BobDiaz
The Professor
The Videotape Recorder Turns 50
Routine NAB preview event showcased revolutionary technology
by James E. O'Neal
The Ampex video recorder is unveiled at the NARTB show in Chicago, April 14, 1956. FALLS CHURCH, VA.: In an age when video cameras and recording devices are virtually everywhere, it's difficult to believe that it wasn't always possible to walk into a Wal-Mart or Best Buy store with $50 and leave with a new video recorder.
The science of magnetically recording video images is so mature today that it's taken completely for granted, but that was not always the case. Television broadcasting as we know it appeared in the mid-1930s. Video recording technology lagged by another 20 years.
BREAKTHROUGH
Imagine a large meeting room 50 years ago filled with 200 people assembled for a more or less routine briefing. The only thing slightly out of the ordinary is a video camera trained on the speaker and some monitors sprinkled around the room. However, television is no longer a stranger and the presence of even large tube-type cameras of that era had become fairly routine.
The event was a Saturday pre-NAB (then the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters) meeting of CBS affiliate owners and managers. The setting was the Normandie Lounge in Chicago's Conrad Hilton, the speaker was William Lodge, CBS engineering vice president and the date was April 14, 1956. ...
It's a very cool article and you can read the whole thing here:
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/news/2006.04.12-n_the_video_tape_02.shtml
Bob Diaz