[QuadList] History - what is the REAL story

[Don Norwood]

Hi Park:

Much of this very same discussion about RCA and Ampex took place on the Ampex mail list at various times between 1999 and 2005.  During that time, a number of former Ampex employees contributed to the discussion including Ross Snyder who was video products manager at the time of the events in question, David Sarser, Stan Busby and others.  

Unfortunately, after almost 50 years, there are some differences in first-hand accounts. Consequently, written material from the actual time period tends to be more accurate.  Still, there was total agreement in these exchanges that what Ampex wanted and got from RCA was rights to their color technology, and that is borne out in the written documents on the subject as well.  I'm fairly certain based on verifiable information that it was indeed color technology, and not transistor technology, that Ampex received in exchange for their knowledge of the FM recording system.

That being said, the sort of conversation that you had with Jim offers fascinating insight into what it was like "back in the day".  The stories from all the folks that were actually present comprise a fascinating look into the history of this technology.   Unfortunately, Ross Snyder passed away last year and there is an all too quickly vanishing opportunity to capture the memories of others in the esteemed group.  However, while I cherish the stories I've heard, I'm always mindful of the need to consider the effects of time on the accuracy of the details.  

Below is an excerpt from what I posted on the Ampex list in early 2005.  It sumarizes the outcome of my research at that time and the conversations with the folks who worked at Ampex at the time of the color developments:

  Thanks to everyone for all your input regarding the development of color 
  capability for the quad machines!  As Larry pointed out, there's lots of 
  sometimes conflicting information, and often from good sources that may have 
  been involved in different aspects of the project.  Since I wasn't old 
  enough in the late 50's to be aware of videotape, all of my knowledge has to 
  be built on what I can learn from experts such as yourselves and from what 
  printed material I can find.  My collection of machines consists only of 
  Ampex but the first VTR's I ever saw were RCA and they were probably 
  responsible for my lifelong fascination with these beasts.

  There's lots of documented info on the VR-1000 development, both from 
  Ginsburg and Dolby.  After that, I have been able to find less info about 
  the ongoing developments through the years.  RCA published 'Broadcast News' 
  which did a fairly good job of documenting their product development but I 
  do not have similar info from Ampex.  Having gone through a lot of the 
  printed material I have, here are my findings, some of which support what 
  has been said here and some of which may need more discussion or 
  clarification.

  1)  Ampex was experimenting with color in 1957.  At that time, they had 
  given a development contract to Stanford Research Institute, and they were 
  attempting to achieve color by perfecting the servo system of the machine to 
  a point where timebase errors would be almost non-existent.  Mechanical 
  limitations proved this to be impossible.  According to Dolby's notes as 
  presented to SMPTE in 1986, on Aug 28, 1957 he demonstrated a pilot tone 
  system to achieve color and noted that "color stability appears to be good". 
  Beyond that point, I can find no further reference to this method being 
  considered for use on the quads and as far as I know, it was not used until 
  the helical machines applied a similar approach in the 60's.

  2)  At about this same time, RCA demonstrated a color tape system to the 
  trade press in October of '57.  The February 1958 edition of "Broadcast 
  News" previews the new "Color Processing in RCA Video Tape Recorder".  A 
  small number of prototypes were delivered to NBC in 1958 as the model VTRX 
  quads.  These used the heterodyne system that would later be the basis for 
  their first production color machines.  In 1959 (month unknown but see #3 
  below), they began delivery of the color rack for updating the RCA TRT-1A 
  quads.  A later updated version of the color system was made available the 
  following year in 1960 (month unknown) with the delivery of the TRT-1B 
  machines.  References for this info include "Engineering Color Video Tape 
  Recording" by A.H. Lind.

Finally, to wrap up an already too long post, there are a couple of books that are good sources of information about both RCA and Ampex machines.  

    "Video Tape Recording" by Julian Bernstein, copyright 1960 by John F. Rider, 268 pages, covers the VR-1000 and the TRT-1 and their respective color systems.
    "Television Broadcasting Tape and Disc Recording Systems" by Harold E. Ennes, copyright 1973 by Howard W. Sams, ISBN 0-672-20933-0, 576 pages, covers everything from the first models up through the ACR-25 and the TCR-100.  There is also a second edition published in 1979 (ISBN 0-672-21567-5) that is updated accordingly but actually contains less info on the early models.

Both books are available on Amazon and the Ennes books are cheap!  Good additions to your ancient technology libraries.

Don      

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C. Park Seward" <park at videopark.com>
To: "Quad List" <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 4:39 PM
Subject: Re: [QuadList] History - what is the REAL story


> Jim Wheeler joined Ampex five years after the first Quad was  
> introduced. I had the pleasure of speaking with him today and asked  
> him about our question.
> 
> Jim was familiar with the Ampex/RCA exchange and said Ampex got  
> transistor technology plus $100,000 and RCA got the FM patent. As we  
> know, analog video needs FM recording to make the VTR possible.  
> Without that patent, RCA would have never made compatible quad VTRs.
> 
> He said RCA was first with experimental color recording. They used a  
> direct recording with heterodyning playback. This was the method used  
> in the famous Astaire recording. Ampex invented high band direct color  
> record and direct color playback in 1964.
> 
> Jim was the inventor sol-mo replays, of the air bearing effect of the  
> Ampex scanners, the VR-660, the AST slo-mo heads and the product  
> manager for the VPR-1 and 2.
> 
> Best,
> Park
> 
> C. Park Seward
> Visit us: http://www.videopark.com
> 
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