AMPEX VRX-1000, 2" Video Tape Recorder, 20th Anniversary with Ray Dolby and AMPEX Engineers at NAB 1976

Message Board - AMPEX VRX-1000 General Discussion

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Ampex introduced the Ampex VRX-1000 videotape recorder in 1956 which became the world's first commercially successful videotape recorder. It used the 2" Quadruplex format, using two-inch (5.1 cm) tape.

Due to its US$50,000 price, the Ampex VRX-1000 could be afforded only by the television networks and the largest individual stations. Ampex later released the first manufactured models of Quad VTR based on the Mark IV which were also prototypes, the VRX-1000, of which 16 were made. Machines made afterward were the final production models, and were designated as the VR-1000.

Foundational text courtesy of Wikipedia. All photography, courtesy of George Schowerer, taken during the AMPEX VRX-1000, 2" Video Tape Recorder, 20th Anniversary, with Ray Dolby and AMPEX Engineers, at the 1976 NAB Conference. The Ampex VRX-1000 (later renamed the Mark IV) videotape recorder is introduced on March 14, 1956, at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters in Chicago.

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The Ampex VRX-1000 (later renamed the Mark IV) videotape recorder is introduced on March 14, 1956, at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters in Chicago. This is the world's first practical videotape recorder and is hailed as a major technological breakthrough. CBS goes on air with the first videotape delayed broadcast, Douglas Edwards and The News, on November 30, 1956, from Los Angeles, California, using the Ampex Mark IV.

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- AMPEX VRX-1000, 2" Video Tape Recorder, 20th Anniversary with Ray Dolby and AMPEX Engineers at NAB 1976. - Photography courtesy of George Schowerer.

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AMPEX VRX-1000 in the lab.

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