Wim van Bussel is a dutch journalist who has written several technical books about all kinds of electronics, inclusing hi-fi audio, photography, video formats and also CD-i. It gives a basic overview what the system is about and what you can do with it. It's full of details and I just found out it is still available at out local library (they preserve history quite well with keeping this book into their database). While browsing through more articles by Wim van Bussel, I found out his visits to
Firato. Firato was a dutch exposition about audio and video innovations in the industry and it was organized in the Amsterdam RAI. The exposition was first held in the 1950 and ended in 1996. CD-i was introduced at the Firato by Philips in 1992: CD-i made a huge appearance, together with other new innovations like DCC by Philips and MiniDisc by Sony.
![]() |
| The Firato exposition in Amsterdam RAI, where CD-i was introduced in 1992 |
Wim van Bussel made an overview of the branche to guide the next organizations of the Firato exposition. I guess, next to the 'Customer Days' in the Evoluon, this was the biggest CD-i demonstration in The Netherlands. Wim van Bussel was always objective but also always positive about the CD-i format. It could have been the next big thing, continuing the success of color television, cassette tapes and compact discs in general. I'm sure Philips was always happy with the reports and books by Wim van Bussel, although even for Firato, the innovations in electronics were not bright enough anymore after 1995 to keep the popularity as high as it was in 1992. This might have been the heydays for consumer electronics, and Wim van Bussel was part of it :)
[Thanks, Wim van Bussel]
