They touch upon two important concepts: (1) indexing (necessary to locate documents and pages; (2) retrieving a document goes into a buffer so others can retrieve the same document without failure. This leads one down the path that you can produce more than one “original” document.
I worked for Ampex during 1967-1969. For Videofile engineering and manufacturing, we had a separate operation in a leased building in Sunnyvale, CA, where Ampex employed about (200). The operation was like a huge job shop for these customized systems. Orders cost from ½ million up to 7 million in 1969 dollars. Key customers included Southern Pacific (waybill storage) and the FBI (fingerprinting). There was nothing like it. Computers in isolated in data centers provided alpha-numeric output but not images.
This is really fascinating! I do something similar with my bills, and other such business correspondence. I just don't have the room on my desk for a large mass of papers that get all mixed up. I have an all-in-one that scans in my documents, and copies as needed. I have a Windows desktop PC that retrieves the documents, displays them on screen, and prints them. Then, I have a FreeBSD based file server that holds all the documents on a ZFS dataset that automatically saves two copies, that's on a mirrored zvol, that is then regularly backed up on another mirrored zvol. Pretty neat. Yet back in 1969, they didn't have the memory space, nor the storage space to do it on the computers of their time, and yet that didn't stop them! Very fascinating!
5:33 Two examples of the Eames PSCC-4 Task Char (shell chair). An absolute classic mid-century design often seen in many old photos of computer rooms from the 1960s. Restored ones today command very high prices.
Holy crap! Never ever heard of this! I remember Wang Labs introduced something similar to this in the mid-80s but with networked PCs. It was even advertised on television commercials. Seem to remember it was too far ahead of its time and didn’t succeed..
Ah! I recognize that address of 401 Broadway, Redwood City, California; just south of San Francisco. Oddly enough, in the 1950s through the 70s, AMPEX maintained a low-profile of itself in the region; as I grew up nearby in the 1950s ~ 60s, with my grandparents living in Redwood City during that time. Remarkable about the innovations AMPEX brought to recording technologies, but those accomplishments were, to the best of my knowledge, never heralded in the local press in the 1960s as I became of age. We all had an awareness of AMPEX's existence in Redwood City, but didn't pay any mind to it. The municipality of Redwood City, that was the HQ for AMPEX, was back then [even though it was the county seat], a middle class community with a dismal downtown retailing corridor . . . it seemed impoverished when compared to nearby communities of San Carlos, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto.
Questions: The Videofile Information System by AMPEX was quite unique! If anyone has additional information to share, that would be great. Does anyone know -> how many systems were sold in total? When was the last system sold? When was the last system taken off line? Thanks! ~ Victor
Google Translate says: "I'm Japanese, but I feel very nostalgic, in a machine, a card lidar sorter, a paper tape reader, a CPU, other equipment, NASA, a control room, etc. I was involved in development, rocket launch, and tracking work, and after that I was in charge of computer development and maintenance. Thank you for the video." --- thank you for your kind words and glad you found our channel! ~ Victor, at CHAP
7:18 "The digital memories of computers are not the answer either...an impractical amount of expensive memory storage capacity would be required to store the contents of documents in coded digital format. Nor do computers permit storage of actual document images". WOW! I was born 3 years after this film was produced, and while I have a concept of a time when document images may have been impractical, I have NO concept of a time when digital document storage was impractical...it was almost unbelievable to hear these words spoken in this film....and yet, there they are...
assume the offensive cost was the real killer of these systems, since they basically invented the paperless office a good 30 years before it was attempted again
Its an interesting concept. I wonder what resolution those still frame video "files" ran at. I cant imagine a A4 page would look nice if stored at 525lines (although I think quadruplex offers only ~400lines).. Also id hate to think how much video head/tape wear happens as those quadruplex video systems require quite a bit of maintenance
Is there any chance that it could be digital and not depend on arbitrary TV resolution, or did I miss any mention of it? Woudn't you just hate to have your document page mangled because tape shed, or became chewed, and it was recorded in analogue fashion with no error correction? :D
@@Frisenette True, but as with any business seeking to invest in such an expensive system there would be heavy use on the system by multiple people thru-out the day, all week, with all those 'only per retrievals' it will quickly add up. a normal 2inch quadruplex video tape of that era had a limited life read/write life as well before the oxide coating was removed
@@ZXRulezzz Yep I wonder if you could tell your boss " Im sorry boss but the machine ate my work" XD I tend to think they would have told us if it was a digital system even if it was a marketing buzzword. I could stand to be corrected but I don't think full page digital storage and retrieval was possible in 1969 because of a combination of Page digitization technology, RAM/BUFFER costs/sizes, computer speeds, and that the first suitable printer wasn't made until Xerox invented the first laser printer in 1973 or the Xerox Alto that offered the first WYSIWYG display also in 1973
Well analogue video doesn't mean 525 lines. The limits of an analogue system mostly lie in the video bandwidth you have. Quadruplex, particularly in it's PAL version could easily store 5 MHz of bandwidth, later variants could store even more. This is about 10 Megapixels per second. Since you only reproduce still images, there is little need to store 50 fields per second. Imagine you'd only store 10 frames per second, that gives you 1 Megapixel per frame, roughly what you need for a page. (Yes they aren't pixels as such, however thinking in pixels was done even back then) What you then need is something to refresh your screen. Using the right phosphors you might only have to refresh 10 times per second, but you still need to do it for a steady image. This was done by something that was essentially a harddisk. It rotated once per frame so any frame stored onto it would be repeated over and over again. Those machines were also used for slow-mo effects on video. Obviously the wear on those disks would be a really big problem. ua-cam.com/video/WrH1T7FwE7U/v-deo.html
Yikes, my take away from this was they went from a room full of employed people with a bunch of paper to file to just two women and a computer. Our phones and computers really are the problem. We really have been replaced by automation and we wonder why it’s so hard to purchase a home and live off of a single income with a family, the bigger question is why nobody thinks about all that extra money these companies save replacing all that labor. How are they still using the excuse that they can’t afford to pay a livable wage?
Wow. You'd think these would be everywhere. But then I saw how much they cost. Speaking of which, at 16:50 I think you left off a zero on the bottom line. It reads $23. LOL.
Hi Alex, it would have been interested if they carried this system development further. They were a great company! Thanks for your visit to our channel! ~ Victor
Oh My GOD !! ... Was the digital image scanning back to 60's ??... How could they store that pile of data in computer memories at that time while we have memories of Giga bytes now but not enough ??
no, not digital copies. specifically stated that the copies are not digital, but actually scanned onto video tape, then shown on screen using a memory buffer
To think that every on of these machines including the furniture, cabinets, and electronics is still with us - most likely buried in a landfill where it will remain for thousands of years to come. Plastics, formica, and other man made materials do not go away on their own. They just get a little smaller as they break up, the heavy metals, and pcb's used in the electronics probably leaked out into the ocean floor where crabs, lobsters, and the like feed
They touch upon two important concepts: (1) indexing (necessary to locate documents and pages; (2) retrieving a document goes into a buffer so others can retrieve the same document without failure. This leads one down the path that you can produce more than one “original” document.
William, good points! Thank you.
I worked for Ampex during 1967-1969. For Videofile engineering and manufacturing, we had a separate operation in a leased building in Sunnyvale, CA, where Ampex employed about (200).
The operation was like a huge job shop for these customized systems. Orders cost from ½ million up to 7 million in 1969 dollars. Key customers included Southern Pacific (waybill storage) and the FBI (fingerprinting).
There was nothing like it. Computers in isolated in data centers provided alpha-numeric output but not images.
Do you recall what they used for the digital control? Was it a commercial mainframe?, or did Ampex build their own?
Wow. Expensive. It looks amazing for the time.
So kinda like a PDF before computers, very interesting to watch.
All recording masters during that time (like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody") was recorded and mastered on Ampex tapes.
Fantastic invention of the day! Resembles our modern computers, scanners and printers!
Seriously. Every organisation needs this!
Amazing how they had this tech back in 1969 but did not catch on till the PC.
This is really fascinating!
I do something similar with my bills, and other such business correspondence. I just don't have the room on my desk for a large mass of papers that get all mixed up. I have an all-in-one that scans in my documents, and copies as needed. I have a Windows desktop PC that retrieves the documents, displays them on screen, and prints them. Then, I have a FreeBSD based file server that holds all the documents on a ZFS dataset that automatically saves two copies, that's on a mirrored zvol, that is then regularly backed up on another mirrored zvol. Pretty neat. Yet back in 1969, they didn't have the memory space, nor the storage space to do it on the computers of their time, and yet that didn't stop them! Very fascinating!
5:33 Two examples of the Eames PSCC-4 Task Char (shell chair). An absolute classic mid-century design often seen in many old photos of computer rooms from the 1960s. Restored ones today command very high prices.
The future looks so promising, so organized, so easy, efficient and clean.
Holy crap! Never ever heard of this! I remember Wang Labs introduced something similar to this in the mid-80s but with networked PCs.
It was even advertised on television commercials. Seem to remember it was too far ahead of its time and didn’t succeed..
This was essentially the grandfather of all modern MAM (media asset management) systems.
This is a gem! Greetings from Chile.
Ah! I recognize that address of 401 Broadway, Redwood City, California; just south of San Francisco.
Oddly enough, in the 1950s through the 70s, AMPEX maintained a low-profile of itself in the region; as I grew up nearby in the 1950s ~ 60s, with my grandparents living in Redwood City during that time.
Remarkable about the innovations AMPEX brought to recording technologies, but those accomplishments were, to the best of my knowledge, never heralded in the local press in the 1960s as I became of age.
We all had an awareness of AMPEX's existence in Redwood City, but didn't pay any mind to it.
The municipality of Redwood City, that was the HQ for AMPEX, was back then [even though it was the county seat], a middle class community with a dismal downtown retailing corridor . . . it seemed impoverished when compared to nearby communities of San Carlos, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto.
I wish I had pictures on my digital mainframe in my guest house. If only one day...
2:46 2:47 2:48 2:49 2:50 2:51 2:52 2:53 2:54 2:55 2:56 2:57 2:58 2:59 When I pass every subway station on the Korean subway, I hear this song occasionally.
Questions: The Videofile Information System by AMPEX was quite unique! If anyone has additional information to share, that would be great. Does anyone know -> how many systems were sold in total? When was the last system sold? When was the last system taken off line? Thanks! ~ Victor
dzonikg, Thanks!
Hi arnechino, that's pretty amazing.
any clue why this technology never caught on majorly? I would of thought many companies would of wanted to incorporate it.
私は日本人ですが、とてもなつかしい、機械、の中に、カードリダーのソーター、紙テープリーダー、CPU、その他、装置、NASA、コントロール室、など大変なつかしく、感じられます、私も、日本で、宇宙開発、ロケット打ち上げ、および、追跡関係の仕事をしていました、その後はコンピューターの開発、および、保守を担当して、おり、アメリカとうの、技術者に教わり、大変お世話になりました、なつかしい、動画を、ありがとうございました。
Google Translate says: "I'm Japanese, but I feel very nostalgic, in a machine, a card lidar sorter, a paper tape reader, a CPU, other equipment, NASA, a control room, etc. I was involved in development, rocket launch, and tracking work, and after that I was in charge of computer development and maintenance. Thank you for the video." --- thank you for your kind words and glad you found our channel! ~ Victor, at CHAP
Nickel Cobalt VD Buffer? Wow! Like to know more about that.
Also twice TV quality = HD?
7:18 "The digital memories of computers are not the answer either...an impractical amount of expensive memory storage capacity would be required to store the contents of documents in coded digital format. Nor do computers permit storage of actual document images". WOW! I was born 3 years after this film was produced, and while I have a concept of a time when document images may have been impractical, I have NO concept of a time when digital document storage was impractical...it was almost unbelievable to hear these words spoken in this film....and yet, there they are...
Wow this was ahead off time..probably cost a fortune
Hi dzonikg, yes, between $1 million and $3 million per total system (in 1969). Today, it would be around $20 million. ~ Victor
assume the offensive cost was the real killer of these systems, since they basically invented the paperless office a good 30 years before it was attempted again
Its an interesting concept. I wonder what resolution those still frame video "files" ran at. I cant imagine a A4 page would look nice if stored at 525lines (although I think quadruplex offers only ~400lines).. Also id hate to think how much video head/tape wear happens as those quadruplex video systems require quite a bit of maintenance
There was a flying head buffer implemented, as said in the film. So wear was only per retrieval.
Is there any chance that it could be digital and not depend on arbitrary TV resolution, or did I miss any mention of it?
Woudn't you just hate to have your document page mangled because tape shed, or became chewed, and it was recorded in analogue fashion with no error correction? :D
@@Frisenette True, but as with any business seeking to invest in such an expensive system there would be heavy use on the system by multiple people thru-out the day, all week, with all those 'only per retrievals' it will quickly add up. a normal 2inch quadruplex video tape of that era had a limited life read/write life as well before the oxide coating was removed
@@ZXRulezzz Yep I wonder if you could tell your boss " Im sorry boss but the machine ate my work" XD I tend to think they would have told us if it was a digital system even if it was a marketing buzzword.
I could stand to be corrected but I don't think full page digital storage and retrieval was possible in 1969 because of a combination of Page digitization technology, RAM/BUFFER costs/sizes, computer speeds, and that the first suitable printer wasn't made until Xerox invented the first laser printer in 1973 or the Xerox Alto that offered the first WYSIWYG display also in 1973
Well analogue video doesn't mean 525 lines. The limits of an analogue system mostly lie in the video bandwidth you have. Quadruplex, particularly in it's PAL version could easily store 5 MHz of bandwidth, later variants could store even more. This is about 10 Megapixels per second. Since you only reproduce still images, there is little need to store 50 fields per second. Imagine you'd only store 10 frames per second, that gives you 1 Megapixel per frame, roughly what you need for a page. (Yes they aren't pixels as such, however thinking in pixels was done even back then)
What you then need is something to refresh your screen. Using the right phosphors you might only have to refresh 10 times per second, but you still need to do it for a steady image. This was done by something that was essentially a harddisk. It rotated once per frame so any frame stored onto it would be repeated over and over again. Those machines were also used for slow-mo effects on video.
Obviously the wear on those disks would be a really big problem.
ua-cam.com/video/WrH1T7FwE7U/v-deo.html
Never knew about this. It was cool.
Hi Thomas, actually, we never heard of it either, until this info was found during research. An interesting system! ~
Yikes, my take away from this was they went from a room full of employed people with a bunch of paper to file to just two women and a computer. Our phones and computers really are the problem. We really have been replaced by automation and we wonder why it’s so hard to purchase a home and live off of a single income with a family, the bigger question is why nobody thinks about all that extra money these companies save replacing all that labor. How are they still using the excuse that they can’t afford to pay a livable wage?
Automation is simultaneously the problem and the solution. I feel this is something everyone will come to understand soon enough.
Wow. You'd think these would be everywhere. But then I saw how much they cost. Speaking of which, at 16:50 I think you left off a zero on the bottom line. It reads $23. LOL.
Franko Walker, (oops, yes, a typo, thanks)...~ CHAP
Stores millions of documents? Really? A million files is a heck of a lot to have on a modern PC.
avg size of 1 word file = 321kb (source google)
so, 1 million files = 306GB
Really? I just checked, and I have a little over 3 million files on my PC....
Looks like they didn't develop this technology.It was first and last effort to create video document management system.
Hi Alex, it would have been interested if they carried this system development further. They were a great company!
Thanks for your visit to our channel! ~ Victor
6:47 I would like to have one of those machines
Oh My GOD !! ... Was the digital image scanning back to 60's ??... How could they store that pile of data in computer memories at that time while we have memories of Giga bytes now but not enough ??
no, not digital copies. specifically stated that the copies are not digital, but actually scanned onto video tape, then shown on screen using a memory buffer
To think that every on of these machines including the furniture, cabinets, and electronics is still with us - most likely buried in a landfill where it will remain for thousands of years to come. Plastics, formica, and other man made materials do not go away on their own. They just get a little smaller as they break up, the heavy metals, and pcb's used in the electronics probably leaked out into the ocean floor where crabs, lobsters, and the like feed
When exactly were the pleasant attractive young women replaced with unpleasant neck-beard men ? the good ole days !