I went to school at Ampex for the VPR2 and other Ampex products--Timebase Correctors, Switchers etc, in Redwood City. Replacing a head drum, adjusting AST (automatic scan track for guard-band free playback required real knowledge and skill. Now I work with engineers who power-cycle a Video Server and think they're a genius.
My first video machine was an Ampex VR-1500 i bought from a electronics junk shop in London in 1975 for £60. 2 inch wide tape on 12.5 inch spools. Helical scan. Worked fine and recorded a few tv programmes to watch later. This was long before VHS came to the UK. I later went on to operate Ampex AVR-2 Quad machines and VPR-2 helical scan at Thames television in the early 80's. Fascinating video.
I agree. Vertical Helical Scan made video recording a household word. But I must add that Japanese manufacturers such as JVC made a significant contribution by mounting the head at an angle to eliminate the staggered reels, making video cassettes possible. The rotating head (drum) on the first helical machines was absolutely perpendicular to the chassis, so the tape wound up around it creating a higher elevation for the take-up reel. I'm still running videotape to this day.
We ate clam chowder after the interview in Oceano, California and stayed overnight in a community guest house at his property. He and his wife are awesome and lovely people!
Thank you for documenting this wonderful man's contribution. His generation of inventors laid the foundations we all build on today. I had the privilege of meeting Harold Lindsey (Jim mentions him as Alex's chief engineer) and listened to his stories about the creation of the first magnetic tape recorders. It's humbling to hear these men talk
This is the way things work. When I was growing up in Montana in the mid 60's my Dad worked for a local TV station on Saturday nights. We could go down to the station and watch him broadcast live the sports for the day. I remember they had an Ampex 2in video tape machine. It was magical to watch. The irony was that on the other side if the wall the Ampex machine was on was the film processing lab for 16mm film. The tape was replacing the film. I loved walking into the studio because when the door closed you heard absolutely nothing. No fan noise, no AC noise, no lighting equipment noise, SILENCE.
I operated Ampex 1000 and then we upgraded to 2000B vtr machines... excellent machines but the proc amp suffered from heat and needed cooling down as the broad pulses came and went in the vertical interval. The eagle-eyed engineers at the other companies would tell us our output was non-standard and we would tell them the problem that we had pulled out the tray to cool down. 31.01 shows the proc amp, .. on the LHS under the two trays with meters. Interesting video...thanks.
Ampex developed the technology and their patents brought in the revenue. Ampex granted licencing agreements to RCA so they could bring "Mr Sarnoff's dream" to reality...clumsy as it might be. Ampex even had a copyright on the word "videotape" forcing RCA to refer to their attempt as a "television recorder". AMPEX RULES
It's always nice to hear the stories of the people behind the invention of things. An environment where curiosity and freedom is encouraged seems to be a common denominator behind the impactful inventions. Thanks for making this vid. I enjoyed watching it. Cheers!✌️️😊🇨🇦
Fascinating. In 1965 I worked for the BBC in Evesham England, and we used those 2 inch , vacuum tent machines. As I remember, they required a 1/2 horse power motor, just to drive the take up spool ! Certainly revived some memories
Fascinating stuff. So many other companies including the BBC were trying to develop a video recorder using linear tape recording. It was a dead end. The Quadruplex recorder was a great invention. All credit to these pioneers.
I remember seeing those giant bbc stainless steel recording reel that were used to record radio shows. It is good they were around to preserve old time radio broadcasts.
It was an amazing time to be in the Silicon Valley in the late 1970s. Farmers and apricot groves mixed in with chip fab labs and computer companies. I met so many interesting people.
I love this. I have been in TV long enough to have learned how to razor blade edit a 2" quad tape. Now everything's computers and I run more Cat6 and fiber than coax. Ah, how things change. Good on ya, Jim, cheers.
I was tired and getting to bed when I found this, hung on every word! (If I heard correctly, he served in Korea, as did my Dad who would have been 88 today) now I'm wide awake and want more! And all this is because I bought an Ampex 1100 series stereo tape deck at auction! Strange are the circles we travel through!
Ray Dolby(dolby noise reduction) was part of this story too. Bing Crosby was involved in the formation of the company he invested in it as he was very interested in it for recording his radio show,which because of time zones in America had to be put on twice live at different times Bing understandably got fed up with this tape recording was the answer.Glad Dolby got a mention along with Bing. Fascinating video.
2" quads were still around, but on there way out when I started. Worked in Engineering on VR-1200B and 2000, AVR-2. Later VPR-3 1". Thanks for sharing. Jim's generation are the guys who got to tne moon, and we shall not see thier kind again.
Same here. The AVR 2 had a great digital TBC. You could play back the worst recordings which would not play on the 1200-B. I worked at KLCS UHF channel 58 (PBS) Los Angeles from 1984 to 1992. All the PBS stations used 2"Quad at the time, even though the major networks had already switched to 1" C.
Ha ha..Funnily enough the engineers that gave us both tape and got us to the moon were...Er those German engineers eagerly encouraged by Herr Hitler. The Tonschreiber was taken back to the States post war and Bing Crosby bank rolled Ampex to develop the machine so he could record his radio shows...Video followed audio, but it wouldn't have without the original tape technology. Von Braun of course developed the rocket that launched both the Sputnik and more directly the Apollo spacecraft that took us to the moon. I agree though the engineers of that era were extraordinary. In fact that era was possibly the most creative in human history..Music and film too.
@@martinda7446 Well, there's lots of truth in what you say about the Germans, of course, but it wasn't just German rocket scientists who got us to the Moon. They didn't invent the integrated circuit, or the guidance software, or the guidance computer, or the guidance gyro, or the Lunar Module, or its thrusters, or countless other technologies developed by American computer programmers. And all those German rocket scientists: where did they start when attempting their first liquid-fueled rockets that led to the V-2? Robert Goddard, the American who invented, designed and built the first working liquid-fueled rocket. The LM computer's software, its developer and its inner workings are presented very well here, by the way: ua-cam.com/video/B1J2RMorJXM/v-deo.html
@@RapperBC No, it was ONE German rocket scientist who got us to the moon..The same one that convinced Kennedy it was possible and led the programme with his rocket.
While in the Navy back in 1971, I was trained on the Ampex VR1002 vacuum tube 2" quad and the VR1100, the first solid state 2" quad. We used them in the Pilots Landing Aid Television System (PLAT) aboard our aircraft carriers to document flight ops. I served aboard USS Independence CV62. I remember that the 1002 capstan servo circuit was a beast to align and maintain. I also recall that we went through lots of heads! Good times!
I ran three Ampex VR1200 VTR's for 18 hours a day, keeping our small UHF station on the air from 1972-1976 I could unload and cue up the next spot in 16 seconds. It took some doing to get a non standard recording to play. But I always did it. I LOVED those Ampex machines!!!. And the RCA TP77 (I think it was 77) 16mm cine projectors on the film chains I could load up a film in about 15 seconds as well.
I should also mention that I also, simultaneously, would run over to the M/C switcher after loading each spot, and switch all the commercials and program tapes. Plus kept XMTR logs. I was the only person in the building at night or early mornings. Fun times.
VTR 2 was always the program tape VTR 1 and VTR 3 would play three spots during a break. (1,3,1) Rewinding the program tape and cueing up the next program while running three of four spots was always the most demanding. Oh, and of course there were often slide/cart spots, or film spots thrown in the mix. And films instead of VTR programs. I loved my job there. Later, I worked for ABC for 40 years as a studio engineer, and later, a field engineer/microwave/shooter/editor. Loved my job.
I worked as TV engineer is Kyiv since 1976. I remember 'soviet replicas' of AMPEX VTRs named "KADR-3". Video editing was done manually. To synchronize the two VCRs, the technicians braked the reels with their palms ... :) a.d-cd.net/fae4b75s-960.jpg
Kind of surprised that there was no mention of the further development in "Slo-Mo" called the HS-100. That was true freeze frame technology and light-years beyond just stalling a piece of videotape in front of a rotating head. If you have ever opened up an old hard drive from a PC, you would see a miniature version of the platters used in the HS-100. Ampex won an Emmy for it's successful development.
started my career working on ampex 2000 2" quad machines. fun facts: the tape was so heavy it could break your foot, if you dropped a reel. if you were fast forwarding, you couldn't see an image but you could hear the audio. if you hit stop during ff, the tape would spool all over the floor. you slowed the machine in ff down by hitting rew and waiting until it slowed down and was about to reverse direction and then hit stop. i am still working at abc where there is almost no tape machines and sadly very few people have even ever heard of roone arlidge or frank marks. the finest electro mechanical devise that i have ever operated (and i have been doing this for forty years) was an ampex vpr8 with a zeus time base corrector. pure wizardry.
I remember having that Green tweaker (small screwdriver) in my pocket all day when running quad machines for on air playback. You really had to know something about the signal flow through the machine. Guide height/tip penetration. Drum and capstan oscillators. proc amp adjustments. Demod, chroma equalization, etc, etc. They all had to be adjusted for recording and playback. Does anyone remember the stability dots viewed in the hammer head of the vertical interval. Oh my god, so long ago.
I worked on VR-2000 when I started at ABC. Then many years on VPR-2 a&b. Later during 1984 Olympics on VPR-3. Many good memories during my 40 years in broadcasting. The golden years. We were a family!
He sure sounds humble, for someone so smart and capable ! They don't make people like this anymore, for the most part. At 01:45 what is the Donner analog computer?
Thanks for this video. I worked for Philips and we bought the last AVR2 that Ampex built and used it to master the first commercial Videodiscs in Europe before we used their VPR-2Bs and later VPR-3s. I met Ray Dolby too in those days (mid 80s). Our AVR2 had less than 600 hours when it was scrapped, and I think it cost over 100,00 GBP in 1981 - terrible shame as an engineer but not my decision. Ampex was a great company but Sony sold their BVH-2000 C-format VTR for less and that machine was cheaper, more reliable and played "bad" tapes that the Ampex wouldn't. I loved working on both Ampex and Sony equipment (as well as Bosch B format VTRs). Good times!
The VPR 3 with Zeus could playback things the Sony couldn't (including tapes with damaged control track!!). But, it did cost twice what a BVH2000 went for. The closer Ampex model was the VPR 6, which matched the BVH2000 in specs, and was very similar in price. The VPR 2 was a full generation earlier than the BVH2000 and more like the BVH1100 in performance and price. Maintenance costs on the Ampex machines were lower, however, because the Sony machines required changing the entire drum assembly every third head replacement, whereas replacing the heads on the Ampex machines was easier, faster, and cheaper and never required replacing the drum assembly. In truth it was so simple even I could do it!!
@@parkerfilms1 I must have changed at least 50 heads on various Ampex VTRs, but only recall changing one head drum on our BVH2000s. We had ten VPR3s all with Zeus TBCs. We also had four BVH2800s which I think were quite rare, that recorded digital audio in addition to video. Good times!
@@tonythemadbrit9479 The 2800s were indeed very rare! Only place I ever saw one was at a trade show. The problem, as I recall, with the Sony was changing the upper drum required a full alignment, whereas the Ampex was a simple "plug and play". So we always left Sony upper drum replacement to Sony tech support. Still, countless hours editing on VPR2s, 3s, Sony 2000s, 2500s, with various and sundry cassette formats over the years. Blazingly fast, insanely expensive, and using enough electrical power to get a decent sized village through a very cold winter!
@@parkerfilms1 The 2800s were good for glass mastering of NTSC Laserdisc discs with digital audio (PAL Laservision uses a lower FM carrier frequency and there is no "space" in the FM spectrum to add digital audio). There was no need for a separate U-matic based digital audio tape or the necessity to synchronize the two (we used Sony DMR4000s with PCM1630 processors and Adam Smith synchs). The problem was that many of the high-end facility houses working with digital audio already had U-matic based digital audio recorders for making CD master tapes, so they could just add a timecode synchronizer and they had a solution that worked. I'd guess we mastered less than one percent of Laserdisc titles using the 2800s. One final note, we also mastered from B-format VTRs for PAL Laservision.
Remember having the old quad machines when I first started in the business. Had compressors in the basement of our station to supply air to the heads to keep the tape away from the spinning heads. Learned to do tape delay by physically running the tape from one machine to another. Damn important to get the machines in perfect alignment. But we'd record on one and playback on the other. Almost a perfect delay. Still have several 2" tapes from the 70's.
That is not technically correct. The compressed air supply was to supply pressurised air for the air bearings on the shaft of the head motor. There was a small separate vacuum pump for the tape guide.
@@Geebax2 I stand corrected. Since I worked on the production side, I knew enough about the quads to be dangerous, but not everything. I just remember the compressors in the prop room and our tape guy saying it was for the heads. I didn't realize there was a separate vacuum pump. Thanks for the clarification. Miss those big monsters and the talented guys I worked with back in the early 70's.
Alex Maxey was reputed to have an absolutely perfect, but absolutely obscene, name for every part of the quadruplex transport. He and I would have been great friends!
When Jim Wheeler spoke about ABC-TV back in the 1960s have a small viewing audience for the political convention, that was no joke. Back then, it was CBS with Walter Cronkite; and NBC with Huntley & Brinkley as the dominating forces with network TV news. In the 1960s ABC was good with its primetime TV shows and the Saturday afternoon _Wide World of Sports,_ but its news division of that era lagged way behind CBS and NBC.
I worked in sales with Ampex Magnetic Tape division. The 2 inch quad format was winding down and then Ampex started manufacturing 1 inch helical video recorder and play back. Ampex was first manufacturer of VHS format also. I enjoyed being a small part of this industry. So sorry Ampex lost it's way when they were the true pioneers. quad
For all of greatness and convenience of digital, I still stand in AWE of analog video! that ANYONE got all of it to work at all on a mass market scale is amazing enough, Then, coming up to accurately RECORD such a phreaking complex analog signal is pure "voodoo". Yeah, Yeah, don't "explain" to me that my Blu-ray has better resolution, Blah, blah, blah. I get all of that. But understand, Digital is digital. YES, the encoding is complex and is "solved" by sophisticated software. I'm talking about the transmission and recording of video. With any digital encoding, the "ones" are "ones" and the "zeros" are "zeros". If a device can interpret one from another, you're golden. Predictive error correction can fill in the blanks. With analog video, the very slightest thing being "off" will wreck the whole thing. It's flat out AMAZING that recording an analog video that was useable at all was possible, let alone on a box one could get at one time for $50 at Kmart! I'm still more impressed with THAT than my phone being able to shoot HD video! 👍😊👍
ray dolby returned to ampex after a spell in the USAF, iirc, having had to leave their emply when he was drafted. his contribution was vital to VTR, but it was on the math(s) of modulation rather than (as one might expect) anything audio related. in fact, the very first machine didn't have an audio track. dale dolby was with ampex a lot longer, & his skills were a major part in the engineering of the last quad machines, the AVR-2 & so on, & the cart-player, the ACR-25, which made a huge impact on tv advertising & automated playout. his was the vision that gave these machines such rapid lock-up times & ease of use, as his vacuum tape-guides effectively isolated the reels from the headblock
When you think about it, it make sense why Dolby would be the math brains at AMPEX. After all, Dolby NR is basically just a series of fancy LTI transfer functions implemented in electronics
I heard from a local engineer that Ampex sold their proprietary tape noise system patent to Dolby for $1.00 (yes $1.00!!) since they had a new noise reduction system. Look where Ampex is now and look where Dolby Labs is!!! I also grew up in Redwood City.
At Ampex training school in Redwood City the teachers had a very scornful attitude toward 'video cassette', If you mentioned BetaCam or worst yet, 'Umatic (3/4"), they would look at you in scorn. 1" was their high standard and nothing could compare. This attitude caused their demise.
If I could find Replacement Drive Belts for my AMPEX Reel to Reel that don’t cost six times as much as I bought my machine for I would be an AMPEX HAPPY CAMPER.
Ampex also had a 10platter disc drive that, I thought, was adapted to record video on a continuous loop so that it could then he used to do 'instant replays' on live football.
Thinking about this again, it was a 5platter, 10Head Disc Drive (it's been a long time) These 'Washing Machine' sized devices had a whopping 50Mb capacity, as I recall - needed lots on maintenance - would try to start moving across the floor when busy, and would RUD if not poperly looked after.
Fascinating. But that isn't quite the story Ray Dolby tells. His story is that as an intern (on his second stint after National Service, his first was while still at school) he was on the data/instrument recorder team. He was aware of the video recorder team (which may have been the single guy mentioned here) and that it had low or no priority. But they were trying 3 heads on a fast rotating disc with its axis 90degrees to the tape, so the disc is parallel to the tape. It was unstable. So it could be the horse and indian story recounted here. Dolby is 'unofficially' attached to this team and ponders the problem. The next morning, he wakes up having had a dream of how it should be done. 4 Heads spinning with their axis parallel to the tape which is suctioned to a cylinder guide, audio track and sync track recorded by stationary heads at the tape's edges allowing the video signal to occupy the middle stable area well away from the more turbulent fragile edges. Dolby presented this idea and the rest is history etc. Now this may be romantic exaggerated fairy story, but Ray Dolby wasn't given to that kind of hyperbole. Anyone else heard this? Also the story of the presentation to the press and the one and only working reel of tape. The single reel detail was new to me. I heard that the press call went out that Ampex was going to make an announcement. The assembled press gathered in the large hall with TV monitors around the edge carrying live pictures of the stage. An Ampex spokeman comes out and reads out the company's yearly accounts in a dry matter of fact delivery then walks off. The press are bemused. There is no story, no announcement. There is a slight pause, then the monitors start playing his speech again. Hall erupts and the press go to work! Video is born!
Fantastic, and thank you so much. Now, a.tip, if I may - the excessive and gratuitous use of VERY loud, distracting transitions with all that zooming in and out AND the beeping, simply to signify a title with some information... STOP THAT! It is aggravating.and unnecessary, and distracts HUGELY from my concentration, and being able to focus on the story Please don't take this in the wrong.way, but it's extremely frivolous and I'd recommend editing this out entirely, and uploading again.without all that. Thanks.again. GOd.bless you
I appreciate your honesty. Can't edit those out after it's been uploaded. The style was popular in the day and it is what it is! Think of the style as an antique like the content :)
I used to build and rebuilt AR700, AR1700 airborne recorders, FR2000, FR3000 and FR3030 instrumentation recorders. And finally ATR100 pro audio recorders. AMPEX......Nothing comes close in the magnetic tape world!
Is Jim wheeler still alive? I corresponded with him some years ago when my In ampex was peaked after seeing the old ampex machines at cbs television city
I worked on every broadcast video tape machime that AMPEX ever made. Hated Helical scan though. Best machines made were the 200B, AVR-1, and ACR-25. His seems to have a lozs of memory at points. The VR-100 was absolutly interchangable with other machines. Also the VR-100 NEVER cut the tape as long as thier was air going to the machine, the compressed air was used for the head bearings, and also the air went trough a venturi to create a vaccumm for the female tape guide. The 2" cideotape was much different from 2' audio tape in the way the magnetic particals are placed on the tape
Throwing this out to Ampex employees - my dad Lou Borne worked as a tech in Redwood City from maybe 1954 or so to approx 1975. Anyone recognize the name?
It was a classic business case, Amplex got into the album business which is entertainment belong to Hollywood. Amplex lost tons of money and can’t produce the VCR. They ended up selling the invention to SONY. Same story with Boston Dynamics, a robotics company which is now owned by SoftBank, a Japanese company does lots business with the Chinese Communist Part. Another story is A123 battery, an invention from MIT with grant from the Dept Of Energy. A123 was subsequently sold to a Chinese company (of course controlled by the CCP). Your BMW electric car is powered by A123 batteries.
Instant replay was actually a product using a big magnetic disk that ran a head back and forth all the time and could be stopped and gave you 3 or 4 seconds of wind back on the fly. I dont know when it came out compared to what this guy is talking about though.
algorithm. My subscriptions are mostly cars, and guns, stand-up features/comedy, and history. Do subscribe to 2 channels which feature old tech, and history/development thereof. This one is well edited, to the point, and pure gold. this gentleman is the real deal. love it.
A good friend of mine had worked for Ampex in the '50s, first in the lab and then became a salesman for them, so of course I'd have to check it out after The Algorithm suggested it (probably from watching so much EEVBlog and Mr. Carlson's Lab). Thanks for making this.
Tubes are not better. The same year Ampex brought its quad to the 1964 convention, Sony came up with the CV-2000, solid state, 46 lbs portable version.
What impresses me most about older tech is that the engineering didn't stop at the interface -- once you learned a piece of equipment you could master it. Today, almost every single invention has a disconnect between the engineering backbone and the interface, so every device you pick up has its own impossible to learn rules and hidden functions. Today it is literally impossible to be a master because the learning curve begins every time you use a new device. The exceptions are obvious -- like Dyson. Overpriced and snooty, yes, but the engineering meets the interface perfectly. There are increasingly more examples as we move away from cheap and move towards quality in manufacturing. Regarding INTERFACES for creative technology: I don't get why the younger engineers think they have to re-invent everything on the interfaces of today's inventions to their own strange notions of convenience. In the editing world, the most obvious example was AVID v. Final Cut Pro v. Premiere. I started using Avid a few years after I witnessed Lucas' Edit Droid on display at USC. It was on display because nobody wanted the expense of burning a bunch of laserdiscs just for non-linear access. Then, George sold it to Avid and 3 years later (around 1995) I leased a $125,000 Avid for my own productions. The skills led me to working on #1 TV shows. Avid was so advanced, I could literally edit so fast I would complete a producer's idea as he was telling me it, and hit "Play". THEN -- Apple allowed hackers to hack Final Cut Pro and everyone got a free copy. It was nowhere near Avid on ANY level. It was capricious, the controls were all compromises and what would take a single keystroke on Avid required endless mouse clicks and effort -- taking the editor out of the creative realm Avid allowed and back into button pushing. Even though FCP was grossly inferior, it was free for most so Avid lost. I faced massive battles at networks who became addicted to FCP. And it was bloody. And it was emotional. And people were fired. I didn't see why people were so afraid of Avid -- until I read the news today and the mentality sort of sinks in. It's about fear and entitlement. The kids using FCP didn't "get" Avid. It wasn't because Final Cut was better, it was because they didn't "get" the infinitely superior Avid. That was justification to use an inferior and slower program. I will never get that level of entitlement and fear-based thinking. I've been making films since 1977 when I was in junior high. I've never understood fear when it comes to creating films. I've never understood choosing the interior product, instead like Jim, I've always just made it work. Current filmmakers are only NOW beginning to develop that same mentality. But those who dominated in the 2000's are guilty of crimes against art by pushing out Avid for the sake of FCP's broken code and cheapness. It's exactly like water color artists who push out acrylics and oil paint because they don't "get it" and the art world acquiescing. That would be insanity, right? Welcome to the world of Non-linear editing. After FCP, the old Premiere rose out of a weird techy program to dominate as it still does today. Today, in fact Premiere has a lot going for it -- more than FCP ever did, but the technology of the interface is a D+ versus Avid's former A+ (if you assigned grades). Premiere would have never had a chance to rise if FCP didn't drown Avid and then couldn't live up the the task. Now Avid is just a legacy screaming about how networks love it to get new users. But they ruined their own interface to compete with the inferior Final Cut Pro. I use Premiere today out of necessity, but it is NOTHING compared to Avid's elegant storytelling where the interface NEVER changed and you never had to think about the technology -- just the storytelling. No matter who I work with on Premiere, and I've worked with the most technology aware Premiere editors, it is NOTHING compared to the old Avid. So much so, that if I had to edit a feature on Premiere v. Avid, I have to allow 3 times more time for the first edit. So, why can Premiere dominate? Because even though I am three times slower on Premiere, I am still 3 times faster than other Premiere editors. It's not that I'm fast, it's that they are slow. And slow has won the NLE game. I still shake my head in disbelief. It only started making sense as the correlations between preferring an inferior editing interface rippled into every other aspect of modern culture. People have strong but fragile egos and the younger set only seems to desire what they can "get" and stand on the shoulder's of giants (like Mr. Wheeler) without even bothering to learn the elders who made their world exist. The days of demanding inferior interfaces that are made up on the fly are hopefully numbered; as A.I. takes over, it will return to a game of brilliance instead of today's game of privilege. Why? The A.I. and personal robots will eliminate the interface and always have the artist in mind. That will hammer the square pegs back into the square holes they belong and again allow the true artists to out-create their competition -- and that will also level the playing fields and allow the return of "master" craftsman and women to creating television. For now, those days are temporarily gone, and you see the result! Lowest TV ratings ever. Lowest box office. As the old school guys like Jim said, "Garbage in, Garbage out." They were referring to signals, but the phrase applies to inferior talent that is making TV and movies because (a) privilege and (b) they don't have the burden of experience screaming at them against the stupid interfaces of today's technology. Without experience, you don't even know what you're missing, and thereby are less of a threat to producers who often live day to day on dreams and delusion. Technology is great, but the INTERFACE is everything because otherwise how artists get access to backbone technology and create great content or master the technology when the interfaces are so inane and random???? One last reminder, not to throw salt at the made in the USA issue, but soon after Ampex's brilliance, Sony and Panasonic dominated and it was almost all Japanese from the early 1980's until the Video Toaster was invented in Kansas. I was friends with Brad Carvey (Dana's brother) and he's the one who turned me onto Avid. Long stories all. Wow, this comment was also long so thanks for reading it all and thanks for watching this video and commenting!
The mechanical assemblies were beautiful too - even up into the 90s. I had a close relationship with the AMPEX guys as a customer on two continents over 25+ years. Great guys. I *almost* worked for them in Golden CO, in the early 90s.
I use to audit the credit union in the early 90's. It was a really sad place, total ghost town. I could walk the halls all day long and not see anyone. I could hear people behind some of the doors but it was pretty quite. The cafeteria was open and it was a scene from a 60's movie. It had room for a couple hundred people but maybe four the the tables were occupied. They had a display case with all the Emmy's they won. I wonder who has those Emmy's now?
@@Redmenace96 AMPEX had a credit union on their campus. If you don't know what a credit union is, it is like a bank. 3rd party people look over the credit union transactions. They are called auditors. The auditors would visit the location and audit their books to make sure they were not stealing from the credit union members. Does that make sense now? I can explain what an audit is too.
I recently found some footage from a 1987 episode of "KET Scholastic Challenge" that had an end credits segment where they showed pictures of every credited crew member at their work station. It's quite interesting
It is a shame that they had to sell their name to inferior tape manufacturers. Ampex's forte was the genius engineering behind making video recording work by understanding the mechanics and electronics to make it happen. Every Ampex part was machined to some insane tolerances. Unfortunately, those high quality parts being made in the US, cost more than the lower budgets of regular TV stations. They never tried, or probably did when it was too late, to make low cost equipment like Sony and Panasonic etc. The maintenance cost for their equipment was just too impractical. Now I look at the extremely low cost of equipment to produce amazing quality, but the programs produced is mostly garbage with the least amount of quality control. All my VTR training and expertise is just null and void. I spend my days power-cycling and pinging. My torque screwdrivers, Tentelometers and eccentricity gauges used to get me funny looks until I just threw them all out. The redundancy we all knew was inevitable--I have no sadness for that. What I never expected, and what does bring sadness, is to watch my present day engineering colleagues was around all day with their heads draped over their phones with no one to discuss ideas and just have intelligent conversations. Sorry for the long-winded and pointless comment.
in a PAL-model VR1200/2000 such as I trained on, we would set the free-run frequency of the drum oscillator by zero-beating it against normal 1kHz tone. each head wrote 5 tracks a field, or in other words, crossed the tape 250 times a second. & because there were four of them, you got 1kHz. the heads wrote in segments of ~15-16 lines each pass. that'd be 15,000 rpm. we got the heads reconditioned by a division of kodak, called themselves 'spin physics', & no wonder! there were decks that ran at 'archival' speed, with modified electronics & especially narrow head-gaps, with a longitudinal speed of 7.5ips instead of 15 ips, but the drum speed was the same for both. in NTSC, the drum-speed was slightly lower- 14,400 or so.
He said 700 revolutions per second. They ran the motor out in the parking lot, it was surrounded with concrete blocks to contain the potential explosion. Quite the adventure I would say.
I think the Germans get credit for the first audio tape recorders, at the end of WWII. About ten or fifteen years before the video recorders from Ampex,
Once you get past the steel tape recorders used by the BBC and others, most people in the industry will agree with you. But Wheeler said B.C.E. tried video too.
I went to school at Ampex for the VPR2 and other Ampex products--Timebase Correctors, Switchers etc, in Redwood City. Replacing a head drum, adjusting AST (automatic scan track for guard-band free playback required real knowledge and skill. Now I work with engineers who power-cycle a Video Server and think they're a genius.
My first video machine was an Ampex VR-1500 i bought from a electronics junk shop in London in 1975 for £60. 2 inch wide tape on 12.5 inch spools. Helical scan. Worked fine and recorded a few tv programmes to watch later. This was long before VHS came to the UK. I later went on to operate Ampex AVR-2 Quad machines and VPR-2 helical scan at Thames television in the early 80's. Fascinating video.
As I sit here watching this on my iPad, I am amazed at what this man and his colleagues accomplished!
So he's the guy who started the VCRs? You sir have made a successful invention and I still use VCRs to this day.
RIP legend!
I agree. Vertical Helical Scan made video recording a household word. But I must add that Japanese manufacturers such as JVC made a significant contribution by mounting the head at an angle to eliminate the staggered reels, making video cassettes possible. The rotating head (drum) on the first helical machines was absolutely perpendicular to the chassis, so the tape wound up around it creating a higher elevation for the take-up reel. I'm still running videotape to this day.
what a humble fellow!
We ate clam chowder after the interview in Oceano, California and stayed overnight in a community guest house at his property. He and his wife are awesome and lovely people!
@@RichardArsenault What a great time you had for sure! Thanks for the video.
Thank you for documenting this wonderful man's contribution. His generation of inventors laid the foundations we all build on today. I had the privilege of meeting Harold Lindsey (Jim mentions him as Alex's chief engineer) and listened to his stories about the creation of the first magnetic tape recorders. It's humbling to hear these men talk
This is the way things work. When I was growing up in Montana in the mid 60's my Dad worked for a local TV station on Saturday nights. We could go down to the station and watch him broadcast live the sports for the day. I remember they had an Ampex 2in video tape machine. It was magical to watch. The irony was that on the other side if the wall the Ampex machine was on was the film processing lab for 16mm film. The tape was replacing the film. I loved walking into the studio because when the door closed you heard absolutely nothing. No fan noise, no AC noise, no lighting equipment noise, SILENCE.
I worked for the magnetic tape division from 1977-1981. Great company! Very fond memories.
I operated Ampex 1000 and then we upgraded to 2000B vtr machines... excellent machines but the proc amp suffered from heat and needed cooling down as the broad pulses came and went in the vertical interval. The eagle-eyed engineers at the other companies would tell us our output was non-standard and we would tell them the problem that we had pulled out the tray to cool down.
31.01 shows the proc amp, .. on the LHS under the two trays with meters.
Interesting video...thanks.
The geniuses behind so many recordings !! They should receive royalties in my opinion
Ampex developed the technology and their patents brought in the revenue. Ampex granted licencing agreements to RCA so they could bring "Mr Sarnoff's dream" to reality...clumsy as it might be. Ampex even had a copyright on the word "videotape" forcing RCA to refer to their attempt as a "television recorder".
AMPEX RULES
Ah, that AMPEX sign along the side of the 101 freeway in Redwood City. Iconic. 😺
It's always nice to hear the stories of the people behind the invention of things. An environment where curiosity and freedom is encouraged seems to be a common denominator behind the impactful inventions. Thanks for making this vid. I enjoyed watching it.
Cheers!✌️️😊🇨🇦
My Grandfather was Vice President of Ampex Charlie Andersen of Los Altos Hills
It is a very small world. I believe my father (alex argendeli) knew your grandfather.
Miss Robyn, did your Grandfather meet Bing Crosby? Or did he become Vice President much later on?
@@gregargendeli2973 Lovely name, Argendeli.
@@gregargendeli2973 q
Fascinating.
In 1965 I worked for the BBC in Evesham England, and we used those 2 inch , vacuum tent machines. As I remember, they required a 1/2 horse power motor, just to drive the take up spool ! Certainly revived some memories
super cool to hear the stories of this pioneer !
Fascinating stuff. So many other companies including the BBC were trying to develop a video recorder using linear tape recording. It was a dead end. The Quadruplex recorder was a great invention. All credit to these pioneers.
The BBC's name "VERA" was lethal as it used metal tape
I remember seeing those giant bbc stainless steel recording reel that were used to record radio shows. It is good they were around to preserve old time radio broadcasts.
It was an amazing time to be in the Silicon Valley in the late 1970s. Farmers and apricot groves mixed in with chip fab labs and computer companies. I met so many interesting people.
I love this. I have been in TV long enough to have learned how to razor blade edit a 2" quad tape. Now everything's computers and I run more Cat6 and fiber than coax. Ah, how things change. Good on ya, Jim, cheers.
I was tired and getting to bed when I found this, hung on every word! (If I heard correctly, he served in Korea, as did my Dad who would have been 88 today) now I'm wide awake and want more! And all this is because I bought an Ampex 1100 series stereo tape deck at auction! Strange are the circles we travel through!
If I recall, the Ampex 1100 series had urethane belts that never stopped stretching, and the tape would stop moving. A product glitch.
My Mom & Dad met there! So i guess you can say I exist because of Ampex :p
Gives whole new meaning to the term "reproduction!"
Ray Dolby(dolby noise reduction) was part of this story too. Bing Crosby was involved in the formation of the company he invested in it as he was very interested in it for recording his radio show,which because of time zones in America had to be put on twice live at different times Bing understandably got fed up with this tape recording was the answer.Glad Dolby got a mention along with Bing. Fascinating video.
This is great. Thanks for sharing!
2" quads were still around, but on there way out when I started. Worked in Engineering on VR-1200B and 2000, AVR-2. Later VPR-3 1". Thanks for sharing. Jim's generation are the guys who got to tne moon, and we shall not see thier kind again.
Same here. The AVR 2 had a great digital TBC. You could play back the worst recordings which would not play on the 1200-B. I worked at KLCS UHF channel 58 (PBS) Los Angeles from 1984 to 1992. All the PBS stations used 2"Quad at the time, even though the major networks had already switched to 1" C.
Last 2" machines I ran were the ACR-25's. Those were also beautiful machines.
Ha ha..Funnily enough the engineers that gave us both tape and got us to the moon were...Er those German engineers eagerly encouraged by Herr Hitler.
The Tonschreiber was taken back to the States post war and Bing Crosby bank rolled Ampex to develop the machine so he could record his radio shows...Video followed audio, but it wouldn't have without the original tape technology. Von Braun of course developed the rocket that launched both the Sputnik and more directly the Apollo spacecraft that took us to the moon.
I agree though the engineers of that era were extraordinary. In fact that era was possibly the most creative in human history..Music and film too.
@@martinda7446 Well, there's lots of truth in what you say about the Germans, of course, but it wasn't just German rocket scientists who got us to the Moon. They didn't invent the integrated circuit, or the guidance software, or the guidance computer, or the guidance gyro, or the Lunar Module, or its thrusters, or countless other technologies developed by American computer programmers.
And all those German rocket scientists: where did they start when attempting their first liquid-fueled rockets that led to the V-2?
Robert Goddard, the American who invented, designed and built the first working liquid-fueled rocket.
The LM computer's software, its developer and its inner workings are presented very well here, by the way: ua-cam.com/video/B1J2RMorJXM/v-deo.html
@@RapperBC No, it was ONE German rocket scientist who got us to the moon..The same one that convinced Kennedy it was possible and led the programme with his rocket.
While in the Navy back in 1971, I was trained on the Ampex VR1002 vacuum tube 2" quad and the VR1100, the first solid state 2" quad. We used them in the Pilots Landing Aid Television System (PLAT) aboard our aircraft carriers to document flight ops. I served aboard USS Independence CV62. I remember that the 1002 capstan servo circuit was a beast to align and maintain. I also recall that we went through lots of heads! Good times!
I ran three Ampex VR1200 VTR's for 18 hours a day, keeping our small UHF station on the air from 1972-1976 I could unload and cue up the next spot in 16 seconds. It took some doing to get a non standard recording to play. But I always did it. I LOVED those Ampex machines!!!. And the RCA TP77 (I think it was 77) 16mm cine projectors on the film chains I could load up a film in about 15 seconds as well.
I should also mention that I also, simultaneously, would run over to the M/C switcher after loading each spot, and switch all the commercials and program tapes. Plus kept XMTR logs. I was the only person in the building at night or early mornings. Fun times.
VTR 2 was always the program tape VTR 1 and VTR 3 would play three spots during a break. (1,3,1) Rewinding the program tape and cueing up the next program while running three of four spots was always the most demanding. Oh, and of course there were often slide/cart spots, or film spots thrown in the mix. And films instead of VTR programs. I loved my job there. Later, I worked for ABC for 40 years as a studio engineer, and later, a field engineer/microwave/shooter/editor. Loved my job.
I worked as TV engineer is Kyiv since 1976. I remember 'soviet replicas' of AMPEX VTRs named "KADR-3".
Video editing was done manually. To synchronize the two VCRs, the technicians braked the reels with their palms ... :)
a.d-cd.net/fae4b75s-960.jpg
Hand braking was used in the BBC as well!
Kind of surprised that there was no mention of the further development in "Slo-Mo" called the HS-100. That was true freeze frame technology and light-years beyond just stalling a piece of videotape in front of a rotating head.
If you have ever opened up an old hard drive from a PC, you would see a miniature version of the platters used in the HS-100. Ampex won an Emmy for it's successful development.
both my parents used to work there in RWC. back in the day.... 1950's-60's... so long ago!
started my career working on ampex 2000 2" quad machines. fun facts: the tape was so heavy it could break your foot, if you dropped a reel. if you were fast forwarding, you couldn't see an image but you could hear the audio. if you hit stop during ff, the tape would spool all over the floor. you slowed the machine in ff down by hitting rew and waiting until it slowed down and was about to reverse direction and then hit stop.
i am still working at abc where there is almost no tape machines and sadly very few people have even ever heard of roone arlidge or frank marks.
the finest electro mechanical devise that i have ever operated (and i have been doing this for forty years) was an ampex vpr8 with a zeus time base corrector. pure wizardry.
For years Ampex was the world standard until Sony introduced a tape in a cassette. This made the machines and the tapes much easier to handle.
I remember having that Green tweaker (small screwdriver) in my pocket all day when running quad machines for on air playback. You really had to know something about the signal flow through the machine. Guide height/tip penetration. Drum and capstan oscillators. proc amp adjustments. Demod, chroma equalization, etc, etc. They all had to be adjusted for recording and playback. Does anyone remember the stability dots viewed in the hammer head of the vertical interval. Oh my god, so long ago.
I worked on VR-2000 when I started at ABC. Then many years on VPR-2 a&b. Later during 1984 Olympics on VPR-3. Many good memories during my 40 years in broadcasting. The golden years. We were a family!
I worked on VTRs back in the early in 1980s for a school system TV STUDIO. Real cool stuff!
Cool guy and really interesting!
He sure sounds humble, for someone so smart and capable ! They don't make people like this anymore, for the most part. At 01:45 what is the Donner analog computer?
Thanks for this video. I worked for Philips and we bought the last AVR2 that Ampex built and used it to master the first commercial Videodiscs in Europe before we used their VPR-2Bs and later VPR-3s. I met Ray Dolby too in those days (mid 80s). Our AVR2 had less than 600 hours when it was scrapped, and I think it cost over 100,00 GBP in 1981 - terrible shame as an engineer but not my decision. Ampex was a great company but Sony sold their BVH-2000 C-format VTR for less and that machine was cheaper, more reliable and played "bad" tapes that the Ampex wouldn't. I loved working on both Ampex and Sony equipment (as well as Bosch B format VTRs). Good times!
The VPR 3 with Zeus could playback things the Sony couldn't (including tapes with damaged control track!!). But, it did cost twice what a BVH2000 went for. The closer Ampex model was the VPR 6, which matched the BVH2000 in specs, and was very similar in price. The VPR 2 was a full generation earlier than the BVH2000 and more like the BVH1100 in performance and price. Maintenance costs on the Ampex machines were lower, however, because the Sony machines required changing the entire drum assembly every third head replacement, whereas replacing the heads on the Ampex machines was easier, faster, and cheaper and never required replacing the drum assembly. In truth it was so simple even I could do it!!
@@parkerfilms1 I must have changed at least 50 heads on various Ampex VTRs, but only recall changing one head drum on our BVH2000s. We had ten VPR3s all with Zeus TBCs. We also had four BVH2800s which I think were quite rare, that recorded digital audio in addition to video. Good times!
@@tonythemadbrit9479 The 2800s were indeed very rare! Only place I ever saw one was at a trade show. The problem, as I recall, with the Sony was changing the upper drum required a full alignment, whereas the Ampex was a simple "plug and play". So we always left Sony upper drum replacement to Sony tech support. Still, countless hours editing on VPR2s, 3s, Sony 2000s, 2500s, with various and sundry cassette formats over the years. Blazingly fast, insanely expensive, and using enough electrical power to get a decent sized village through a very cold winter!
@@parkerfilms1 The 2800s were good for glass mastering of NTSC Laserdisc discs with digital audio (PAL Laservision uses a lower FM carrier frequency and there is no "space" in the FM spectrum to add digital audio). There was no need for a separate U-matic based digital audio tape or the necessity to synchronize the two (we used Sony DMR4000s with PCM1630 processors and Adam Smith synchs). The problem was that many of the high-end facility houses working with digital audio already had U-matic based digital audio recorders for making CD master tapes, so they could just add a timecode synchronizer and they had a solution that worked. I'd guess we mastered less than one percent of Laserdisc titles using the 2800s. One final note, we also mastered from B-format VTRs for PAL Laservision.
Remember having the old quad machines when I first started in the business. Had compressors in the basement of our station to supply air to the heads to keep the tape away from the spinning heads. Learned to do tape delay by physically running the tape from one machine to another. Damn important to get the machines in perfect alignment. But we'd record on one and playback on the other. Almost a perfect delay.
Still have several 2" tapes from the 70's.
That is not technically correct. The compressed air supply was to supply pressurised air for the air bearings on the shaft of the head motor. There was a small separate vacuum pump for the tape guide.
@@Geebax2 I stand corrected. Since I worked on the production side, I knew enough about the quads to be dangerous, but not everything. I just remember the compressors in the prop room and our tape guy saying it was for the heads. I didn't realize there was a separate vacuum pump. Thanks for the clarification. Miss those big monsters and the talented guys I worked with back in the early 70's.
Alex Maxey was reputed to have an absolutely perfect, but absolutely obscene, name for every part of the quadruplex transport. He and I would have been great friends!
When Jim Wheeler spoke about ABC-TV back in the 1960s have a small viewing audience for the political convention, that was no joke. Back then, it was CBS with Walter Cronkite; and NBC with Huntley & Brinkley as the dominating forces with network TV news.
In the 1960s ABC was good with its primetime TV shows and the Saturday afternoon _Wide World of Sports,_ but its news division of that era lagged way behind CBS and NBC.
As a teen I loaded untold numbers of 30 second spots live on those Ampex quads... got some serious callouses on my fingertips. 😂
Very cool interview.
I worked in sales with Ampex Magnetic Tape division. The 2 inch quad format was winding down and then Ampex started manufacturing 1 inch helical video recorder and play back. Ampex was first manufacturer of VHS format also. I enjoyed being a small part of this industry. So sorry Ampex lost it's way when they were the true pioneers.
quad
I heard that Sony invented VHS, as well as beta.
Fascinating.
For all of greatness and convenience of digital, I still stand in AWE of analog video! that ANYONE got all of it to work at all on a mass market scale is amazing enough, Then, coming up to accurately RECORD such a phreaking complex analog signal is pure "voodoo". Yeah, Yeah, don't "explain" to me that my Blu-ray has better resolution, Blah, blah, blah. I get all of that. But understand, Digital is digital. YES, the encoding is complex and is "solved" by sophisticated software. I'm talking about the transmission and recording of video. With any digital encoding, the "ones" are "ones" and the "zeros" are "zeros". If a device can interpret one from another, you're golden. Predictive error correction can fill in the blanks. With analog video, the very slightest thing being "off" will wreck the whole thing. It's flat out AMAZING that recording an analog video that was useable at all was possible, let alone on a box one could get at one time for $50 at Kmart! I'm still more impressed with THAT than my phone being able to shoot HD video! 👍😊👍
ray dolby returned to ampex after a spell in the USAF, iirc, having had to leave their emply when he was drafted. his contribution was vital to VTR, but it was on the math(s) of modulation rather than (as one might expect) anything audio related. in fact, the very first machine didn't have an audio track.
dale dolby was with ampex a lot longer, & his skills were a major part in the engineering of the last quad machines, the AVR-2 & so on, & the cart-player, the ACR-25, which made a huge impact on tv advertising & automated playout. his was the vision that gave these machines such rapid lock-up times & ease of use, as his vacuum tape-guides effectively isolated the reels from the headblock
When you think about it, it make sense why Dolby would be the math brains at AMPEX. After all, Dolby NR is basically just a series of fancy LTI transfer functions implemented in electronics
I heard from a local engineer that Ampex sold their proprietary tape noise system patent to Dolby for $1.00 (yes $1.00!!) since they had a new noise reduction system. Look where Ampex is now and look where Dolby Labs is!!! I also grew up in Redwood City.
Spend many hours at Ampex in CO springs and redwood.They where the king of tape recording.Service many machines.
shout out jim wheeler you da goat
IQ time, right?
Richard Arsenault ?
Just ment greatest of all time but I dig that! Mad props.
Sorry. I was a geek in 1976, so there it is. Thanks for your tolerance of an old geekified filmmaker yo:)
At Ampex training school in Redwood City the teachers had a very scornful attitude toward 'video cassette', If you mentioned BetaCam or worst yet, 'Umatic (3/4"), they would look at you in scorn. 1" was their high standard and nothing could compare. This attitude caused their demise.
And then Ampex sold under license from Sony various BetacamSP products.
@@mikecumbo7531 Ampex used Sony's head designs and Sony used Ampex's servo designs.
Hello from Kansas 🇺🇸
My dad used and maintained Ampex machines for NYS Dept of education in the '70's
If I could find Replacement Drive Belts for my AMPEX Reel to Reel that don’t cost six times as much as I bought my machine for I would be an AMPEX HAPPY CAMPER.
Urethane belts, big mistake.
It's all about being in the right place at the right time.
AMPEX made top quality cassette tapes. Their fidelity, and endurance was unique.
Remember in High School the old 2 inch machine and the 1 inch ampex. In 1979 we utilized a ampex mobile truck in Fort Wayne.
GOLD
Ampex also had a 10platter disc drive that, I thought, was adapted to record video on a continuous loop so that it could then he used to do 'instant replays' on live football.
This would have been in the 1970s...
Thinking about this again, it was a 5platter, 10Head Disc Drive (it's been a long time) These 'Washing Machine' sized devices had a whopping 50Mb capacity, as I recall - needed lots on maintenance - would try to start moving across the floor when busy, and would RUD if not poperly looked after.
Alex Marsey invented the word "Glitch"! I use that word all the time!
Fascinating. But that isn't quite the story Ray Dolby tells.
His story is that as an intern (on his second stint after National Service, his first was while still at school) he was on the data/instrument recorder team. He was aware of the video recorder team (which may have been the single guy mentioned here) and that it had low or no priority.
But they were trying 3 heads on a fast rotating disc with its axis 90degrees to the tape, so the disc is parallel to the tape. It was unstable. So it could be the horse and indian story recounted here. Dolby is 'unofficially' attached to this team and ponders the problem.
The next morning, he wakes up having had a dream of how it should be done. 4 Heads spinning with their axis parallel to the tape which is suctioned to a cylinder guide, audio track and sync track recorded by stationary heads at the tape's edges allowing the video signal to occupy the middle stable area well away from the more turbulent fragile edges.
Dolby presented this idea and the rest is history etc.
Now this may be romantic exaggerated fairy story, but Ray Dolby wasn't given to that kind of hyperbole. Anyone else heard this?
Also the story of the presentation to the press and the one and only working reel of tape.
The single reel detail was new to me.
I heard that the press call went out that Ampex was going to make an announcement.
The assembled press gathered in the large hall with TV monitors around the edge carrying live pictures of the stage.
An Ampex spokeman comes out and reads out the company's yearly accounts in a dry matter of fact delivery then walks off. The press are bemused. There is no story, no announcement.
There is a slight pause, then the monitors start playing his speech again.
Hall erupts and the press go to work! Video is born!
I have some 1 inch Ampex video tape that I recorded when I was a kid. but unfortunately the machine and the vidcom camera was lost.
I'm Jason Arsenault
'
what brand of VTR on this video jim wheeler...
japan already had any VCRs tapes / VHSs tapes
Fantastic, and thank you so much.
Now, a.tip, if I may - the excessive and gratuitous use of VERY loud, distracting transitions with all that zooming in and out AND the beeping, simply to signify a title with some information... STOP THAT! It is aggravating.and unnecessary, and distracts HUGELY from my concentration, and being able to focus on the story
Please don't take this in the wrong.way, but it's extremely frivolous and I'd recommend editing this out entirely, and uploading again.without all that.
Thanks.again. GOd.bless you
I appreciate your honesty. Can't edit those out after it's been uploaded. The style was popular in the day and it is what it is! Think of the style as an antique like the content :)
Videos...they'll never take off!
I had an Ampex reel to reel. I don't know where it is now.
I used to build and rebuilt AR700, AR1700 airborne recorders, FR2000, FR3000 and FR3030 instrumentation recorders. And finally ATR100 pro audio recorders. AMPEX......Nothing comes close in the magnetic tape world!
Is Jim wheeler still alive?
I corresponded with him some years ago when my In ampex was peaked after seeing the old ampex machines at cbs television city
Sadly Mr. wheeler passed away May 31 2017.
@@marctronixx thats unfortunate. My recollection was his last ampex assignment was on the D2 machines
I worked on every broadcast video tape machime that AMPEX ever made. Hated Helical scan though. Best machines made were the 200B, AVR-1, and ACR-25.
His seems to have a lozs of memory at points.
The VR-100 was absolutly interchangable with other machines.
Also the VR-100 NEVER cut the tape as long as thier was air going to the machine, the compressed air was used for the head bearings, and also the air went trough a venturi to create a vaccumm for the female tape guide.
The 2" cideotape was much different from 2' audio tape in the way the magnetic particals are placed on the tape
We had the two inch ones in my high schools AV center was the big thing in 1968 .
He mentioned that 2-inch tape was wrong, why?
close-up at 14"55 while he's describing a quadruplex head drum is of a helical scan prototype.... c'mon, richard, was this a test? :-)
That's why I like engineers :)
Throwing this out to Ampex employees - my dad Lou Borne worked as a tech in Redwood City from maybe 1954 or so to approx 1975. Anyone recognize the name?
"Equator ex my chance to flex skills on Ampex" - Dr Octagon.
It was a classic business case, Amplex got into the album business which is entertainment belong to Hollywood. Amplex lost tons of money and can’t produce the VCR. They ended up selling the invention to SONY. Same story with Boston Dynamics, a robotics company which is now owned by SoftBank, a Japanese company does lots business with the Chinese Communist Part. Another story is A123 battery, an invention from MIT with grant from the Dept Of Energy. A123 was subsequently sold to a Chinese company (of course controlled by the CCP). Your BMW electric car is powered by A123 batteries.
Ray Dolby is the Dolby of Dolby Labs.
Instant replay was actually a product using a big magnetic disk that ran a head back and forth all the time and could be stopped and gave you 3 or 4 seconds of wind back on the fly. I dont know when it came out compared to what this guy is talking about though.
Suddenly this video is getting a lot of attention! Great, but can someone tell me why?
i'm here from the algorithm
algorithm. My subscriptions are mostly cars, and guns, stand-up features/comedy, and history. Do subscribe to 2 channels which feature old tech, and history/development thereof. This one is well edited, to the point, and pure gold. this gentleman is the real deal. love it.
A good friend of mine had worked for Ampex in the '50s, first in the lab and then became a salesman for them, so of course I'd have to check it out after The Algorithm suggested it (probably from watching so much EEVBlog and Mr. Carlson's Lab). Thanks for making this.
I am researching about analog video. UA-cam's algorithm is not that bad. Good video, thanks!
It is interesting when he explains that they don't want the transistor taperecorder because tubes are better.🤣
They are high maintenance for constant replacement
@@ajoepetrucceJr I wouldnt say constant - my '63 hammond has a full set of original valves.
And its true! they sound better.
Tubes are not better. The same year Ampex brought its quad to the 1964 convention, Sony came up with the CV-2000, solid state, 46 lbs portable version.
Back when QUALITY electronics were invented, built & sold in the USA!
What impresses me most about older tech is that the engineering didn't stop at the interface -- once you learned a piece of equipment you could master it. Today, almost every single invention has a disconnect between the engineering backbone and the interface, so every device you pick up has its own impossible to learn rules and hidden functions. Today it is literally impossible to be a master because the learning curve begins every time you use a new device. The exceptions are obvious -- like Dyson. Overpriced and snooty, yes, but the engineering meets the interface perfectly. There are increasingly more examples as we move away from cheap and move towards quality in manufacturing.
Regarding INTERFACES for creative technology: I don't get why the younger engineers think they have to re-invent everything on the interfaces of today's inventions to their own strange notions of convenience.
In the editing world, the most obvious example was AVID v. Final Cut Pro v. Premiere. I started using Avid a few years after I witnessed Lucas' Edit Droid on display at USC. It was on display because nobody wanted the expense of burning a bunch of laserdiscs just for non-linear access. Then, George sold it to Avid and 3 years later (around 1995) I leased a $125,000 Avid for my own productions. The skills led me to working on #1 TV shows. Avid was so advanced, I could literally edit so fast I would complete a producer's idea as he was telling me it, and hit "Play".
THEN -- Apple allowed hackers to hack Final Cut Pro and everyone got a free copy. It was nowhere near Avid on ANY level. It was capricious, the controls were all compromises and what would take a single keystroke on Avid required endless mouse clicks and effort -- taking the editor out of the creative realm Avid allowed and back into button pushing.
Even though FCP was grossly inferior, it was free for most so Avid lost. I faced massive battles at networks who became addicted to FCP. And it was bloody. And it was emotional. And people were fired. I didn't see why people were so afraid of Avid -- until I read the news today and the mentality sort of sinks in. It's about fear and entitlement. The kids using FCP didn't "get" Avid. It wasn't because Final Cut was better, it was because they didn't "get" the infinitely superior Avid. That was justification to use an inferior and slower program. I will never get that level of entitlement and fear-based thinking. I've been making films since 1977 when I was in junior high. I've never understood fear when it comes to creating films. I've never understood choosing the interior product, instead like Jim, I've always just made it work. Current filmmakers are only NOW beginning to develop that same mentality. But those who dominated in the 2000's are guilty of crimes against art by pushing out Avid for the sake of FCP's broken code and cheapness. It's exactly like water color artists who push out acrylics and oil paint because they don't "get it" and the art world acquiescing. That would be insanity, right? Welcome to the world of Non-linear editing.
After FCP, the old Premiere rose out of a weird techy program to dominate as it still does today. Today, in fact Premiere has a lot going for it -- more than FCP ever did, but the technology of the interface is a D+ versus Avid's former A+ (if you assigned grades). Premiere would have never had a chance to rise if FCP didn't drown Avid and then couldn't live up the the task.
Now Avid is just a legacy screaming about how networks love it to get new users. But they ruined their own interface to compete with the inferior Final Cut Pro.
I use Premiere today out of necessity, but it is NOTHING compared to Avid's elegant storytelling where the interface NEVER changed and you never had to think about the technology -- just the storytelling. No matter who I work with on Premiere, and I've worked with the most technology aware Premiere editors, it is NOTHING compared to the old Avid. So much so, that if I had to edit a feature on Premiere v. Avid, I have to allow 3 times more time for the first edit. So, why can Premiere dominate? Because even though I am three times slower on Premiere, I am still 3 times faster than other Premiere editors. It's not that I'm fast, it's that they are slow. And slow has won the NLE game. I still shake my head in disbelief. It only started making sense as the correlations between preferring an inferior editing interface rippled into every other aspect of modern culture. People have strong but fragile egos and the younger set only seems to desire what they can "get" and stand on the shoulder's of giants (like Mr. Wheeler) without even bothering to learn the elders who made their world exist.
The days of demanding inferior interfaces that are made up on the fly are hopefully numbered; as A.I. takes over, it will return to a game of brilliance instead of today's game of privilege. Why? The A.I. and personal robots will eliminate the interface and always have the artist in mind. That will hammer the square pegs back into the square holes they belong and again allow the true artists to out-create their competition -- and that will also level the playing fields and allow the return of "master" craftsman and women to creating television. For now, those days are temporarily gone, and you see the result! Lowest TV ratings ever. Lowest box office. As the old school guys like Jim said, "Garbage in, Garbage out." They were referring to signals, but the phrase applies to inferior talent that is making TV and movies because (a) privilege and (b) they don't have the burden of experience screaming at them against the stupid interfaces of today's technology. Without experience, you don't even know what you're missing, and thereby are less of a threat to producers who often live day to day on dreams and delusion.
Technology is great, but the INTERFACE is everything because otherwise how artists get access to backbone technology and create great content or master the technology when the interfaces are so inane and random????
One last reminder, not to throw salt at the made in the USA issue, but soon after Ampex's brilliance, Sony and Panasonic dominated and it was almost all Japanese from the early 1980's until the Video Toaster was invented in Kansas. I was friends with Brad Carvey (Dana's brother) and he's the one who turned me onto Avid. Long stories all. Wow, this comment was also long so thanks for reading it all and thanks for watching this video and commenting!
@@RichardArsenault - Excellent Article. I miss working at Ampex!
The mechanical assemblies were beautiful too - even up into the 90s.
I had a close relationship with the AMPEX guys as a customer on two continents over 25+ years.
Great guys. I *almost* worked for them in Golden CO, in the early 90s.
Ampex was a trend setting outfit.
I use to audit the credit union in the early 90's. It was a really sad place, total ghost town. I could walk the halls all day long and not see anyone. I could hear people behind some of the doors but it was pretty quite. The cafeteria was open and it was a scene from a 60's movie. It had room for a couple hundred people but maybe four the the tables were occupied. They had a display case with all the Emmy's they won. I wonder who has those Emmy's now?
Where/what is, 'the credit union'? What does it have to do with this vid about video tape technology development? Just asking for a friend.
@@Redmenace96 AMPEX had a credit union on their campus. If you don't know what a credit union is, it is like a bank. 3rd party people look over the credit union transactions. They are called auditors. The auditors would visit the location and audit their books to make sure they were not stealing from the credit union members. Does that make sense now? I can explain what an audit is too.
There's even more interesting history about Ampex if you look up Myron Stolaroff
I cut my teeth on Ampex quads. We had 8 of them at Kentucky Educational TV up until the 90's. Had as many as 4 operators on some shifts.
I recently found some footage from a 1987 episode of "KET Scholastic Challenge" that had an end credits segment where they showed pictures of every credited crew member at their work station. It's quite interesting
Amazing to think magnetic tape is as obsolete as the waz cylinder.
To wax cylinders too!
George Harrison reportedly hated the smell of Ampex reel tape and wouldn't use it ! fun fact
C-46! Military minds. :-)
What I could never understand about Ampex. Is how they are responsible for so many advances in video Yet, Had the worst Beta & VHS blank tapes!
It is a shame that they had to sell their name to inferior tape manufacturers. Ampex's forte was the genius engineering behind making video recording work by understanding the mechanics and electronics to make it happen. Every Ampex part was machined to some insane tolerances. Unfortunately, those high quality parts being made in the US, cost more than the lower budgets of regular TV stations.
They never tried, or probably did when it was too late, to make low cost equipment like Sony and Panasonic etc. The maintenance cost for their equipment was just too impractical. Now I look at the extremely low cost of equipment to produce amazing quality, but the programs produced is mostly garbage with the least amount of quality control. All my VTR training and expertise is just null and void. I spend my days power-cycling and pinging. My torque screwdrivers, Tentelometers and eccentricity gauges used to get me funny looks until I just threw them all out.
The redundancy we all knew was inevitable--I have no sadness for that. What I never expected, and what does bring sadness, is to watch my present day engineering colleagues was around all day with their heads draped over their phones with no one to discuss ideas and just have intelligent conversations. Sorry for the long-winded and pointless comment.
😎👍
Minor nit: 120 ips is about 7 mph.
700 RPM??? i think he means 7,000??
in a PAL-model VR1200/2000 such as I trained on, we would set the free-run frequency of the drum oscillator by zero-beating it against normal 1kHz tone. each head wrote 5 tracks a field, or in other words, crossed the tape 250 times a second. & because there were four of them, you got 1kHz. the heads wrote in segments of ~15-16 lines each pass.
that'd be 15,000 rpm.
we got the heads reconditioned by a division of kodak, called themselves 'spin physics', & no wonder!
there were decks that ran at 'archival' speed, with modified electronics & especially narrow head-gaps, with a longitudinal speed of 7.5ips instead of 15 ips, but the drum speed was the same for both. in NTSC, the drum-speed was slightly lower- 14,400 or so.
He said 700 revolutions per second. They ran the motor out in the parking lot, it was surrounded with concrete blocks to contain the potential explosion. Quite the adventure I would say.
As far as I know the germans invented it
I think the Germans get credit for the first audio tape recorders, at the end of WWII. About ten or fifteen years before the video recorders from Ampex,
He did'nt!.....The Germans invented taperecorders!By Bing Crosby Ampex made the first copies!
Once you get past the steel tape recorders used by the BBC and others, most people in the industry will agree with you. But Wheeler said B.C.E. tried video too.
Wasnt it the Nazis who invented the tape recorder?
Yes, but the audio tape recorder, not video.
Valdemar Poulsen invented magnetic wire recording before the germans invented magnetic tape recording. He invented the telegraphone.
It's a great pity this dickhead never learnt how to speak properly. What a fucking boring man
It's a pity people like you live and breath.
life was real back then, i think
Cool guy and really interesting!