Ampex means more than audio and video recorders

Posted on by TedLangdell

This site is dedicated to the Ampex Pioneers and those who followed.

Erhard Kietz and colleagues at work on Ampex instrumentation recorder in the late 1950s.
Erhard Kietz and colleagues at work on a Ampex 2″ transverse scan instrumentation recorder in the late 1950s. The recorder was based on the successful Ampex VR-1000 2″ Quadruplex Videotape® recorder pioneered by Ampex colleagues in Redwood City, California. From the Erhard Keitz family collection. Collective Commons license, via Wikipedia

12 thoughts on “Ampex means more than audio and video recorders”

  1. Thanks for helping to keep Ampex alive with this web site!! At least for us old guys.

  3. Dear Ampex Old Timers …

    Blasting you from the past.

    I left HBO in 2014 and now I have been recruited back to help preserve HBO’s glorious and partially missing past.

    For our initial search of HBO legacy materials, we are looking for HBO pioneer days (1972-76) artifacts. Pioneer photos, marketing materials, commemoratives, etc. That being said, we are desperately on the hunt for two inch videotapes from the early 70s (1972-76) where there are big gaps in the HBO library.

    Most of the earliest original HBO programming were in Sports. HBO’s production partners back them were the Hughes Sports Network, Madison Square Garden, Marvin Sugarman Productions, Service-Electric and a handful of regional producers.

    In researching our various storage facilities, only a handful of Quad reels from 1972-76 survived years of purging and recycling. We have reached out to MSG, sports leagues and promoters. They have no video from this elusive, pioneer time period either. I can forward a HBO Sports Program Breakdown report for more details to anyone who is a super sleuth.

    We have come close a few times, just not close enough.

    1) Announcer Spencer Ross had a storage unit in Massachusetts full of Quads. He cleared out everything about seven years ago
    2) Programmer Brad Schrieber had dozens of boxes of screeners in his basement. He tossed them out about eight years ago
    3) Production Manager John McPherson had an entire room full of tapes. They were junked when he passed in 2005.
    4) Director Marty Callner moved so many times, he finally let go of the sports reels he was holding onto.
    5) Producer Marvin Sugarman threw out more than 400 HBO Sports Quad reels back in 2001
    6) TelFax has a storage facility with Quads in Arlington, Texas. A freak storm destroyed them all.
    7) MSG does not have any footage from that early era working with HBO

    We need clues to who may still have any personal copies of 1970s HBO programming, either on original two inch or UMatic screeners.

    Appreciate what magic you can muster, as well as spreading the word to other Quad pioneers you think may have some HBO treasures,

    Keeping hope alive.

    Cheers

    Max Segal
    HBO LEGACY INITIATIVE
    917-929-1327
    Max.segal@hbo.com

  5. My name is Donald Lucas, I worked in the Sheetmetal department
    from 1958 to 1974. I am happy you have set this up. I would like to go to the next session in 2018 if we are having one. Please let me know.

    1. Hey, Ted: I’m planning to come to the picnic again this year, but didn’t get the invitation yet. I just filled out the website “sign up” form again, but if you can reply to me at paulhansil@comcast.net I’ll sign up via Eventbrite.
      Thanks, looking forward to seeing you again soon!

  7. In the mid-1950’s, Bill Barnhart joined Ampex Corp. in Redwood City. He spent several months in Russia during 1959 at the American Exposition in Moscow where, as videotape operator, he recorded the “Kitchen Debate” between Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Vice President Richard Nixon. This is Bill describing his early interest in the nascent field of television.

    https://archive.org/details/HollywoodBowl

  10. I was in the Washington DC field office from 1961 to 1994. Any way you can put me on your mailing list?

    Jim Kelly Clermont, FL

  11. I was in the Washington DC field office from 1961 to 1994. Any way you can put me on your mailing list?

    Jim Kelly Clermont, FL

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