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Technology Stocks : Ampex Corporation (AEXCA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: flickerful who wrote (3066)	7/27/1998 5:38:00 AM
From: Gus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

Thanks, Randy. Very interesting links. Another source of good info is the newsgroups, which you can mine through dejanews.com There's a fairly brisk gray market for Ampex hardware dating all the way back to the fifties and sixties, much like that analog tape recorder that you hyperlinked earlier. One problem that Ampex may have is that they make things that work very well and last a very long period of time. A little more planned obsolescence, perhaps to goose sales every few years or so? Anyway, one gem from the newsgroups... Subject: Ampex's Leadership in Motion Picture Stereo Sound From: peterh5322@aol.com (PeterH5322) Date: 1998/07/02 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.tech [From Magnetic Recording: Part II by Harold W. Lindsay, a former senior manager of Ampex Corporation; excerpted from dB: The Sound Recording Magazine, January, 1978 ] THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR It was at this time (1952) that an interesting incident occurred at Ampex. Mr. Poniatoff [Ampex's founder] received a phone call from a New York banker who stated that an important visitor would soon be coming to our facilities [ in Redwood City, California ] . Though he could not disclose the identity of the mysterious guest or the purpose of his visit, he did indicate that it could result in important new business for Ampex. On arriving, the visitor introduced himself as "Mr. Edwards", without bothering to disclose why his large gold cuff links and tie pin carried the initials "M.T.". Early in the conversation that followed, "Mr. Edwards" inquired whether the people at Ampex had seen Cinerama (the initial public screenings had occurred just before the visit) and if we could record sound on photographic film prints with magnetic striping. His next inquiry, whether Ampex had done any work in stereophonic sound recording, was effectively answered by a very comprehensive demonstration. Our demo of three-channel stereophonic playback, using theater-type loudspeaker systems, satisfied our visitor, who finally confessed that his name was not Edwards at all, but Mike Todd! Mr. Todd was so impressed with what he had seen that he made an on-the-spot decision to select Ampex to produce the sound system for the Todd-AO motion picture system (a further improvement on the Cinerama development). While working on the Todd-AO project, Ampex developed a four-track multi-directional sound system which was introduced in 1953 and was featured in the first CinemaScope film, "The Robe". Two years later, "Oklahoma!" was premiered with Ampex six-track sound; it was literally an Oscar-winning performance. Other design advances emerged, and by 1967 Ampex had installed sound systems in theaters around the world. In 1967 we introduced a solid state, improved version of our wide screen multichannel systems. But these systems, though widely acclaimed, remained on the market for only two years. The interest in super-wide screen presentations as diminishing and sales were dropping off. Ampex had to face facts and retire from the motion picture sound business.