What's worse than having to wait nine months? Having to wait a year and nine months. That's where we're finding ourselves, with Beakerhead here in Calgary aiming to land in September of 2013. Luckily, though, this festival of art fused with technology (think MakerFaire) will have a few smaller events between now and then. We […]
Vintage AMPEX VR1200B 2" Quadruplex VTR ...
Solar botics
January 8, 2016
I occupy a studio space in a building that is a former movie shooting facility turned into an artist hovel. The building itself is wonderfully old but the hallways are also full of ancient audio and video equipment from the movie days. One of the things that got the attention of our RnD and tech geek was the AMPEX VR1200B Quadruplex videotape recorder from 1966. The machine stands about 5' tall, about the same in width, and weighs 'under 1000 pounds' as the spec sheet puts it. This was one of the first machines to use magnetic tape technology for recording video in the form of 2" quad tape for video, as opposed to film that was used previously.
A couple interesting points about this machine:
- 60PSI Air was needed for air bearings and a Venturi system for holding the 2" tape in alignment;
- These machines were the workhorses in TV Stations throughout the 60's and 70's. Running these machines required a full time technician!
Here's the beast in action:
A photoset of AMPEX VR1200B
An Overview of Ampex History:
MORE POSTS
Ardweeny!
Here's the Ardweeny - the smallest breadboard-friendly Arduino-compatible kit! Sorry it took almost a month to get this ready. The GVS-Shield took priority, and it is the holiday season. Kinda crazy here. The Ardweeny has proven to be quite handy in the shop where we've got several projects on the go. Plug in a 'weeny […]
You guys are good...
No matter that we've been beating this website up for the better part of 6 months, you guys still find some bizarre bugs. Thanks to all that have been sending in the bug reports. We'll get the fly-swatter out Monday to squish them. Thanks again for all your (mostly very positive) feedback! Dave Hrynkiw, President
New: The Ardweeny BackPack!
We've been playing with the Pick and Place machine, and thought about new projects. This one, besides just being plain handy, offered us a simple project to start adding surface-mount parts to! The Ardweeny is proving to be a popular way to make a breadboard-friendly Arduino-clone, but after the prototyping is done, you still have […]
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!
Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.
Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.