[QuadList] Product Naming

[Bill Carpenter]

I was part of the group that named my first quad product, the AVR-2, and then the AVR-3 was the follow on product.
In Elk Grove, with the 1" product, I started the VPR designation which designated the machines as Video Production Recorders. It followed the introduction of the AVR-1
The only other product naming involvement I had was when the Elk Grove group tried to name the first editing 1" recorder the VR-8000, but this rejected because of the previously Helical, with the same name which was created in Redwood City.

We thought about it and since our family started with VR-7000, we settled on VR-7800. This product was successfully introduced in Denver @ NAEB in the late fall of 1967 
Barry Guisinger was the project engineer, and I designed the control system including the reel drives and the slow motion control, the input & output panel and the control panel.
 I was the most system knowledgeable engineer on the project, so when Barry decided to return to Redwood City in early 1968,to work on the AVR-1, I succeeded him as project engineer. 
Then later 1968, I traveled 100K air miles to support the product.
Another interesting naming event occurred at that NAEB show in late 67, since we were building lower cost products, we had to share accommodations, so I shared a room with Barry.I hung out with Barry, and met a friend of his, Al Trost (VR-1200 project engineer) from Redwood City. One night we had gone to bed and I think Barry was having his last cigarette, we were talking about the naming problem. We decided that the ultimate helical scan machine should by named "the 9000", whenever it was built?
I stayed touch, with Barry and on my way back from ABS/CBN in Manila, where I installed 3, VR-7800's. I stopped in Redwood City and had lunch with him. When I asked to see the Lab where he worked, he said that the security around the project was too intense, so I did not see anything of Redwood City engineering. I saw everything 4 years later when I moved to Redwood City from Mountain View where we worked after leaving Elk Grove, IL in August of 1971.
Barry left Ampex in mid 1969, and he and Len Kowal (another Ex-Elk Grove engineer) went to Avco and designed the color system for the Cartrivison recorder system. Another Ex Ampex engineer, Dick Hathaway redesigned the mechanical parts of the Cartrivison system for high volume manufacturing. When these efforts were completed, Barry went to IVC, and Dick came back to Ampex. Dick co-invented the moving head technology (AST) and much later became the first Chief Engineer from a mechanical engineering background.
At the same time as the Avco design efforts, I left Engineering in Elk Grove, and started working as a product manager.
Five years later, I introduced the AVR-2, in Huston Tx, and talked with Barry again about the IVC-9000, and he stated  he made the finest helical to replace the AVR-1.It was for a short time, but then IVC went under, and the AVR-2 went on for many years.
IMHO the ultimate Helical Scan VTR was introduced by me, in 1972, at IBC in Brighton Eg and went on to sell more than 2500 units, until it was replaced by the Digital recorders.
 Bye for now, Bill Carpenter


     

 From: Ted Langdell via QuadList <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
 To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> 
Cc: Ted Langdell <Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com>
 Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2017 10:17 AM
 Subject: Re: [QuadList] VR-8000
  

Quad list member and Ampex AVR-2 product manager Bill Carpenter might have a clue about how Ampex  numbered things.

I'll see if I can ask some other impacts old-timers who might have specific insight.


Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary, Quad Videotape Group
Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com
(530)301-2931

Dictated into and Sent from my iPhone, which is solely responsible for any weird stuff I didn't catch.


> On Jan 3, 2017, at 9:02 AM, Don Norwood via QuadList <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> wrote:
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