Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Ampex VR-1200 Series Videotape Recorder
General material designation
- Object
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
File
Repository
Reference code
RG 102.72
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1967 - 1991 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
1 Ampex videotape machine
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
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Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Custodial history
Scope and content
This AMPEX VR-1200 series videotape recorder (possibly VR-1200B) is an early colour/monochrome quadraplex 2-inch analogue recorder for television studios by AMPEX Data Systems Corporation and it was a smaller and lighter version of an earlier AMPEX model. In 1967 this artifact was installed in the RTA Video Tape Recorder Room (VTR) located in Kerr Hall East, 3rd floor, when Studio B was converted to colour.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
This artifact was decommissioned in 1991 by RTA along with the Philips colour TV studio camera (RG 102.71) when the new Rogers Communication Centre opened that year and both were donated directly to the university Archives.
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Open. Records are available for consultation without restriction.
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Accruals
General note
The Ampex VR-1200 Series (possibly VR-1200B) model was a very popular mass produced professional video recorder. The 2 inch magnetic tape moved from the feed reel on the left to the take-up reel on the right. The tape speed could be low band or high band based on the horizontal speed set by a button on the machine's face. There's an immense amount of electronic information in 30 separate images per second. The sequential images give us the sense of real movement. To crowd all the analog information into the 2 inch wide tape, it was written by four electro magnets (quadraplex) that spun across the moving tape. The result is "S" shaped tracks. The four tracks make up just one of those 30 images recorded each second.
One tidbit of information about this machine specifically related to its use at TMU (formerly Ryerson) : a box of hairbands was kept in the VTR room for students with long hair to tie their hair back before using the machine whose reels had very high rotational speeds.