Picocassette is an audio storage medium introduced by
Dictaphone in collaboration with
JVC
JVC (short for Japan Victor Company) is a Japanese brand owned by JVCKenwood corporation. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as , the company is best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for ...
in 1985.
The Picocassette was introduced to compete with the
Microcassette
The Microcassette (often written generically as microcassette) is an audio storage medium, introduced by Olympus in 1969.
It has the same width of magnetic tape as the Compact Cassette but in a cassette roughly one quarter the size. By using t ...
, introduced by
Olympus
Olympus or Olympos ( grc, Ὄλυμπος, link=no) may refer to:
Mountains
In antiquity
Greece
* Mount Olympus in Thessaly, northern Greece, the home of the twelve gods of Olympus in Greek mythology
* Mount Olympus (Lesvos), located in Le ...
, and the
Mini-Cassette
The Mini-Cassette, often written minicassette, is a magnetic tape audio cassette format introduced by Philips in 1967.
It is used primarily in dictation machines and was also employed as a data storage for the Philips P2000 home computer. As ...
, by
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
.
Size
It is approximately half the size of the previous
Microcassette
The Microcassette (often written generically as microcassette) is an audio storage medium, introduced by Olympus in 1969.
It has the same width of magnetic tape as the Compact Cassette but in a cassette roughly one quarter the size. By using t ...
, and was intended for highly portable
dictation devices. With a tape speed of 9 millimeters per second, each cassette could hold up to 60 minutes of dictation,
Technology: The Tiniest Tape Ever
May 27, 1985, '' Time.com'', Retrieved 2010-04-06 30 minutes per side. The signal-to-noise ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N) is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. SNR is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power, often expressed in de ...
was 35 dB. The widest dimension of the picocassette was near 4.2 cm.
See also
* Microcassette
The Microcassette (often written generically as microcassette) is an audio storage medium, introduced by Olympus in 1969.
It has the same width of magnetic tape as the Compact Cassette but in a cassette roughly one quarter the size. By using t ...
* Mini-Cassette
The Mini-Cassette, often written minicassette, is a magnetic tape audio cassette format introduced by Philips in 1967.
It is used primarily in dictation machines and was also employed as a data storage for the Philips P2000 home computer. As ...
* NT (cassette)
NT is a digital memo recording system introduced by Sony in 1992, sometimes marketed under the name Scoopman.
The NT system was introduced to compete with the Microcassette, introduced by Olympus, and the Mini-Cassette, by Philips.
Descri ...
References
External links
Image of a Picocassette
(including ruler and Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otte ...
for comparison), at th
Cassette Recorder Museum
* Techmoan
Matthew "Mat" Taylor, better known by his channel's name Techmoan, is a YouTuber and blogger active since May 2009, featuring consumer tech reviews and retrotech documentaries about technology of historical interest.
Apart from reviews and t ...
The Picocassette - Smallest Analogue Cassette Tape ever made
Audio storage
Audiovisual introductions in 1985
Tape recording
Products introduced in 1985
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