[QuadList] History - what is the REAL story

[C. Park Seward]

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



On Apr 23, 2009, at 7:34 PM, Don Norwood wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "C. Park Seward"
>
>> Perhaps some of you can point to the true stories.
>>
>> Story one:
>>
>> Ampex, having developed a way to record color on quad, needed the
>> transistor technlogy tjhat RCA had abd RCA nedded the Ampex patents
>> for color. So they did a parent swap with RCA getting color and Ampex
>> getting transistor technology.
>>
>> Some think the transistor technology was actually gotten from Sony.
>>
>> Time frame should be around 1958 or so.
>
> Hi Park:
>
> I certainly have no first hand knowledge, but --somewhere--, I think  
> I have a copy of some correspondence from one of the Ampex guys that  
> was there. Perhaps Tim could ask Charlie Anderson what he knows  
> about it.  Anyway, I didn't think that it had anything to do with  
> the transistor, but rather that Ampex needed RCA color technology  
> and RCA needed Ampex's videotape technology.  The only thing I can  
> find at the moment that supports this is the following:
>
>> From the industry briefs part of the January 1958 Radio & TV News:
> "RCA and Ampex Corporation have signed an agreement for the exchange  
> of patent licenses covering
> video tape recording and reproducing systems for both black-and- 
> white and color."
>
> Don
>
>
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