Throwback Thursday

A momentous occasion in the history of consumer electronics took place 34 years ago this week when Sony offered the CDP-101 for sale in Japan.

Twenty years ago this week, Microsoft introduced a new and improved WebTV, the interactive TV service it had purchased from internet TV pioneer Steve Perlman a few months earlier.

The beginnings of CEDIA date back to 1989 when a group of audio/video professionals who called themselves “custom installers” got together to formulate a plan to establish an industry group that would promote the interest of its members and offer professional training as well as a place to exchange ideas and exhibit new products. The Custom Electronic Design and Industry Association was borne out of those early meetings.

We call it a phone and carry it with us everywhere we go but let’s be honest we mostly use our smartphones for everything but making a call. This remarkable pocket computer would have been unfathomable to Pacific Bell lineman Ralph Eric Knudsen, who made the final splice of the transcontinental telephone line in Wendover Nevada on the Nevada/Utah border 103 years ago in the early summer of 1914.

Live Aid, the 16-hour super concert/fundraiser organized by Bob Geldof, leader of the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, took place 32 years ago today at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Although it seems like an eternity, it’s only been eight years since the federal government pulled the plug on analog TV, giving way to today’s all-digital world of television.