with the Colour-Plus method, a circuit for the vertical up-conversion of the luminance signal, a circuit for increasing the frame rate, a microcomputer for controlling the said circuits and a screen. According to the invention, common memory means are allocated to the said circuits and the arithmetics required for the vertical up-conversion of the luminance signal and for separating the luminance signal from the chrominance signals are arranged between the outputs of the common memory means and the screen.
The GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) has top features like:
100Hz digital scan,To improve the picture quality in a television receiver which displays the received television signal in accordance
with the line interlace method, frame stores are increasingly used. The remaining system-related flicker disturbances caused by the line interlace method require different signal processing for stationary and moving frame sequences in known flicker reduction processes, in which the receiver switches from flicker-free to motion-correct 100-Hz field repetition rate even with a relatively slight movement. To reduce system-related line flicker disturbances with line interlace reproduction, the signals contained in the frame store are in each case divided by vertical filtering in the television receiver into a vertical high-frequency and low-frequency signal as determined by the position frequency, these signals are differently processed in dependence on movement and the processed high-frequency and low-frequency signals are reproduced with twice the vertical frequency in line interlace. The flicker reduction method according to the invention can be used in all television receivers in which the television signal is reproduced at twice the vertical frequency in line interlace, Still picture
Mosaic picture presentation of single channel,
Mosaic picture presentation of multiple channels,
PIP, Picture in picture.
Stroboscopic Moviola Picture feature.
Zoned Real time Picture Zoom.
Stereo Hifi sound,
Tone controls,
Multistandard capability,
2 AV scart sockets,
Av Rca inputs.
SVHS input.
2 Outputs for external additional speakers.
teletext,
Advanced OSD,
Dynamic focusing; The invention is directed to a circuit for producing a dynamic focusing voltage in a television set. The dynamic focusing for a picture tube of this type is described in "Grundig Technische Informationen", July 1958, pages 17-18.
With picture tubes having larger screens, such as 16:9 for example, additional dynamic focusing is provided in addition to the usual static focusing. Thereby, a direct voltage of approximately 7-8 kV is supplied to the focusing electrode of the picture tube and a parabolic focusing voltage is superimposed on this voltage via an alternating voltage coupling. This applies both for the horizontal and for the vertical directions of deflection. For operating modes having different picture formats and different deflection amplitudes with overscanning of the screen, there exists the requirement that the peak-to-peak value of the parabolic focusing voltage remain constant so that the focusing voltage will remain unchanged in relation to the position of the deflection. the reason for the maintenance of the constant peak-to-peak value of the parabola is that unnecessary modulation of the parabola is avoided since a higher parabolic voltage is present in the overscanning phase of the visible picture amplitude and, in the second place, that a correction of the parabolic voltage can be undertaken during this overscanning phase.
In order for the effective focusing voltage to remain the same in relation to the position of the deflection for all of the operating modes, the arithmetic mean of the parabolic voltage for each larger picture format and also for the standard picture format must, because of the alternating voltage coupling, be constant. However, this is not directly the case since a parabolic voltage, which only extends over a part of the deflection period, has a lower arithmetic mean.
An object of the invention is to develop a circuit in which the dynamic focusing voltage always has the same arithmetic mean for all operating modes despite differing durations of this voltage within the deflection period.
TV signals are defined primarily the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC), the Phase Alternative Line (PAL) or the Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM) systems, and used in different countries around the world. An analog TV signal utilizes mainly two or three RF carriers, combined in the same channel band. One carrier may commonly be amplitude modulated (AM) with video content, and the other may be frequency modulated (FM) and/or amplitude modulated (AM) with audio content. An analog TV receiver functions by performing a series of operations comprising adjusting the signal power, separating the video and audio carriers, and locking to each carrier in order to down-convert the signals to baseband. The baseband video signal may then be decoded and displayed by achieving horizontal and vertical synchronization and extracting the luminance and color information. After demodulating the received signal, the resulting baseband audio may be decoded, and left, right, surround channels and/or other information may be extracted.- The GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) Features a multistandard PAL/SECAM/NTSC 3.58 & 4.43 CCIR B/G/H/I/L/D/K/M. The different coding processes, e.g. NTSC, PAL and SECAM, introduced into the known colour television standards, differ in the nature of the chrominance transmission and in particular the different systems make use of different colour subcarrier frequencies and different line frequencies.
The following explanations relate to the PAL and NTSC systems, but correspondingly apply to video signals of other standards and non-standardized signals.
The colour subcarrier frequency (fsc) of a PAL system and a NTSC system is fsc(NTSC) = 3.58 MHz or fsc(PAL) = 4.43 MHz.
In addition, in PAL and NTSC systems the relationships of the colour subcarrier frequency (fsc) to the line frequency (fh) are given by fsc(NTSC) = 227.50 * fh or 4•fsc(NTSC) = 910 • fh fsc(PAL) = 283.75 * fh or 4•fsc(PAL) = 1135 • fh so that the phase of the colour subcarrier in the case of NTSC is changed by 180°/line and in PAL by 270°/line.
The invention relates to a digital multistandard decoder for video signals and to a method for decoding video signals. Colour video signals, so-called composite video, blanking and sync signals (CVBS) (chroma-video-blanking-sync) signal is a signal comprising both the chrominance and the luminance component of the video signal. Therefore, the CVBS video signal may be PAL video signal, a SECAM video signal, or an NTSC video signal. are essentially composed of a brightness signal or luminance component (Y), two colour difference signals or chrominance components (U, V or I, Q), vertical and horizontal sync signals (VS, HS) and a blanking signal (BL).
In order to decode a video signal and restore a color image, a color TV set has to identify the color TV standard used at the emission. Conventional color TV sets are equipped with a system for automatically identifying the norm or standard of the color TV set used for the emission. The invention more particularly relates to an automatic method for identifying a color TV standard in a multistandard TV set.
Presently, the most commonly used color TV standards are PAL, NTSC and SECAM standards. For these three standards, each line of the composite video signal comprises a synchronization pulse, a burst of a few oscillations of the chrominance sub-carrier signal, then the signal itself corresponding to the image, comprising superimposed luminance and chrominance information, the latter information being carried by the luminance signal.
The characteristics of the chrominance sub-carrier in the various PAL, NTSC and SECAM standards are defined in the published documents concerning these standards and will not be described in detail here. However, the main characteristics of these various standards will be briefly reminded because these indications are useful for a better understanding of the invention.
In the PAL standard, the frequency of the chrominance sub-carrier is equal for all the lines, but the phase of one of the modulation vectors varies + or -90° from one line to another. The frequency of the chrominance sub-carrier is standardized at 4.43 Mhz. In this system, the burst signal is also shifted by + or -90° from one line to the next.
In the NTSC standard, the chrominance sub-carrier is equal for all the lines.
In the SECAM standard, one uses two chrominance sub-carrier frequencies which alternate from one line to another, at 4.25 Mhz and 4.40 Mhz, respectively. These two chrominance sub-carriers are frequency modulated.
The multistandard color TV sets must have distinct internal systems designed to decode the luminance and chrominance signals for each standard used.
Therefore, these TV sets have to previously identify the received standard.
Systems for automatically identifying the standard used already exist. Generally, for such an automatic standard identification, the systems known use the bursts of the chrominance sub-carrier signal that are present at the beginning of each line. In fact, these bursts are standardized and calibrated samples of the chrominance sub-carrier transmitted on the video signal and comprise all the characteristic information concerning the transmitted color standard. The information contained in these bursts represents the frequency, the phase of one of the modulation vectors and the frequency or phase variation of one line with repect to the next one.
- CTI Picture Improvements circuitry in which colour signal, e.g. the line-sequential colour difference signals (R-Y,B-Y), is processed by an edge steepening circuit e.g. a colour transient improver and/or a two-line delay line in which the colour signals from two lines are added. The delay line may be part of a drop-out compensation circuit in which the colour signal of line n is replaced by the signal present for line n-2. A CCD-line may be used as the two-line delay line, and an amplitude limiter included. ADVANTAGE - Increased picture sharpness and improved signal-to-noise ratio.
GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) Teletext is a television-based communication technique in which a given horizontal video line is utilized for broadcasting textual and graphical information encoded in a digital binary representation. Such horizontal video line signal that contains teletext data is referred to herein as a Data-line. It is assumed herein, for explanation purposes, that teletext is sent by the broadcaster only during the vertical blanking interval (VBI), when no other picture information is sent. The organization of the binary information in the broadcast signal is determined by the standard employed by the broadcaster. By way of an example only, references are made herein to a teletext based on a standard referred to by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as CEEFAX.
Each Data-line carries data synchronizing and address information and the codes for a Row of 40 characters. The synchronizing information includes a clock run-in sequence followed by an 8-bit framing code sequence. Each Data-line contains a 3 bit code referred to as the Magazine number. A teletext Page includes 24 Rows of 40 characters, including a special top Row called the Page-Header. Each ROW is contained in a corresponding Data-line. A user selected Page is intended to be displayed in place of, or added to a corresponding television picture frame. A Magazine is defined to include Pages having Data-lines containing a corresponding Magazine number. The transmission of a selected Page begins with, and includes its Page Header and ends with and excludes the next Page Header of the selected Magazine number. All intermediate Data lines carrying the selected Magazine number relate to the selected Page.
CTI Picture Improvements circuitry in which colour signal, e.g. the line-sequential colour difference signals (R-Y,B-Y), is processed by an edge steepening circuit e.g. a colour transient improver and/or a two-line delay line in which the colour signals from two lines are added. The delay line may be part of a drop-out compensation circuit in which the colour signal of line n is replaced by the signal present for line n-2. A CCD-line may be used as the two-line delay line, and an amplitude limiter included. ADVANTAGE - Increased picture sharpness and improved signal-to-noise ratio.
On screen display (OSD) arrangements employed in video processing systems include a switching (or "multiplexing") network for switching between graphic image representative signals and normal video signals so that a graphic image can be displayed on the screen of a picture reproduction device either in place of the image represented by the video signals or together with (inserted in) the image. The graphic image can take the form of alphanumeric symbols or-pictorial graphics, and can be used to indicate status information, such as channel numbers or time, or operating instructions.A SCART Connector (which stands for Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) is a standard for connecting audio-visual equipment together. The official standard for SCART is CENELEC document number EN 50049-1. SCART is also known as Péritel (especially in France) and Euroconnector but the name SCART will be used exclusively herein. The standard defines a 21-pin connector (herein after a SCART connector) for carrying analog television signals. Various pieces of equipment may be connected by cables having a plug fitting the SCART connectors. Television apparatuses commonly include one or more SCART connectors.
Although a SCART connector is bidirectional, the present invention is concerned with the use of a SCART connector as an input connector for receiving signals into a television apparatus. A SCART connector can receive input television signals either in an RGB format in which the red, green and blue signals are received on Pins 15, 11 and 7, respectively, or alternatively in an S-Video format in which the luminance (Y) and chroma (C) signals are received on Pins 20 and 15. As a result of the common usage of Pin 15 in accordance with the SCART standard, a SCART connector cannot receive input television signals in an RGB format and in an S-Video format at the same time.This kind of connector is todays obsoleted !Consequently many commercially available television apparatuses include a separate SCART connectors each dedicated to receive input television signals in one of an RGB format and an S-Video format. This limits the functionality of the SCART connectors. In practical terms, the number of SCART connectors which can be provided on a television apparatus is limited by cost and space considerations. However, different users wish the input a wide range of different combinations of formats of television signals, depending on the equipment they personally own and use. However, the provision of SCART connectors dedicated to input television signals in one of an RGB format and an S-Video format limits the overall connectivity of the television apparatus. Furthermore, for many users the different RGB format and S-Video format are confusing. Some users may not understand or may mistake the format of a television signal being supplied on a given cable from a given piece of equipment. This can result in the supply of input television signals of an inappropriate format for the SCART connector concerned.
In an OSD arrangement for use in an analog video signal processing system, the multiplexing network typically operates to switch in levels corresponding to the desired intensity of respective portions of the graphic image at the time the graphic image portions are to be displayed. In such an arrangement the graphic image representative signals take the form of timing pulses which occur when the graphic image portions are to be displayed and are used to control the multiplexing network. Such an analog OSD arrangement can also be used in a digital video processing system, but requires that the video signals be first converted to analog form. While digital video signal processing systems typically include a digital-to-analog converter section in which the digital video signals are converted to analog form, it may be more cost effective for the OSD arrangement to be incorporated as an integral part of the digital video processing section.
Fortunately for the service problem to date, most failures occur in the vacuum tubes used in the television receivers. A faulty or inoperative vacuum tube is relatively easy to find and replace. However, where the television receiver malfunction is caused by the failure of other components, such as resistors, capacitors or inductors, it is harder to isolate the defective component and a higher degree of skill on the part of the serviceman is required.
Even with the great majority of the color television receiver malfunctions being of the "easy to find and repair" type proper servicing of color sets has been difficult to obtain due to the shortage of trained serviceman.
At the present time advances in the state of the semiconductor art have led to the increasing use of transistors in color television receivers. The receiver described in this application has only two tubes, the picture tube and the high voltage rectifier tube, all the other active components in the receiver being semiconductors.
One important characteristic of a semiconductor device is its extreme reliability in comparison with the vacuum tube. The number of transistor and integrated circuit failures in the television receiver will be very low in comparison with the failures of other components, the reverse of what is true in present day color television receivers. Thus most failures in future television receivers will be of the hard to service type and will require more highly qualified servicemen.
The primary symptoms of a television receiver malfunction are shown on the picture tube of the television receiver while the components causing the malfunction are located within the cabinet. Also many adjustments to the receiver require the serviceman to observe the screen. Thus the serviceman must use unsatisfactory mirror arrangements to remove the electronic chassis from the cabinet, usually a very difficult task. Further many components are "buried" in a maze of circuitry and other components so that they are difficult to remove and replace without damage to other components in the receiver.
Repairing a modern color television receiver often requires that the receiver be removed from the home and carried to a repair shop where it may remain for many weeks. This is an expensive undertaking since most receivers are bulky and heavy enough to require at least two persons to carry them. Further, two trips must be made to the home, one to pick up the receiver and one to deliver it. For these reasons, the cost of maintaining the color television receiver in operating condition often exceeds the initial cost of the receiver and is an important factor in determining whether a receiver will be purchased.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a transistorized color television receiver in which the main electronic chassis is easily accessible for maintenance and adjustment. Another object of this invention is to provide a transistorized color television receiver in which the electronic circuits are divided into a plurality of modules with the modules easily removable for service and maintenance. The main electronic chassis is slidably mounted within the cabinet so that it may be withdrawn, in the same manner as a drawer, to expose the electronic circuitry therein for maintenance and adjustment from the rear closure panel after easy removal. Another aspect is the capability to be serviced at eventually the home of the owner.
The set is very rare due to features, screen format, technology, and.............cost.
THE SAD THING IS THAT SUCH KIND OF TELEVISION SET APPEARED AFTER THE DEATH OF MAX GRUNDIG, FOUNDER OF GRUNDIG, AND THEREFORE HE HAVEN'T HAD THE POSSIBILITY TO SEE IT ...............LIVE.
(GRUNDIG M169-92 IDTV 100HZ (DIGI3) WEIGHT:80KG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
About Screen Formats...............
It is difficult to know exactly what to make of the unfolding widescreen TV saga, which seems to be yet another example of failure to agree to a TV standard. Is it perhaps simply an attempt by the European TV industry to snatch a temporary advantage over Far Eastern manufacturers?
Certainly it's the European tubemakers that have developed the technology.
But if this is the case the question that has to be asked is whether widescreen TV is a further example of an attempt by technology rather than consumer demand to drive the market forwards? If so it could well be a mistake. People won't buy technology for the sake of it: they'll buy only what suits them.
The 16:9 aspect ratio sets that have been announced so far are a mixed batch. Nokia has opted for 625 -line PAL, Thomson has opted for 1,250 -line PAL while Philips has decided on 625 -line PAL with a 100Hz field rate. Nokia feels that the wide screen is the important thing rather than any change to basic TV standards. The company points to the cost advantage of using a standard chassis to drive the new type of tube. But evenhere the wide screen presentation is seen as essentially a top of the range phenomenon. In this case why not go the whole hog? With a chassis that features digital signal processing, why not take advantage of the opportunity to improve the definition and get rid of flicker once and for all? There are arguments as to exactly how much better a picture you get for your money at higher timebase frequencies.
What this seems to boil down to is that compromises, as always with TV, have to be accepted. The argument is over what compromise to accept. It's a rather pointless argument really and one can't help but feel that the motivation behind it is simply a matter of gaining marketing clout rather than achieving the best in good picture reproduction.
There is much to be said for the view that a well set up display using conventional technology and a decent aerial system, with no corner cutting in circuit design, will with the presently available transmissionsprovide as good a picture as any for the viewer rather than the technology buff.
Representatives of the main Japanese manufacturers in the UK have been making disparaging comments about widescreen TV. The case was put forcibly by Mark Todd, Toshiba's marketing director. He hit the headlines with coments that widescreen TV was "premature" and "a joke", but rather more to the point he suggested that instead of buying a set that is "too big" and "too expensive" the consumer would be better off with a 34in. Nicam set featuring surround sound.
The money saved could, he added, be invested in a building society. The debate has been clouded by dispute over what programming is available. At present it seems to be limited to a few tapes and Continental satellite channels transmitted in D2-MAC form. Not much really to justify lashing out on a set that costs a few thousand pounds. Since some rather rude remarks about the 16:9 picture format have been somewhat severely taken to task over what is and what isn't a natural display based on the characteristics of human vision, in particular who quoted a considerable amount of research.
The fact that human eyes are horizontally displaced, giving perception somewhat elongated in the horizontal plane compared to the vertical plane, looks a clincher.
But this rather overlooks the reason for us having two eyes in the first place to achieve bifocalvision. The images from the two eyes are superimposed to give us a three-dimensional fieldof view. It's nothing to do with aspect ratio!
The aspect ratio debate continues in actual times with minor noise and debate is been gratified by some support amongst more recent observations from people.
It all arrived too late for this issue, but watch this space as they say. What does rather intrigue me in all this is whether sight is really a scientific matter. It is, of course, as a subject for study. But as an aspect of natural history it seems more akin to disciplines such as economics rather than pure science.
Those who take an interest in the endless economic debate, with one plausible argument after another seeming to establish opposite points of view, will appreciate this. The problem of course is that you can't conduct conclusive experiments with the subject matter of economics. You can't say right, call a halt, go back five years and see what happens if we alter the conditions. Anything of an historical nature can only be observed and, in a more or less helpful manner, explained. That seems to be the case with human perception. You can't experiment with different vision systems. You have to understand as best you can the one we've ended up with. However that may be, the TV industry is not doing itself any great favours with its continual change.
To the 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios we now have a proposed compromise 14:9. It's not easy of course to arrive at decisions with absolute certainty. Technological evolution continuously and often suddenly shifts, and new possibilities have a habit of coming at times that are inconvenient for the standards decision makers. Perhaps we should give up worrying about TV standards and accept the fact that there have always been and always will be different ways of going about things, with various advantages and disadvantages. Let's just sit back and watch the thing unfold. It would be nice to take a relaxed view like that. But of course there's more at stake.
Sets have to be manufactured to standards, broadcasters have to observe system parameters and, at ourend of things, the public has to be presented with a good case for buying what's available. It doesn'thelp the salesman to have to work in an atmosphere of continuing uncertainty.
One more comment about digital in 2000..............
Over the years we have learnt that one of the most important things in video/ TV technology is selecting the best system to use. We have also seen how difficult this can be. Prior to the start of the colour TV era in Europe there was an great to-do about the best system to adopt. The US NTSC system seemed an obvious choice to start with. It had been proved in use, and refine- ments had been devised. But alternative, better solutions were proposed - PAL and Secam. PAL proved to be a great success, in fact a good choice.The French Secam system seems to have worked just as well. Apart from the video tape battles of the Seventies, the next really big debate concerned digital TV. When it came to digital terrestrial TV (DTT), Europe and the USA again adopted different standards.One major difference is the modulation system used for transmission. Coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM) was selected for the European DVB system, while in the USA a system called 8VSB was adopted. COFDM uses quadrature amplitude modulation of a number of orthogonal carriers that are spread across the channel bandwidth. Because of their number, each carrier has a relatively low bit rate.The main advantage of the system is its excellent behaviour under multipath reception conditions. 8VSB represents a rather older, pre phase modulation technoogy: eight state amplitude modulation of a single carrier, with a vestigial sideband. The decision on the US system was assigned to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), reporting to the FCC. The system it proposed was approved by the FCC on December 26th, 1996. The curious date might suggest that there had been a certain amount of politicking. In fact there had been an almighty row between the TV and computer industries about the video standard to adopt, the two fearing that one or other would gain an advantage as the technologies converged. It was 'resolved' by adopting a sort of "open standard" we are talking about resolution and scanning standards here - the idea apparently being that the technology would somehow sort itself out.There seems to have been rather less concern about the modulation standard. 8VSB was adopted because it was assumed to be able to provide a larger service area than the alternatives, including COFDM, for a given transmitter power. Well, the USA is a very large place! But the US TV industry, or at least some parts of it, is now having second thoughts. Once the FCC had made its decision, there was pressure to get on with digital TV. In early 1998 there were announce- ments about the start of transmissions and broadcasters assured the FCC that DTT would be available in the ten areas of greatest population concentration by May 1999. Rapid advances were expected, with an anticipated analogue TV switch -off in 2006. So far however things have not gone like that. At the end of 1999 some seventy DTI' transmitters were in operation, but Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association estimates suggest that only some 50,000 sets and 5,000 STBs had been sold.There have been many reports of technical problems, in particular with reception in urban and hilly areas and the use of indoor aerials, also with video/audio sync and other matters. Poor reception with indoor aerials in urban conditions is of particular concern: that's how much of the population receives its TV. The UK was the first European country to start DTI', in late 1998 - at much the same time as in the USA. The contrast is striking. ONdigital had signed up well over 500,000 subscribers by the end of 1999, a much higher proportion of viewers than in the USA. Free STBs have played a part of course, but it's notable that DTT 's reception in the UK has been relatively hassle -free. In making this comparison it should also be remembered that the main aim of DTT technology differs in Europe and the USA.The main concern in Europe has been to provide additional channels. In the USA it has been to move to HDTV, in particular to provide a successor the NTSC system. There have been plenty of channels in the USA for many a year. For example the DirecTV satellite service started in mid 1994 and offers some 200 channels. Internationally, various countries have been comparing the US and European digital systems. They have overwhelmingly come down in favour of the DVB system. There have been some very damaging assessments of the ATSC standard. The present concern in the US TV industry results from this poor domestic take up and lack of international success. Did the FCC make a boob, in particular in the choice of 8VSB? Following compara- tive tests carried out by Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc., the company has petitioned the FCC to adopt COFDM as an option in the ATSC standard. Not only did its tests confirm poor reception with indoor aerials: they also established that the greater coverage predicted for 8VSB failed to materialise in practice. Could the USA have two DTT transmission standards? It seems unlikely. It would involve dual standard receivers and non standardisation of transmitters. In the all important business of system selection, it looks as if the FCC got it wrong.
.................................... It is obviously wasteful to duplicate terrestrial TV transmissions in analogue and digital form. Sooner or later transmissions will all be digital, since this is a more efficient use of spectrum space. The question is when? It would suit some to switch off the analogue transmitters as soon as possible. 2006 has been suggested as a time to start, with ana- logue transmissions finally ending in 2010. All very neat and tidy. Whether it will work out in that way is another matter. Strong doubts are already beginning to be aired.
The government has, quite properly, laid down conditions to be met before the switch off occurs. Basically that the digital signal coverage should equal that achieved for analogue TV, currently 99.4 per cent of the population, and that digital receiving equipment should be available at an affordable price. The real problem is that there is a difference between a coverage of 99.4 per cent and 99.4 per cent of the population actually having digital receiving equipment. Why should those who are interested in only free - to -air channels go out and buy/rent a digital receiver? It is already becoming evident that this represents a fair chunk of the population.
The ITC has warned the government that the 2006-2010 timetable is in jeopardy. Peter Rogers, the ITC's chief executive, has said "we need to persuade people only interested in watching free -to -air television to switch to digital. "Unless we do, there will be no switch - over." Well not quite, because the analogue receivers will eventually wear out and have to be replaced. But that could take a long, long time. Meanwhile many people will expect to be able to continue to watch their usual TV fare using their existing analogue receivers.Research carried out by Culture Secretary Chris Smith's department has established that between forty and fifty per cent of the population expects the BBC licence to cover their TV viewing, which means what they get at present in analogue form. A substantial percentage of the population simply isn't interested in going digital. In fact take up of integrated receiver -decoders, as opposed to the free digital set -top boxes, has so far been very slow.Of five million TV sets sold in the UK year 1999 , only 10,000 were digital. There are important factors apart from overall coverage and how many people have sets. There is the extension of coverage, which becomes more difficult to achieve eco- nomically as the number of those not covered decreases. There is the problem of reception quality. And there is the question of domestic arrangements and convenience. Extending coverage to the last ten fifteen per cent of the population by means of conventional terrestrial transmitters will be expensive. Mr Smith's department seems to have conceded that other methods of signal delivery may have to be adopted - by satellite, by microwave links or by cable. The latter has of course never been economic where few households are involved.The frequency planners have been trying to find ways of increasing coverage even to well populated areas. There are so many areas where problems of one sort or another make the provision of DTT difficult. Satellite TV is the obvious solution.The time may well come when it is wondered why anyone bothered with DTT. Signal quality is becoming an increasingly important factor as the digital roll out continues. In areas where the signal is marginal, viewers could experience the extreme irritation of picture break up or complete loss like even todays. This is quite apart from the actual quality of the channel, which depends on the number of bits per second used. There is a maximum number of bits per multiplex, the total being shared by several channels. The fewer the bits, the poorer the picture in terms of definition and rendering.There have already been complaints about poor quality. The question of domestic arrangements is one that has not so far received adequate public attention. Most households 2000 nowadays don't have just one TV set that the family watches. They have a main one, probably, almost certainly one or more VCRs, and several other sets around the house to serve various purposes. What 'the percentage of households that have digital TV' should really mean is the percentage willing to replace all this equipment. It will be expensive, and people would not be happy if they were told to throw away their other equipment when they get a single nice new all singing all dancing widescreen digital TV set. It fact there would be uproar. The move from analogue to digital is not like that from 405 to 625 lines, which went fairly smoothly.
In those days few people had video equipment or a multitude of sets. The transition to digital is not going to be smooth, and the suggestion of a switch off during 2006-2010 already looks totally unrealistic. Unless the government subsidises or gives away digital TV sets - and why should it? - people will expect their existing equipment to continue to be usable.So it's likely that analogue TV will be with us for many years yet. But that would be the end of analogue too..............................Indeed...............................
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An Increasingly Versatile Device The domestic television set used to be simply the thing that reproduced the programmes transmitted by one or other of the three programme networks unless you happened to be connected to one of the wire systems that have experimented with local TV and pay TV at various times. But have you noticed what an increasingly versatile thing the TV set is becoming?
- The first major extension to the domestic TV set's possibilities came with the VCR, enabling you to record off air or replay prerecorded tapes. Domestic VTR systems have at a price been with us for roughly a decade now, but till the advent of the easy to handle VCR most low-cost VTR systems were intended for use with monitors, with the signal interconnections at video and audio frequencies.
- Then came TV games, first found in the pubs and amusement arcades, later appearing in compact, relatively inexpensive packages for home use. The significant point here was the entry of digital techniques on the domestic TV scene. On the broadcast side, digital techniques had been making a substantial contribution to operations for some years, starting with the BBC's sound-in-syncs system (1969) in which the TV sound signal is compressed, converted to digital form and inserted in the line sync pulse period, and culminating with the IBA's famed DICE, which provides electronic standards (lines, fields, colour) conversion by converting the signals to digital form, processing them, then converting them back into analogue form.
Rather far from TV games you might think, but it's all part of the same process - the increasing impact of digital techniques on the world of television. In fact the technology of TV games has evolved considerably since their first appearance.
The approach then was to employ a fair number of standard digital i.c.s to build up the circuitry required. But why not go about it in the same way as the calculator manufacturers?
It didn't take long for the semiconductor people to see this new possibility for using their l.s.i. technology. This made it a relatively simple matter to provide a range of games with just a single i.c. the basis of the present generation of TV games.
Add a second i.c. and the whole thing comes up in glorious colour. But it doesn't end there. The talk was now is of adopting microprocessor technology and making the system programmable, so that an almost unlimited range of games of varying degrees of complexity can be played. The favoured system seems to been to use prerecorded cassettes to provide the various programmes. And once you do that, you can extend the system to all sorts of other uses - teaching systems and so on. In fact you've made the TV set into part of a home computer installation - as we outlined in Teletopics last month. It's not impossible then to imagine some "viewers" using their TV sets for games, instruction and VCR use, while keeping up to date with teletext news and getting extra information via the PO's Viewdata system - and never watching a transmitted programme at all! We've come a long way then from the days of the TV set as a goggle
(goggle ????? or gooooooooooogle).................. box.
Teletext decoders and TV games were already being built into a few sets. What other digital innovations can we expect in TV sets? (may be DVB)
One now well established use of digital techniques is to provide all electronic channel selection.
The varicap tuner simply asks to be controlled in this way, and the system lends itself readily to remote control operation. Once you're controlling the tuner and generating various signals digitally there are other things you might as well do. Like flashing the selected channel number on the screen, or the time (coming shortly in Television!). Sets which do this sort of thing have been available on the Continent for some while now.
- The latest development along these lines is the picture within a picture a reduced size picture from another channel being inserted in the corner of the main display (PIP), so that you can watch two progrpnmes at once or see when to change over to a programme due to start on another channel. This involves some interesting digital processes - you've got to lose lines, and compact the video information by reading it into a memory at one speed and reading it out at another, in effect operating at two standards simultaneously while keeping both in sync (remember how difficult it has sometimes been to keep a set in sync on one standard!).
- There's only one thing that prevents a space-age TV installation in every home: cost.
But the cost of electronic hardware has a habit of falling dramatically once production has achieved a certain level. TV games are already commonplace, and teletext decoders have become a lot cheaper once specialised i.c. modules for the purpose go into large scale production. From this point in time, it already seems that one can regard the days when the TV set simply displayed one of the programmes available as the age of stream TV.
....................................But we all know how it ended !
Grundig AG is (WAS) a German manufacturer of consumer electronics for home entertainment which transferred to Turkish control in the period 2004-2007. Established in 1945 in Nuremberg, Germany by Max Grundig the company changed hands several times before becoming part of the Turkish Koç Holding group. In 2007, after buying control of the Grundig brand, Koc renamed its Beko Elektronik white goods and consumer electronics division Grundig Elektronik A.Ş., which has decided to merge with Arçelik A.Ş. as declared on February 27, 2009
Max Grundig (7 May 1908 – 8 December 1989) was the founder of electronics company Grundig AG.Max Grundig is one of the leading business personalities of West German post-war society, one of the men responsible for the German “Wirtschaftswunder” (post-war economic boom).GRUNDIG Early years
Max Grundig was born in Nuremberg on May 7, 1908. His father died early, so Max and his three sisters grew up in a home without a father. At 16, Max Grundig began to be fascinated by radio technology, which at the time was gaining in popularity. He built his first detector in the family’s apartment, which he had turned into his own laboratory. In 1930, he turned his hobby into his profession and opened a shop for radio sets in Fürth with an associate. The business prospered and soon Grundig was able to employ his sisters and buy out his associate. By 1938, he was already manufacturing 30,000 small transformers.
GRUNDIG Success after World War II
Max Grundig’s real success story began after World War II. On May 15, 1945, Grundig opened a production facility for universal transformers at Jakobinerstraße 24 in Fürth. Using machines and supplies from the war era, he established the basis for what would turn into a global company at this address. In addition to transformers, Grundig soon manufactured tube-testing devices. As manufacturing radios was subject to a licence, Grundig had the brilliant idea of developing a kit that would allow anyone to quickly build a radio on their own. This kit was sold as a “toy” called “Heinzelmann”.
Grundig became a real pioneer in consumer electronics. From 1951, the company’s portfolio also included the production and distribution of television sets, and dictaphones were added in 1954. The company was turned into a shareholding company, the Grundig AG, in 1971. In the 1970s, the company was one of the leading companies in Germany, employing more than 38,000 people in 1979. Max Grundig had built a strong company from the ruins of the war.
GRUNDIG and the rules are changing
In the second half of the 1970s, another innovation entered the market for consumer electronics, the VCR. And with the VCR, competitors from Japan and later other countries of the Far East entered the world market. Even though the European competitors Philips and Grundig had developed the superior technology for recording video, the Japanese VHS succeeded on the market. The rules of the game changed dramatically in the field of consumer electronics. The competition for establishing the video standard proved that companies could only succeed in consumer electronics with the financial power of global corporations. In 1979, Max Grundig decided to sell some shares to his Dutch competitor Philips, and in 1984 he began the process of restructuring the ownership of the Grundig companies, which would be completed two decades later.
Max Grundig died on December 8, 1989 in Baden-Baden. The Grundig name continues to be known to this day and is now a globally recognised brand for innovative consumer electronics. Max Grundig is remembered in Germany as a dynamic entrepreneur from the post-war era.
Max GRUNDIG: Born on 7 May 1908 in the Denis Street 3 in Nurembergworkers district Gostenhof Parents of "Magaziners" or warehouse worker Max Emil and his wife Marie. The enlargement of the family through the birth of three sisters require in the aftermath several moves within Nuremberg.
In 1920, his father died unexpectedly at the consequences of an appendectomy. The already poor family is financially worse rapidly. This is followed by further moves into ever smaller and cheaper housing. Max Grundig starts in April 1922 commercial apprenticeship at the installation company Jean Hilpert in Nuremberg. His interest lies in the crafting of radios, a hobby, the early 1920s was indulged by tech-savvy youngsters often. But Max Grundig tinkering not only simple radios, but also more complex technical equipment such as image receiver.(Photos refering to
Father and Mother of Max GRUNDIG.)
After the end of his teaching is Max Grundig 1927 Head of a new branch of the company in Fürth Hilpert and supervised by commercial side of the installation work of the under construction Municipal Hospital Fürth. In May 1928 and in October 1930 Grundig also occurs on a radio dealer and take part in an event organized by Workers' Radio Association Germany on the occasion of Fürth Kirchweih 1930 radios exhibition. A first marriage in 1929 held only briefly. From her daughter Inge comes.
Following the closure of Fürth Branch company Hilpert for the finished installation works at the hospital, Max Grundig together with Karl Wurzer, who was funders primarily, on 15 November 1930 as a radio dealer in Sternstraße 4 in Fürth independently. Today this street Ludwig-Erhard-Straße is, since there - was directly opposite the first by Max Grundig Radio Load - - the business of the parents of the future economy minister and Chancellor Ludwig Erhard (1977 1897).
His radio action called Max Grundig "Radio Sales Fürth" short RVF. On June 21, 1934, a procession of RVF in the Schwabacher Straße carried 1. The partnership Karl Wurzer is paid, Max Grundig is now the sole owner. In addition to selling and repairing radios Grundig starts construction of transformers. In 1938, he is Sales millionaire. In the same year he married the singer and manufacturer's daughter Annelie Jorgensen. The marriage remains childless.
During the Second World War Grundig continues its production of small transformers continued on a larger scale in the Fürth suburb Vach, where he rents rooms in three inns. He himself is in 1941 drafted into the army, some time must remain as a corporal in Paris, but shortly before his entire company is reassigned to the East - also because of its possibilities, to provide supervisors with radios - "indispensable" (uk) provided and forwards Fuerth his company to continue the war.
On 18 May 1945, the US Army occupied the suburb Vach. Grundig's stock will not be plundered, neither of German or foreign looters nor by the US military because the workforce that consists partly of Ukrainian slave laborers, has a sign "Off limits" - "no trespassing" - at the door, protects the company. In June 1945, Grundig rented a factory building in the Jakobinenstraße 24 in Fürth. are manufactured now transformers and measuring instruments: The tube tester "Tubatest" and the fault locator "Nova Test". The commercial license is replaced by the Radio-sales Fürth on 7 November 1945. In December 1945, Grundig has 42 employees.
On April 10, 1946 Max Grundig starts own production of radios.
His first instrument is the "Heinzelmann" This radio can also complete as a kit or under the hand, but are always acquired without tubes. But the tubes are widely available on the black markets of the early postwar years. Since a wireless without tubes per se is not operational, allowing the American military government Max Grundig, "no quota", ie without limitation in quantity, produce radio and distribute. With the mass sale of "Heinzelmann" Max Grundig creates the basis for further economic success of the company as a manufacturing company after the Second World War.As of August 1, 1946 is the company "RVF - Electrotechnical Factory". Beginning in March 1947, work began in the Kurgartenstraße 37 in Fuerth, the later main plant of the company Grundig. On 7 July 1948 re-naming of the company is carried out in "Grundig radio-Werk GmbH". As of spring 1948, the superhit radio "Weltklang" comes on the market. In February 1949, the 100,000th Wireless is already prepared. In the same year built a Grundig FM radio stations trying to prepare for the introduction of the ultra-short wave on 15 March 1950. In December 1949 the company Grundig counts 1,600 employees.
In May 1951 Max Grundig acquires Lumophon radio stations in Nuremberg and Georgensgmünd and integrates them into its "Grundig radio-Werke GmbH". In September and October 1951, he is with a purpose-built television station Directorate building his company in Fürth the first public television broadcasts in Southern Germany. he produced 94 televisions this year. The production of tape recorders starts 1951st
1954 lets Max Grundig his first dictation machine, the "Stenorette" build. In 1957 he buys the office machine manufacturer Triumph-Adler in Nuremberg and Adler in Frankfurt that remain until 1968 in his possession. In 1958 he founds the Grundig Bank in Fürth. In the same year, with the introduction of the transistor instead of the Radio tube, penetrate the first Japanese companies like Sony in the European and German market, initially still in the lowest price segment. 1960 Grundig has 16,495 employees.
The 1960s are marked by the further expansion of the company: Grundig is the biggest radio manufacturer in Europe. In 1961 he acquired a large area in Nuremberg-Langwasser, on the 1963 first tape recorders are produce
d. In other parts of Germany companies to buy or newly built shortly afterwards in Italy and Austria.1964 leads the Dutch company Philips in tape recorders, the compact cassette CC and thus the cassette recorder, and it initially in the lower price range. The leader Grundig countered in 1965 with the cassette system DC International, but can not prevail.
After 1967, the beginning of color television initially causes a strong boom in the production of related hardware. This results not only in their own country overcapacity, but the Japanese competition suppressed due to lower wages and production costs at the same time always noticeable with affordable devices on the European and German market.
1969 bring the company Philips and Grundig together the first video recorder for home appliances on the market. It is still a tape machine. But soon the world led the struggle for the enforcement of various video cassette systems begins.
In 1970, Grundig has approximately 25,000 employees. This year, Max Grundig builds to his company. He built on 22 February 1970, the "Max Grundig Foundation", added on 12 March 1970, the "Grundig-family club". The Max Grundig Foundation is now the sole owner. In addition, on 1 April 1972, the "Grundig-Werke GmbH" in a corporation, the "Grundig AG" converted. The foundation holds about 94% of the capital.
From 1970, the television production is relocated to Nuremberg-Langwasser. The expectations regarding equipment sales for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich true. With the Super-Color TVs a new product range is presented in a modular design. In Nuremberg-Langwasser, daily production reached 1,200 color TV.
1977 founds the Grundig "Hotel Management Max Grundig Foundation". The Hotel Forsthaus Fuerth and Hotel Fuschl near Salzburg to buy. A year later Grundig donates 30 million DM for the "Grundig Academy of Economics and Technology", which serves the training of professionals and executives. 1978 produced in Langwasser also a new VCR plant.
Increasingly Max Grundig is weakened by illness, repeated he needs surgery. The European consumer electronics industry is committed to strategies against existing overcapacity and the growing economic influence of companies from the Far East. In Europe, these are mainly the French state company Thomson-Brandt, the Dutch company Philips and Grundig.
The cooperation with the Dutch company Philips thickens in the VCR production. In 1979 share swaps. Philips makes 24.5% of the shares of Grundig AG, Grundig 6% of Philips and is thereby the largest single shareholder.
1979 achieved the Grundig AG with 38,460 employees
worldwide their personal peak. The company has 31 plants, nine branches with 20 branches and three Werksvertretungen, eight sales companies and 200 worldwide export missions. Also, sales continue to rise. But the profit is shrinking. In 1981, the Grundig AG writes first losses. After divorcing his second wife Annelie Max Grundig marries 1980, the French woman Chantal Girard. In the same year the daughter Marie was born.1982 at the presentation of "Eduard Rhein honor ring" and before the European Commission, presents Max Grundig be EURO concept, the united front of the European consumer electronics market to Japanese companies: "Acting together, jointly produce, market share". But he can not prevail. Too much stalking and distrusts you also mutually in the European broadcasting industry. And Japan is not the only competitor. An agreement between the companies Grundig and Thomson-Brandt, which is scheduled also built in 1982, can - among other things due to the resistance of the Bundeskartellamt and because the company Philips is involved in Grundig - not be implemented.
On 26 March 1984 Philips increased its share of Grundig AG by 7.1% to 31.6%. In April 1984, the Federal Cartel Office approved the merger of Grundig and Philips under the condition that Grundig sells its voice recorders range. New CEO of Grundig AG is the Dutchman Hermanus Koning on April 1 (1924 - 1998). From 1984 to 1998, the Dutch have entrepreneurial saying. Max Grundig receives for his departure from the company, among other things a guaranteed 20-year-income annual return of 50 million marks.
Not quite voluntarily leaving Max Grundig the company he has built up and which bears his name. But there can be only one boss. 1985 must Grundig also his top job at the Grundig-Bank ad, which is sold to a Swiss institute.
Grundig expands its hotel ownership, 1986, he acquired the luxury hotel "Bühlerhöhe", which he renovated at great expense. On 8 December 1989 Max Grundig dies. Under great public participation he will be buried in Baden-Baden.
After a brief economic boom as a result of German reunification takes place until 1991 a rapid decline of the company Grundig. Between 1992 and 1996 the Grundig Group makes almost two billion marks loss. The number of employees decreased from 16,250 to 8,580 employees.
1998, the Philips Group withdraws. According to its own description Philips has been paying 1.5 billion marks. A consortium of banks and insurance companies under the leadership of the antenna manufacturer Kathrein, the personally liable partners of Kathrein Werke KG, takes on 18 December 1998 the Grundig AG.
In 2000 and 2001, the company headquarters and the remaining departments of Fürth be routed to Nuremberg. But Grundig continues to make losses. On 1 April 2003, Grundig AG announces insolvency.
2004 Turkey company Beko electronics in Istanbul, belonging to the Turkish Koc Holding, together with the British company Alba Radio Ltd. accepts the division consumer electronics. This company is now called "Grundig Intermedia". Both companies each own fifty percent of "Grundig Multimedia B.V.", which is a holding full ownership of Grundig Intermedia GmbH. In addition, proceeds from the office equipment division as buy-out the company "Grundig Business Systems" produced. The car radio range is taken from the Delphi Corporation, the activities of the former Grundig range satellites for "Grundig SAT Systems GmbH".
In October 2006 and January 2007, two production lines for TV at Grundig Elektronik in Istanbul are put into operation. On 18 December 2007, Koç Group acquires through its subsidiary Arçelik A.S. the shares of Alba plc. And that is the sole owner of Grundig Multimedia B.V. or the Grundig Intermedia GmbH. The development area in Nuremberg closes the end of 2008 as part of an ending in 2009 the restructuring process. When Grundig headquarters in Nuremberg with around 140 employees Sales, marketing, communications, design, quality assurance, customer service and the office staff remain. The Turkish Grundig Intermedia GmbH is now divided into six product areas: TV, Audio, HiFi, "Personal Care", "Floor Care" and kitchen appliances.
The Radio Museum in Fürth, located in the former Directorate of Max Grundig, shows in addition to the history of the development of broadcasting in Germany and the corporate and entrepreneurial story of Max Grundig, the man who the radio and television development in Germany after the Second World War three has for decades dominated the market leader.
He was married lastly to Chantal Grundig.
Early history
The history of the company began in 1930 with the establishment of a store named Fuerth, Grundig & Wurzer (RVF), which sold radios. After World War II Max Grundig recognized the need for radios in Germany, and in 1947 produced a kit, while a factory and administration centre were under construction at Fürth. In 1951 the first televisions were manufactured at the new facility with the company and the surrounding area growing rapidly. At the time Grundig was the largest radio manufacturer in Europe. Divisions in Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Karlsruhe were set up.
Grundig in Belfast
A plant was opened in 1960 to manufacture tape recorders in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the first production by Grundig outside Germany. The managing director of the plant Thomas Niedermayer, was kidnapped and later killed by the Provisional IRA in December 1973. The factory was closed with the loss of around 1000 jobs in 1980.
Philips takeover
In 1972, Grundig GmbH became Grundig AG. After this Philips began to gradually accumulate shares in the company over the course of many years, and assumed complete control in 1993. Philips resold Grundig to a Bavarian consortium in 1998 due to unsatisfactory performance.Later history
At the end of June 2000 the company relocated its headquarters in Fürth and Nuremberg. Grundig lost €1.281 million the following year. In autumn 2002, Grundig's banks did not extend the company's lines of credit, leaving the company with an April 2003 deadline to announce insolvency. Grundig AG declared bankruptcy in 2003, selling its satellite equipment division to Thomson. In 2004 Britain's Alba plc and the Turkish Koc's Beko jointly took over Grundig Home InterMedia System, Grundig's consumer electronics division. In 2007 Alba sold its half of the business to Beko for US$50.3 million, although it retained the licence to use the Grundig brand in the UK until 2010, and in Australasia until 2012.
................The Federal Republic of Germany: struggling to stay on its feet ?
For more than thirty years after the Second World War, consumer
electronics in West Germany, as elsewhere, was a growth industry.
Output growth in the industry was sustained by buoyant consumer
demand for successive generations of new or modified products,
such as radios (which had already begun to be manufactured, of
course, before the Second World War), black-and-white and then
colour television sets, hi-fi equipment.” Among the largest West
European states, West Germany had by far the strongest industry.
Even as recently as 1982, West Germany accounted for 60 per cent
of the consumer electronics production in the four biggest EEC
states. The West German industry developed a strong export
orientation--in the early 1980s as much as 60 per cent of West
German production was exported, and West Germany held a larger
share of the world marltet than any other national industry apart
from the]apanese.ltwas also technologicallyextremelyinnovative-
the first tape recorders, the PAL colour television technology, and
the technology which later permitted the development of the video
cassette recorder all originated in West Germany.
The standard-bearers of the West German consumer electronics
industry were the owner-managed firm, Grundig, and Telefunken,
which belonged to the electrical engineering conglomerate, AEG-
Telefunlten. The technological innovations for which the West
German industry became famous all stemmed from the laboratories
of Telefunlten, which, in the 19605, still constituted one of AEG’s
most profitable divisions. Telefunlcen and Grundig together prob-
ably accounted for around one-third of employment in the German
Industry in the mid-1970s. Both had extensive foreign production
facilities. At the same time, compared with the other EEC states,
there was still a relatively large number of small and medium-sized
consumer electronics firms in Germany. Besides Grundig and
Telefunken, the biggest were Blaupunkt, a subsidiary of Bosch, the
automobile components manufacturer, Siemens, and the sub-
sidiaries of the ITT-owned firm, SEL. Up until the late 1970s, there
was relatively little foreign-owned manufacturing capacity in the
West German consumer electronics industry.
GOVERNMENTS, MARKETS, AND REGULATION
During the 1970s, this picture of a strong West German
consumer electronics industry began slowly to change and, by the
end of the 19705, colour television manufacture no longer offered a
guarantee for the continued prosperity or even survival of the
German industry. The market for colour television sets was
increasingly saturated——by 1978 56 per cent of all households in
West Germany had a colour television set and 93 per cent of all
households possessed a television set of some kind.2° From 1978
onwards, the West German market for colour television sets began
to contract. Moreover, the PAL patents began to expire around
1980 and the West German firms then became exposed to more
intense competition on the (declining) domestic market.
The West German firms’ best chances for maintaining or
expanding output and profitability lay in their transition to the
manufacture of a new generation of consumer electronics products,
that of the video cassette recorder (VCR). Between 1978 and 1983,
the West German market for VCRs expanded more than tenfold, so
that, by the latter year, VCRs accounted for over a fifth of the
overall consumer electronics market.“ However, in this product
segment, Grundig was the only West German firm which, in
conjunction with Philips, managed to establish a foothold, while
the other firms opted to assemble and/or sell VCRs manufactured
according to one or the other of the two Japanese video
technologies. By 1981, the West German VCR market was more
tightly in the grip of Japanese firms than any other segment of the
market. More than any other, this development accounted for the
growing crisis of the West German consumer electronics industry in
the early 1980s. The West German market stagnated, production
declined as foreign firms conquered a growing share of the
domestic market and this trend was not offset by an expansion of
exports, production processes were rationalized to try to cut costs
as prices fell, employment contracted,” and more and more plants
were either shut down or—more frequently——taken over.
The relationship between the state and the consumer electronics industry in the long post-war economic ‘boom’ was of the ‘arm’s length’ kind which corresponded to the West German philosophy
of the ‘social market economy’. The state's role was confined largely to ‘holding the ring’ for the firms and trying to ensure by means of competition policy that mergers and take-overs did not enable any single firm or group of firms to achieve a position of market domination and suspend the ‘free play of market forces’.
The implementation of competition policy was the responsibility of the Federal Cartel Office (FCO), which must be informed of any planned mergers or take-overs if the two firms each have a turnover
exceeding 1 DM billion or one of them has a turnover of more than
2 DM billion. The FCC must reject any proposed merger which, in
its view, would lead to the emergence of a, or strengthen any
existing, position of market domination.“
Decisions of the FCO may be contested in the Courts, and firms
whose merger or take-over plans have been rejected by the Cartel
Office may appeal for permission to proceed with their plans to the
Federal Economics Minister. He is empowered by law to grant such
permission when it is justified by an ‘overriding public interest’ or
‘macroeconomic benefits’, which may relate to competitiveness on
export markets, employment, and defence or energy policy.”
However, the state had no positive strategy for the consumer
electronics industry and industry, for its part, appeared to have no
demands on the state, other than that, through its macroeconomic
policies, it should provide a favourable business environment. This
situation changed only when, as from the late 1970s onwards, the
Japanese export offensive in consumer electronics plunged the West
German industry into an even deeper crisis.
The Politics of European Restructuring
The burgeoning crisis of not only the West German, but also the
other national consumer electronics industries in the EC in the
early 1980s prompted pleas from the firms (and also organized
labour) for protective intervention by the state——by the European
Community as well as by its respective national Member States.
The partial ‘Europeanization’ of consumer electronics politics
reflected the strategies chosen and pursued by the major European
firms to try to counter, or avoid, the Japanese challenge. These
strategies contained two major elements: measures of at least
temporary protection against Japanese imports to give the firms
breathing space to build up or modernize their production
capacities and improve their competitiveness uis-ci-uis the Japanese
and partly also to put pressure on the Japanese to establish
production facilities in Europe and produce under the same
conditions as the European firms and (b), through mergers, take-
overs, and co-operation agreements, to regroup forces with the aim
of achieving similar economies of scale to those enjoyed by the most
powerful Japanese firms. The first element of these strategies
implicated the European Community in so far as it is responsible
for the trade policies of its Member States. The second element did
not necessarily involve the European Community, but had a Euro-
pean dimension to the extent that most of the take-overs and mergers
envisaged in the restructuring of the industry involved firms from
two or more of the EEC Member States, including the French state-
owned Thomson (see above). As this ‘regrouping of the forces’ of
the European consumer electronics industry was to unfold at first
largely on the West German market, the firms could only
implement their strategies once they had obtained the all-clear of
the FCO or, failing that, of the Federal Economics Ministry.
The Politics of Video Recorder Trade between japan and the EEC:
The Dutch-based multinational conglomerate, Philips, was the first
firm in the world to bring a VCR on to the market. Between 1972
and 1975, it had no competitors at all in VCR manufacture and, as
late as 1977, it split up the European market with Grundig, with
which Philips developed the V2000 VCR which came on to the
market in 1980. By this time, the Japanese consumer electronics
firms had already built up massive VCR production capacities and
had cornered first their own market and then, unchallenged by the
European firms, the American as well. With the advantage of much
greater economies of scale, they were able to manufacture and offer
VCRs more cheaply than Philips and Grundig when the VCR
market did eventually ‘take off‘ in Western Europe. German
imports of VCRs, for example, increased almost eightfold between
1978 and 1981.2
The immediate background to the calls for protection against
imported Japanese VCRs by European VCR manufacturing firms
was formed by massive cuts in price
consequence of which, in 1982, the market share held by the V2000
VCR manufactured by Philips and Grundig declined sharply.”
Losses incurred in VCR manufacture led to a dramatic worsening
of Grundig’s financial position. In November 1982 Philips and
Grundig announced that they were considering taking a dumping
case against the Japanese to the European Commission. The case,
which was later withdrawn, can be seen as the first move in a
political campaign designed to secure controls or restraints on
Japanese VCR exports to the EEC states. This campaign was
pursued at the national and European levels, both through the
national and European trade associations for consumer electronics
firms and particularly through direct intervention by the firms at
the national governments and the European Commission. However,
the European firms, many of whom had licensing agreements with
the Japanese, were far from being united behind it.
Philips, seconded by its VCR partner, Grundig, was the ‘real
protagonist’ of protectionist measures against Japanese VCRs. In
pressing their case on EEC member states and the European
Commission, they emphasized the unfair trading practices of the
Japanese in building up production capacities which could meet the
entire world demand for VCRs (‘laser-beaming’), and the threats
which the Japanese export offensive posed to jobs in Western
Europe and to the maintenance of the firms’ R. 8: D. capacity and
technological know-how. Above all, however, was the threat which
the crisis in VCR trade and the consumer electronics industry
generally posed to the survival of a European microelectronic
components industry, over half of whose output, according to
Grundig, was absorbed in consumer electronics products.”
These arguments found by all accounts a very receptive audience
at the European Commission, where, by common consent of
German participants in the policy-formation process, Philips wields
great political influence. By all accounts, Philips‘s pressure was also
responsible for the conversion to the protectionist camp of the
Dutch Government, which hitherto had been a bastion of free trade
philosophy within the EEC. By imposing unilateral import controls
through the channelling of imported VCRs through the customs
depot at Poitiers (see above), the French Government had already
staked out its position on VCR trade with Japan. It presumably
required no convincing by Philips and Grundig on the issue,
although it is interesting to speculate over the extent to which its
stance also reflected the preferences of Thomson which in the past
had been the ‘chief of the protectionists’ in the European
industry.”
With the Dutch Government having been shifted into the
protectionist camp by Philips, the greatest resistance to the
mposition of some form of import controls on Japanese VCRs
could have been expected to come from the West German
Government. Along with the Danish and (hitherto) the Dutch
Governments, the West German Government had generally been
the stoutest defender of free trade among the EEC Member States.
The Federal Economics Ministry’s antipathy towards import
controls may in fact have had some impact on the form of
protection ultimately agreed by the EEC Council of Ministers,
which was a ‘voluntary self-restraint agreement’ with japan.
However, even such self-restraint agreements had in the past been
vetoed by West Germany in the Council. The West German
Government’s abstention in the vote on the agreement in the
Council of Ministers signified if not a radical, then none the less a
significant, modification of its past trade policy.
Within the Bonn Economics Ministry, the section for the
electrical engineering industry-—characteristically—had the most
receptive attitude to the V2000 firms’ case. Elsewhere in the
Ministry, in the trade and European policy and policy principles
divisions and at the summit, the Ministry’s traditional policy in
favour of free trade was given up much more reluctantly. The
Ministry did not oppose the voluntary restraint agreement after it
had been negotiated, but it may be questioned whether the
Ministry’s acquiescence in the agreement was motivated solely by its
feeling of impotence vis-£1-vis the united will of the other Member
States. Abstaining on the vote in the Council of Ministers enabled
the V2000 protectionist lobby to reap its benefits without the West
German Government being held responsible for its implementation.
The Govemment’s abstention may equally have been the result of
the pressure exerted on the Economics Ministry by the V2000
firms, particularly Philips and Grundig, both of which engaged in
bilateral talks with the Ministry, and from the consumer electronics
sub-association of the electrical engineering trade association of the
ZVEI (Zentralverband der Elektrotechnischen lndustrie), in which
a majority of the member firms had sided with Philips and Grundig.
The Ministry, by its own admission, did not listen as closely to the
firms which were simply marketing Japanese VCRs as to those
which actually manufactured VCRs in Europe: ‘we were interested
in increasing the local content (of VCRs) to preserve jobs.’
The success of the V2000 firms in obtaining any agreement at all
from the Japanese to restrain their exports of VCRs to the EEC
does not mean that they were happy with all aspects of the
agreement, least of all with its contents concerning VCR prices and
concrete quotas which were agreed with the Japanese. As the
market subsequently expanded less rapidly than the European
Commission had anticipated, the quota allocated to Japanese
imports (including the ‘kits’ assembled by European licensees of
Japanese firms) amounted to a larger share of the market than
expected and the European VCR manufacturers did not sell as
many VCRs as the agreement provided. Ironically, within a year of
the adoption of the agreement, both Philips and Grundig announced
that they were beginning to manufacture VCRs according to the
Japanese VHS technology and by the time the agreement had
expired (to be superceded by increased tariffs for VCRs) in 1985,
the two firms had stopped manufacturing V2000 VCRs altogether.
The Politics of Transnational European Mergers and Take-overs
The wave of merger and take-over activity in the European
consumer electronics industry which peaked around 1982 and
1983 had begun in West Gemany in the late 1970s, when Thomson
swallowed up several of the smaller West German firms- Normende,
Dual, and Saba ...and Philips, apparently reacting to the threat it
perceived Thomson as posing to its West German interests, bought
a 24.5 per cent shareholding in Grundig.3° The frenzied series of
successful and unsuccessful merger and take-over bids which
unfolded in 1982 and 1983 is inseparable from the growing crisis of
the European industry and the major European firms’ perceptions
as to how they could restructure in order to survive in the face of
Japanese competition.
The first candidate which emerged for take-over on the West
German market was Telefunken, for which AEG, itself in desperate
financial straits, had been seeking a buyer since the late 1970s.
Telefunken’s heavy indebtedness, which was largely a consequence
of losses it had incurred in its foreign operations, posed a
formidable obstacle to its disposal, however, and first Thomson,
which had bought AEG’s tube factory, and then Grundig, baulked
at taking it on as long as AEG had not paid off its debts. While talks
on Telefunken’s possible sale to Grundig were still going on in
1982, Grundig’s own financial position was quickly worsening as a
result primarily of its mounting losses in VCR manufacture.
Grundig confessed publicly that if the firm carried on five more
years as it was doing, it would ‘go under like AEG’, which, in
summer 1982, had become insolvent. Grundig intensified his search
for stronger partners, which he had apparently begun by talking
with Siemens in 1981. In late 1982, at the same time as Grundig
and Philips were pressing for curbs on Japanese VCR imports,
Grundig floated the idea of creating, based around Grundig, a
European consumer electronics ‘superfirm’ involving Philips,
Thomson, Bosch, Siemens, SEL, and Telefunken. Most of the
prospective participants in such a venture were unenthusiastic
about Grundig’s plans, however, and the outcome of Grundig’s
search for a partner or partners to secure its survival was that
Thomson offered to buy a 75.5 per cent shareholding in the firm.
Political opinion in West Germany was overwhelmingly, if not
indeed uniformly, hostile to Thomson’s plan to take over Grundig.
The political difficulties which Thomson and Grundig faced in
securing special ministerial permission for their deal were exacer-
bated by the probability of job losses given a rapidly deteriorating
labour market situation, and by the fact that, as late as 1982 and
early 1983, an election campaign was in progress. Moreover, the
Federal Economics Ministry was apparently concerned that, if
Thomson took over Grundig, the West German Government would
have been exposed to the danger of trade policy blackmail from the
French Government, which could then have demanded increased
protection for the European consumer electronics industry as the
price for Thomson not running down employment at Grundig (and
in other West German subsidiaries).
The decisive obstacle to Thomson's taking over Grundig,
however, lay not with the position of the Federal Economics
Ministry (or that of the Government or the FCO or the Deutsche
Bank), but rather in that of Grundig’s minority shareholder,
Philips. Against expectations, the FCO announced that it would
approve the take-over, but only provided that Philips gave up its
shareholding in Grundig and that Grundig also abandoned its plans
to assume control of Telefunken. As talks on Grundig’s plan to take
over Telefunken had already been suspended, the latter condition
posed no problem to Thomson’s taking over Grundig.
Once it had been put on the spot by the FCO's decision, Philips
was forced to leave its cover and declare that it would not withdraw
from Grundig. Apart from its general concern at being confronted
with an equally strong competitor on the European consumer
electronics market, Philips’s motives in thwarting Thomson's take-
over of Grundig were probably twofold. First, Thomson evidently
did not want to commit itself to continue manufacturing VCRs
according to the Philips—-Grundig V2000 technology, but wanted
rather to keep the Japanese (VHS) option open and, according to its
public declarations, to work with Grundig on the development of a
new generation of VCRs. Secondly, Philips was, ahead of Siemens,
Grundig’s biggest components supplier, with annual sales to
Grundig worth several hundred million Deutschmarks. lf Thomson
had taken over Grundig, this trade would have been lost.
A sequel to the failure of Thomson's bid for Grundig was that in
1984, with bank assistance, Philips assumed managerial control of
Grundig. Thus, at the end of this phase of the restructuring
programme of the European consumer electronics industry, two
main groups have emerged, one centred around Philips, the other
around Thomson, and Blaupunkt is the only significant firm in
West Germany left under West German control. But a common
European response (i.e. one involving Philips and Thomson) to the
Japanese challenge of the kind which Max Grundig
had envisagedin 1982 had not come about, and may be less likely given
Thomson’s acquisitions in Britain and the US which make it a much
more powerful competitor to Philips. But the acceleration in
Japanese and also Korean inward investment in Europe in 1986-7,
especially in VCR production where there are now a total of twenty
Far Eastern-owned plants, suggests that the process of restructuring
within Europe is far from complete.
The recent experience of the European consumer electronics
industry points to the critical role of the framework and instruments
of regulation in trying to account for the different responses of the
various national industries and governments to the challenges
posed by growing Japanese competitive strength and technological
leadership. At one extreme is self-regulation by individual firms,
where governments eschew any attempt to determine the responses
which particular firms make to changing market conditions, whilst
adopting policy regimes such as tax and tariff structures and
openness to inward investment which critically affect the conditions
under which self-regulation takes place." At the other extreme is
regulation by government intervention at the level of firm strategy,
where governments seek specific policy outcomes by offering
specific forms of inducement to selected firms and denying them to
others.”
HISTORY OF GRUNDIG IN GERMAN:
1930 gründet der Kaufmann und Radiobastler Max Grundig (1908-1989) den Radio-Vertrieb Fürth, Grundig & Wurzer (RVF), ein Radio-Fachgeschäft mit Werkstatt. Bald fabriziert der Betrieb auch Transformatoren und Spulen, später zudem Prüfgeräte. 1934 zahlt Grundig den Teilhaber und Freund Karl Wurzer aus. 1938 beträgt der Umsatz mehr als 1 Mio. RM. Während des Krieges fabriziert Grundig im Dorf Vach mit etwa 600 Personen, darunter vielen Ukrainerinnen, Kleintrafos, elektrische Zünder und Steuergeräte für die V-Raketen. Das Grundig-Vermögen schätzt man am Kriegsende auf 17,5 Mio. RM
it Werkstatt. Bald fabriziert der Betrieb auch Transformatoren und Spulen, später zudem Prüfgeräte. 1934 zahlt Grundig den Teilhaber und Freund Karl Wurzer aus. 1938 beträgt der Umsatz mehr als 1 Mio. RM. Während des Krieges fabriziert Grundig im Dorf Vach mit etwa 600 Personen, darunter vielen Ukrainerinnen, Kleintrafos, elektrische Zünder und Steuergeräte für die V-Raketen. Das Grundig-Vermögen schätzt man am Kriegsende auf 17,5 Mio. RM
Ab 18. Mai 1945 kann Grundig wieder in Fürth produzieren. Er lässt Transformatoren wickeln, Reparaturen ausführen und stellt kurz darauf das Röhrenprüfgerät «Tubatest» und das Fehler-Suchgerät «Novatest» her. Ab 15.1.46 lässt Grundig den externen Ing. Hans Eckstein, den früheren Konstrukteur bei Lumophon, einen Einkreiser-Baukasten mit späterem Namen «Heinzelmann» entwickeln. Anfang 1946 beschäftigt Grundig ca. 100 Personen. Ab Oktober 1946 läuft die Produktion des «Heinzelmann» und die Firma stellt bis Ende 1946 391 Baukästen her. Die vierseitige Geschichte dazu findet sich in der Zeitschrift «rft» 1991, ab Seite 421. Grundig hat auch 1947 grossen Erfolg, denn ein Baukasten ist ohne Bezugsschein erhältlich. Das erste Modell (A) ist ein Zwei-Röhren-Allstromempfänger mit Wehrmachtsröhren RV12P2000. Die Produktion findet bald mit 120 Mitarbeitern auf 400 qm statt. Anfang 1947 folgt Modell W [634701]. Der Baukasten erreicht 1948 eine Stückzahl von 39'256 [DRM].
Am 15.3.47 beginnt Grundig mit dem Bau eines modernen Fabrikgebäudes auf 8000 qm Fläche. Mitte 1948 kann die Firma den Superhet «Weltklang» anbieten; er findet ebenfalls guten Absatz. 400 Personen arbeiten auf 3000 qm Fläche. Im Juli 1948 benennt Grundig seine Firma in Grundig-Radiowerke GmbH um. Jetzt arbeiten 650 Personen im Betrieb. 1949 kommt als erstes deutsches Nachkriegs-Koffergerät der «Grundig-Boy» auf den Markt. Die Firma bringt eine Neukonstruktion des «Heinzelmann» auf den Markt. Zudem entsteht der Vier-Kreis-Super «Weltklang 268GW». Im Mai 1949 erreicht der Betrieb in der Bizone (eigentlich Trizone!) 20 % Marktanteil [664905]. Die Bizone ist der Zusammenschluss der amerikan. und brit. Besatzungszone von 1947 bis 8.4.49, die sich ab dann durch den Anschluss der frz. Besatzungszone zur Trizone
erweitert.
Am 16. Mai 1951 übernimmt Grundig die Lumophon-Werke (ebenfalls in Fürth) für den Betrag von 1,7 Mio. DM. Im gleichen Jahr entstehen erste Grundig-Tonbandgeräte. 1952 beginnt die Produktion von Fernsehgeräten. Das Unternehmen beschäftigt nun 6000 Personen und feiert am 12. Mai 1952 den millionsten Rundfunkempfänger. Die Baureihe von 1952/53 ist erstmals technisch und formal einheitlich gestaltet, wobei Grundig die prinzipielle Form bis 1956/57 beibehält. Ausser Typ 810 mit Flankengleichrichter enthalten alle Geräte einen integrierten FM-Teil mit Ratiodetektor. 1955 bezeichnet sich Grundig als den grössten Tonbandgeräte-Hersteller der Welt. 1956 kauft er das Telefunken-Rundfunkgerätewerk Dachau [639071]. 1959 besteht Grundig aus sieben Werken, zwei Tochtergesellschaften plus einer Neugründung in den USA. 1964 übernimmt Grundig die Tonfunk-Werke, Karlsruhe. 1969 beteiligt sich Grundig mehrheitlich an der Kaiser-Radio in Kenzingen. Max Grundig ist seit 1970 gesundheitlich angeschlagen.
erweitert.Am 16. Mai 1951 übernimmt Grundig die Lumophon-Werke (ebenfalls in Fürth) für den Betrag von 1,7 Mio. DM. Im gleichen Jahr entstehen erste Grundig-Tonbandgeräte. 1952 beginnt die Produktion von Fernsehgeräten. Das Unternehmen beschäftigt nun 6000 Personen und feiert am 12. Mai 1952 den millionsten Rundfunkempfänger. Die Baureihe von 1952/53 ist erstmals technisch und formal einheitlich gestaltet, wobei Grundig die prinzipielle Form bis 1956/57 beibehält. Ausser Typ 810 mit Flankengleichrichter enthalten alle Geräte einen integrierten FM-Teil mit Ratiodetektor. 1955 bezeichnet sich Grundig als den grössten Tonbandgeräte-Hersteller der Welt. 1956 kauft er das Telefunken-Rundfunkgerätewerk Dachau [639071]. 1959 besteht Grundig aus sieben Werken, zwei Tochtergesellschaften plus einer Neugründung in den USA. 1964 übernimmt Grundig die Tonfunk-Werke, Karlsruhe. 1969 beteiligt sich Grundig mehrheitlich an der Kaiser-Radio in Kenzingen. Max Grundig ist seit 1970 gesundheitlich angeschlagen.
1978 gehören 31 Werke, 9 Niederlassungen mit 20 Filialen und drei Werksvertretungen, 8 Vertriebs- und 200 Exportvertretungen zur Grundig AG. 1979 beschäftigt das Unternehmen 38'000 Personen; der Umsatz liegt bei 3 Mrd. DM. Ein Hauptstandort ist Nürnberg. Grundig muss sich jedoch einer Umstrukturierung unterziehen und Philips erhält 1979 eine Beteiligung von rund 25 %. 1980/81 muss Grundig einen Verlust von 187 Mio. DM hinnehmen. Zusätzlich scheitert das Gerät «VIDEO 2000» finanziell.
Eine detaillierte Firmengeschichte enthält das 1983 erschienene Buch: «Sieben Tage im Leben des Max Grundig» von Egon Fein.
Allerdings lässt sich aus [481, Saba] auch wenig Schmeichelhaftes über das Machtstreben von Max Grundig erfahren.
1984 erhöht Philips die Beteiligung um 7 % und übernimmt die unternehmerische Verantwortung. 1986/87 kann das Unternehmen mit noch 19'500 Mitarbeitern wieder schwarze Zahlen schreiben. 1987/88 beschäftigt Grundig noch 18'700 Personen bei einem Umsatz von
3,2 Mrd. DM, wovon 90 % auf die Unterhaltungselektronik entfallen. In diesem Geschäftsjahr verlassen 2 Mio. Farbfernsehgeräte und 750'000 Videorecorder die Bänder. Max Grundig stirbt im Dezember 1989 [639071] - letztlich hatte er nicht das vierblättrige, sondern das dreiblättrige Kleeblatt als Firmenemblem gewählt.
Philips hat das Unternehmen vollständig übernommen. Mitte 90er Jahre beschäftigt Grundig noch 8000 Personen. Eine detaillierte Firmengeschichte findet sich in «kleeblatt radio» ab 5/93 des Förderverein des Rundfunkmuseums der Stadt Fürth eV.
1998 verkaufte Philips das Unternehmen an ein Konsortium unter Führung von Anton Kathrein von den Kathrein-Werken. Im Jahre 2001 wurde bei einem Umsatz von 1,2 Milliarden Euro ein Verlust von 150 Millionen Euro erwirtschaftet. Daher verlängerten die Banken im Herbst 2002 die Kreditlinien nicht mehr, was zur Insolvenz im April 2003 führte. In der Folgezeit wurden gewinnbringende Sparten (wie z.B. Bürogeräte, Autoradios) aus dem Konzern herausgelöst und einzeln verkauft. Verlustreiche Sparten wurden stillgelegt und die Mitarbeiter entlassen. Heute erhältliche Neuware von Grundig ist kaum noch "made in Germany".
Eine detaillierte Firmengeschichte enthält das 1983 erschienene Buch: «Sieben Tage im Leben des Max Grundig» von Egon Fein.
Allerdings lässt sich aus [481, Saba] auch wenig Schmeichelhaftes über das Machtstreben von Max Grundig erfahren.
1984 erhöht Philips die Beteiligung um 7 % und übernimmt die unternehmerische Verantwortung. 1986/87 kann das Unternehmen mit noch 19'500 Mitarbeitern wieder schwarze Zahlen schreiben. 1987/88 beschäftigt Grundig noch 18'700 Personen bei einem Umsatz von
3,2 Mrd. DM, wovon 90 % auf die Unterhaltungselektronik entfallen. In diesem Geschäftsjahr verlassen 2 Mio. Farbfernsehgeräte und 750'000 Videorecorder die Bänder. Max Grundig stirbt im Dezember 1989 [639071] - letztlich hatte er nicht das vierblättrige, sondern das dreiblättrige Kleeblatt als Firmenemblem gewählt.
Philips hat das Unternehmen vollständig übernommen. Mitte 90er Jahre beschäftigt Grundig noch 8000 Personen. Eine detaillierte Firmengeschichte findet sich in «kleeblatt radio» ab 5/93 des Förderverein des Rundfunkmuseums der Stadt Fürth eV.
1998 verkaufte Philips das Unternehmen an ein Konsortium unter Führung von Anton Kathrein von den Kathrein-Werken. Im Jahre 2001 wurde bei einem Umsatz von 1,2 Milliarden Euro ein Verlust von 150 Millionen Euro erwirtschaftet. Daher verlängerten die Banken im Herbst 2002 die Kreditlinien nicht mehr, was zur Insolvenz im April 2003 führte. In der Folgezeit wurden gewinnbringende Sparten (wie z.B. Bürogeräte, Autoradios) aus dem Konzern herausgelöst und einzeln verkauft. Verlustreiche Sparten wurden stillgelegt und die Mitarbeiter entlassen. Heute erhältliche Neuware von Grundig ist kaum noch "made in Germany".
References:
Einzelnachweise:
Stephan Maurer: Ein Jahr nach der Grundig-Insolvenz. In: Stern.de. 27. Juni 2004, abgerufen am 26. Juli 2013.Alexander Mayer: Grundig und das Wirtschaftswunder. Reihe Arbeitswelten, Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-305-3, S. 7 f., 11 f.
Alexander Mayer: Grundig und das Wirtschaftswunder. Reihe Arbeitswelten, Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-305-3, S. 8.
Stephan Maurer: 100 Jahre Max Grundig: Pionier des Wirtschaftswunders. stern.de, 7. Mai 2008, abgerufen am 26. Juli 2013.
Hans Knoll: Ursprünge des Radiobaukastens „Heinzelmann“, S. 14. In: Rundfunk und Museum. Zeitschrift des Rundfunkmuseums der Stadt Fürth, Heft 71, Dezember 2009, S. 9–16.
Alexander Mayer: Grundig und das Wirtschaftswunder. Reihe Arbeitswelten, Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-305-3, S. 9, 17 ff.
Vgl. z. B. Nürnberger Nachrichten v. 28. September 1951, S. 3: „Fernseh-Uraufführung in Fürth“; der Sender strahlte täglich um 11, 14 u. 16 Uhr einen Spielfilm aus, der in Nürnberg u. Fürth empfangen werden konnte.
Alexander Mayer: Grundig und das Wirtschaftswunder. Reihe Arbeitswelten, Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-305-3, S. 9, 17 ff.
Alexander Mayer: Grundig und das Wirtschaftswunder. Reihe Arbeitswelten, Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-305-3, S. 9, 71 ff, 121 ff.
Alexander Mayer: Grundig und das Wirtschaftswunder. Reihe Arbeitswelten, Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-305-3, S. 9 f.
Aus dem Ruder, In: Der Spiegel 9/1985, abgerufen am 21. September 2015.
Alexander Mayer: Grundig und das Wirtschaftswunder. Reihe Arbeitswelten, Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-305-3, S. 10.
Grundig meldet Insolvenz an. Computerwoche, 14. April 2003, abgerufen am 26. Juli 2013.
Thiemo Heeg: Grundig ist wieder da. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29. August 2012, abgerufen am 21. November 2013.
Abschied von Nürnberg: Grundig-TV verlässt die Region. In: Nordbayern.de vom 7. April 2016.
Uwe Ritzer: Grundig verabschiedet sich aus Nürnberg In: Süddeutsche Zeitung vom 11. April 2016, S. 33.
"GRUNDIG – Unterhaltungselektronik & Haushaltsgeräte". Grundig.de. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
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"Make your home the best place to be with appliances from Grundig". Thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
"UPDATE 2-Turkey's Arcelik, Grundig announce merger". Reuters.com. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
""Grundig Home" – The Best Place to Be - K!TCHN® Mag". ktchnmag.com. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
"ARÇELİK A.Ş., LEAVES ITS MARK AT THE IFA FAIR WITH ITS BEKO AND GRUNDIG BRANDS". Arcelikas.com. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-10-23. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
Melaugh, Dr Martin. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1980". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
"Design News". Design News. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
Deleon, Nicholas. "Grundig U900 Single Core Linux-Based Cellphone Looks Like It Belongs in 2002". Gizmodo.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
"Sponsoring: Grundig zeigt Flagge in der Fußball-Bundesliga". Horizont.net. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
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"From Postenligaen to Grundigligaen - The Norwegian American". Na-weekly.com. 16 September 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
"Global Food Losses and Food Waste" (PDF). Fao.org. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
"Key facts on food loss and waste you should know!". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
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"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2018-01-15.
"Grundig partners with Massimo Bottura's first international 'Food for Soul' project – Innovative Electrical Retailing". Innovativeelectricalretailing.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
"GRUNDIG – Unterhaltungselektronik & Haushaltsgeräte". Grundig.de. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
"GRUNDIG – Unterhaltungselektronik & Haushaltsgeräte". Grundig.de. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
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