and instrumentation technology for acquisition storage and processing of visual information founded 1944 founder alexander m. poniatoff headquarters redwood city california united states products minir 700 mini recorder tuffserv 480 solid state file server and airborne recorder multiplexer amux 600 product line dsrs 440 solid state disk recording systems website www.ampex.com ampex headquarters on broadway street ampex is an american electronics company founded in 1944 by alexander m. poniatoff . the name ampex is an acronym created by its founder which stands for alexander m. poniatoff excellence . 1 at one time public the remaining ongoing business unit ampex data systems corporation was acquired by delta information systems in october 2014 with the original parent ampex corporation ceasing operations in october 2014 . ampex s first great success was a line of reel to reel tape recorders developed from the german wartime magnetophon system at the behest of bing crosby . ampex quickly became a leader in audio tape technology developing many of the analog recording formats for both music and movies that remained in use into the 1990s . starting in the 1950s the company began developing video tape recorders which set the studio standards for decades and later introduced the helical scan concept that make home video players possible . they also introduced multi track recording slow motion and instant playback television and a host of other advances . ampex s tape business was rendered obsolete during the 1990s and the company turned to digital storage products . they never managed to become a player in this field and the company was moribund by the 2000s . contents 1 origin 2 early tape recorders 3 professional 8 track recorders 4 16 and 24 track recorders 5 the 1990s 6 video technology 6.1 quadruplex 6.2 vr 8000 6.3 ampex 2 inch helical vtr 6.4 hs 100 & hs 200 slo mo disc recorder 6.5 type a 6.6 type c 6.7 d2 6.8 dct & dst 7 milestones 8 sticky shed syndrome 9 branding 10 record labels 11 legal history 12 current situation 13 see also 14 research resources 15 photo gallery 16 references 17 external links origin edit russian inventor alexander matthew poniatoff established the company in san carlos california in 1944 as the ampex electric and manufacturing company . the name came from his initials plus ex to avoid using the name amp amp n e aircraft and marine products already in use . during world war ii ampex was a small manufacturer of high quality electric motors and generators for radars that used alnico 5 magnets from general electric . 2 ampex s first offices were at 1313 laurel st. san carlos california howard ave. at laurel . 3 near the end of the war while serving in the u.s. army signal corps major jack mullin was assigned to investigate german radio and electronics experiments . he discovered the magnetophons with ac biasing on a trip to radio frankfurt . the device produced much better fidelity than shellac records . mullin acquired two magnetophon recorders and 50 reels of basf type l tape and brought them to america where he produced modified versions . he demonstrated them to the institute of radio engineers in san francisco on may 16 1946 . 2 bing crosby a big star on radio at the time was receptive to the idea of pre recording his radio programs . he disliked the regimentation of live broadcasts and much preferred the relaxed atmosphere of the recording studio . he had already asked the nbc network to let him pre record his 1944 45 series on transcription discs but the network refused so crosby had withdrawn from live radio for a year and returned this time to the recently created abc for the 1946 47 season only reluctantly . another possible motivation wasn t so much that crosby wanted the more relaxed atmosphere of taping vs live but that live network radio required performing two identical shows a night one for the east coast and one for the west coast . this may have been what crosby was hoping to avoid as that was the argument crosby used with the radio network when he asked to use transcription disc recordings of his show . those recordings were made directly from the live east coast show as were the later taped versions . in june 1947 mullin who was pitching the technology to the major hollywood movie studios got the chance to demonstrate his modified tape recorders to crosby . when crosby heard a demonstration of mullin s tape recorders he immediately saw the potential of the new technology and commissioned mullin to prepare a test recording of his radio show . ampex was finishing its prototype of the model 200 tape recorder and mullin used the first two models as soon as they were built . after a successful test broadcast abc agreed to allow crosby to pre record his shows on tape . crosby immediately appointed mullin as his chief engineer and placed an order for 50 000 worth of the new recorders so that ampex then a small six man concern could develop a commercial production model from the prototypes . 2 crosby enterprises was ampex s west coast representative until 1957 . 4 early tape recorders edit ampex 601 playing a recording of les paul s new sound . made in redwood city california c. 1956 . internals of ampex fine line f 44 a 3 head ampex home use audio tape recorder c. 1965 . ampex model 300 half inch three track recorder ampex 440 2tr 4tr & 16 track mm 1000 the company s first tape recorder the ampex model 200a was first shipped in april 1948 . the first two units serial numbers 1 and 2 were used to record the bing crosby show . 5 the american broadcasting company used these recorders along with 3m scotch 111 gamma ferric oxide coated acetate tape 6 for the first ever u.s. delayed radio broadcast of the bing crosby show . ampex tape recorders revolutionized the radio and recording industries because of their superior audio quality and ease of operation over audio disk cutting lathes . 5 during the early 1950s ampex began marketing one and two track machines using 1 4 inch tape . the line soon expanded into three and four track models using 1 2 inch tape . in the early 1950s ampex moved to 934 charter st. redwood city california . ampex acquired orradio industries in 1959 which became the ampex magnetic tape division headquartered in opelika alabama . this made ampex a manufacturer of both recorders and tape . by the end of that decade ampex products were much in demand by top recording studios worldwide . in 1952 movie producer mike todd asked ampex to develop a high fidelity movie sound system using sound magnetically recorded on the film itself as contrasted with the technology of the time which used magnetic tracks on a separate celluloid base film later commonly known as mag stock . the result of this development was the cinemascope todd ao motion picture sound system 7 which was first used in movies such as the robe 1953 in 35mm and oklahoma 1955 in 70mm and also in 35mm . in 1960 the academy of motion picture arts and sciences awarded ampex an oscar for technical achievement as a result of this development . les paul a friend of crosby s and a regular guest on his shows had already been experimenting with overdubbed recordings on disc . he received an early portable ampex model 200a from crosby . he invented sound on sound recording using this machine . he placed an additional playback head located before the conventional erase record playback heads . this allowed paul to play along with a previously recorded track both of which were mixed together on to a new track . this was a destructive process because the original recording was recorded over . 8 professional 8 track recorders edit main article history of multitrack recording ampex built a handful of multitrack machines during the late 1950s that could record as many as eight tracks on 1 inch tape . the project was overseen by ross snyder ampex manager of special products . to make the multitrack recorder work snyder invented the sel sync process which used some tracks on the head for playback and other tracks on the head for recording . this made the newly recorded material be in sync with the existing recorded tracks . 9 the first of these machines cost 10 000 and was installed in les paul s home recording studio by david sarser . 10 11 in 1967 ampex responded to demand by stepping up production of their 8 track machines with the production model mm 1000 . like earlier 8 track machines of this era it used 1 inch tape . 16 and 24 track recorders edit in 1966 ampex built their first 16 track recorder the model ag 1000 at the request of mirasound studios in new york city . in 1967 ampex introduced a 16 track version of the mm 1000 which was the world s first 16 track professional tape recorder put into mass production . both used a 2 inch tape transport design adapted from the video recording division . the 16 track mm 1000 quickly became legendary for its tremendous flexibility reliability and outstanding sound quality . this brought about the golden age of large format analog multitrack recorders which would last into the mid 1990s . mci built the first 24 track recorder using 2 inch tape in 1968 which was installed at ttg studios in los angeles . later machines built by ampex starting in 1969 would have as many as 24 tracks on 2 inch tape . in addition to this the introduction of smpte time code allowed studios to run multiple machines in perfect synchronization making the number of available tracks virtually unlimited . by the 1970s ampex faced tough competition from the swiss company studer and japanese manufacturers such as otari and sony who also purchased the mci brand in 1982 . in 1979 ampex introduced their most advanced 24 track recorder the model atr 124 . it was considered by many to be the finest machine of its type . the atr 124 was ruggedly constructed and had audio specifications that nearly rivaled the first digital recording machines . however sales of the atr 124 were slow due to the machine s high price tag . ampex sold only about 50 or 60 atr 124 machines and withdrew from the professional audio tape recorder market entirely in 1983 . the 1990s edit by the 1990s ampex focused more on video recorders instrumentation recorders and data recorders . in 1991 ampex sold their professional audio recorder line to sprague magnetics . 12 the ampex recording media corporation spun off in 1995 as quantegy inc. and is now called quantegy recording solutions . consumer models ampex model 1250 tube stereo tape recorder c. 1962 designed for the high end consumer market ad for ampex 970 stereo quartertrack tape deck circa 1960 the model 970 included a small 5 watt stereo tube playback amplifier and speakers . the 5 watt ampex tube stereo amplifier as it lay hidden inside the model 970 shown in photo above . video technology edit ampex vr 1000a 1950s quadruplex edit main article quadruplex videotape starting in the early 1950s rca bing crosby and others tried to record analog video on very fast moving magnetic tape . as early as 1952 ampex developed prototype video tape recorders that used a spinning head and relatively slow moving tape . in early 1956 a team led by charles ginsburg produced the first videotape recorder . 13 a young 19 year old engineer ray dolby was also part of the team . 2 ampex demonstrated the vr