Karlheinz Brandenburg (born 20 June 1954) is a German

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. Together with Ernst Eberlein, Heinz Gerhäuser (former Institutes Director of Fraunhofer IIS), Bernhard Grill, Jürgen Herre and

Harald Popp Harald Popp (born 30 September, 1956 in Erlangen) is a German electrical engineer. Together with Karlheinz Brandenburg, Ernst Eberlein, Heinz Gerhäuser (former Institutes Director of Fraunhofer IIS), Bernhard Grill, Jürgen Herre (all Fraunhofer ...

(all Fraunhofer IIS), he developed the widespread

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

method for audio data compression. He is also known for his elementary work in the field of

audio coding An audio coding format (or sometimes audio compression format) is a content representation format for storage or transmission of digital audio (such as in digital television, digital radio and in audio and video files). Examples of audio coding f ...

, the perception measurement, the

wave field synthesis Wave field synthesis (WFS) is a spatial audio rendering technique, characterized by creation of virtual acoustic space, acoustic environments. It produces ''artificial'' wavefronts synthesized by a large number of individually driven loudspeake ...

and

psychoacoustics Psychoacoustics is the branch of psychophysics involving the scientific study of sound perception and audiology—how humans perceive various sounds. More specifically, it is the branch of science studying the psychological responses associated wit ...

. Brandenburg has received numerous national and international research awards, prizes and honors for his work. Since 2000 he has been a professor of electronic media technology at the Technical University Ilmenau. Brandenburg was significantly involved in the founding of the

Fraunhofer Institute The Fraunhofer Society (german: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., lit=Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) is a German research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany ...

for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) and currently serves as its director. Brandenburg has been called the "father of the MP3" format.

Biography

Brandenburg received a Dipl. Ing. degree from

Erlangen University Erlangen (; East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 116,062 inhabi ...

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

(1980) as well as a Dipl. Math. degree in

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

(1982). In 1989, he obtained his PhD from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in Electrical Engineering for his work on digital audio coding and perceptual measurement techniques. Brandenburg's PhD advisor was Professor Dieter Seitzer, an expert in psychoacoustics. In the early 1980s, Seitzer had a pet project that he called a "digital jukebox." He envisioned a system where people could connect to a central server and hear music on demand over ISDN phone lines. But the bandwidth of ISDN is an order of magnitude too narrow for transmission of CD-quality digital audio. A standard compact disc uses linear pulse code modulation (PCM) with 16 bits per sample per channel, at 44,100 samples per second. This means that it takes about 1.4 million bits to encode a single second of stereo audio. To send music over ISDN at playback speed, Seitzer would need to compress the file down by a factor of almost 12-to-1. Seitzer had applied for a patent on his pet project, but his application was rejected on the grounds that what he was trying to do was "impossible." Seitzer assigned Brandenburg the task of investigating the feasibility of 12-to-1 audio compression. At first Brandenburg thought that the patent examiner was right, but as he studied the matter further he began to realize that the needed degree of compression might be possible. The research results of his dissertation are the basis of MPEG-1 Layer 3 (mp3), MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and most other modern audio compression schemes. The international group

MPEG The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...

, led by the Italian engineer

Leonardo Chiariglione Leonardo Chiariglione () (born 30 January 1943 (age ) in Almese, Turin province, Piedmont, Italy) is an Italian engineer who has led the development of international technical standards for digital media. In particular, he was the chairman of t ...

from

CSELT Centro Studi e Laboratori Telecomunicazioni (CSELT) was an Italian research center for telecommunication based in Torino, the biggest in Italy and one of the most important in Europe. It played a major role internationally especially in the stand ...

(that promoted the standard and validated it), took mp3 as an international

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

standard. From 1989 to 1990 he worked with

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

Murray Hill, New Jersey Murray Hill is an unincorporated community located within portions of both Berkeley Heights and New Providence, located in Union County in northern New Jersey, United States. It is the longtime central location of Bell Labs (part of Nokia si ...

, U.S. on ASPEC and MPEG-1 Layer 3. In 1990, he returned to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and, in 1993, he became head of the Audio/Multimedia department at the

for Integrated Circuits in Erlangen. Since 2000, he has been full professor at the Institute for Media Technology at

Technical University of Ilmenau Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

. In addition, he is the director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Ilmenau. Brandenburg is a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products ...

(AES) along with Josh Andreason, and Abraham White. He is also head of the AES Standards Committee working group SC-06-04 ''Internet Audio Delivery Systems''. He has been granted 27 US patents as a co-inventor; all patents have multiple inventors.

Awards

2015: *Technology Award of the Eduard Rhein Foundation (together with Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Grill and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Herre) 2014: *IMTC Leadership Award for his contribution to audio coding and the standardization of the mp3 format (together with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Edler) *Honorary PhD degree of the Polytechnic University of Valencia for the development and dissemination of modern techniques for digital audio coding, perceptual measurement, and psychoacoustics *Election into the Internet Hall of Fame as an innovator because of his important role in developing the mp3 format and the impact on this development to advance the Internet´s reach by the Internet Society (ISOC) *AES Board of Governors Award in recognition of his co-chairing the 53rd AES International Conference 2011 *"Distinguished Heyser memorial lecturer" at AES 130th Convention *AES Board of Governors Award in recognition of co-chairing the AES 42nd International Conference 2009 *Honorary PhD degree of the Leuphana University of Lüneburg for his important role in the development of the mp3 format and his research work in the field of audio coding *Election into the "German Research Hall of Fame" initiated by the German business journal "manager magazin" for his outstanding contributions to the development of Germany as a research location *Ambassador of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 2008 *Honorary PhD degree of the University Koblenz-Landau for his outstanding research work in the field of audio coding 2007 *Election into the "CE Hall of Fame" of the Consumer Electronics Association CEA for the development and dissemination of the mp3 format (together with Prof. Dieter Seitzer and Prof. Heinz Gerhäuser) 2006 *Election into the "Hall of Fame" of the 120 most important inventors and masterminds in the field of electrical engineering featuring the leading inventors, scientists and standardizers by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) *Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 2004 *IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for major contributions to digital audio source coding *Thuringian Research Prize 2003, category "Applied Research" (together with Dr.-Ing. Sandra Brix and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Sporer) *Sputnik Innovator Award – Award for visionaries of digital transformation in the entertainment industry 2003 *Publications Award of the Audio Engineering Society AES for the best paper of the year 2000/2001; "PEAQ – the ITU Standard for the Objective Measurement of Perceived Audio Quality", (together with John G. Beerends, Roland Bitto, Catherine Colomes, Bernhard Feiten, Michael Keyhl, Christian Schmidmer, Dr.-Ing. Thomas Sporer, Gerhard Stoll, Thilo Thiede, William C. Treurniet) 2002 *ISO/IEC 13818-7: 1997-Award / Information Technology – Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information – Part 7: Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (together with Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Grill, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Herre, Ralph Sperschneider), ISO/IEC Certificate of Appreciation (Project Editor in the development of International Standard) for works on MPEG-2 AAC 2001 *German Internet Award NEO for the decisive development, standardization and successful marketing of the data format MPEG Layer-3 (mp3) 2000 *IEEE Engineering Excellence Award – The Region 10th Chapters of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society *AES Board of Governors Award for co-chairmanship of the AES 17th International Conference *Deutscher Zukunftspreis, Preis des Bundespräsidenten für Technik und Innovation (together with Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Grill and Harald Popp) 1998 *Silver Medal Award of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) for continued contributions and leadership to the art and science of perceptual audio coding 1996 *Bavarian Innovation Award: Recognition by the Bavarian State Government 1994 *AES Fellowship Award for significant work in perceptual audio coders and psychoacoustics

References

External links

Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT)Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS)Information of the IIS about the German Future Award 2000Institute for Media Technology of the TU IlmenauIEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics AwardGerman Future Award
*

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

br>Video Interviews with Karlheinz Brandenburg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandenburg, Karlheinz 1954 births Living people 20th-century German inventors German audio engineers University of Erlangen-Nuremberg alumni People from Erlangen Academic staff of Technische Universität Ilmenau

Biography

Awards

See also

References

External links