Peter Doodson, designer of the CD Jewel Case, also created the Push Package for Digital Compact Cassette during his career at Philips. In this interview he also discusses his conceptual design of a new portable DCC player.
A Concept for a Portable DCC Player which might use Present Day Technology
Basic premise is that pre-recorded and packaged DCC cassettes might have timeless universal appeal as personal desirable collectible items.
Giving pride of ownership in a physical sound carrier with aesthetic, tech and tactile qualities.
For sound extraction, the actual cassette might slide into the player unit in a way which echoes the concept of the push-package - it could then be lowered (powered or manual) onto the drive hubs/capstans ready to play. The cassette artwork would remain fully visible.
Operation would be by means of an e-ink touch screen with permanently visible control graphics.
The cassette could be played multiple times with the user listening conventionally via Bluetooth linked equipment. Or alternatively, the cassette could be played just once only, enabling the digital content to be downloaded or ‘dumped’ (without quality loss) onto inbuilt SSD capacity within the player. (Thanks to Albert Balendran for this concept)
The SSD capacity could be built within a removable part of the player - a control stick element - that would also contain the battery, the Bluetooth electronics and the e-ink controls.
This music file storage capacity could be many gigabytes in size enabling many cassette downloads to be easily stored within the control stick to satisfy every day listening requirements.
The original cassettes could then be archived, displayed at home or just kept as backups.
The removable control stick/bluetooth/power/SSD element could slip easily into a pocket or handbag and communicate as desired with Bluetooth headphones and powered speakers, etc., when on the move.
Player dimensions anticipated to be approximately 9 x 11 x 2cms.
Peter Doodson July 2019