File RG 102.72 - Ampex VR-1200 Series Videotape Recorder

Title and statement of responsibility area

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Ampex VR-1200 Series Videotape Recorder

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  • Object

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File

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RG 102.72

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  • 1967 - 1991 (Creation)

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Physical description

1 Ampex videotape machine

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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.

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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.

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Open. Records are available for consultation without restriction.

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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.

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