1944

Ampex Electric and Manufacturing Company is formed by Alexander M. Poniatoff in San Carlos, California.

1948

American Broadcasting Company uses an Ampex Model 200 audio recorder for the first-ever U.S. tape delay radio broadcast of The Bing Crosby Show.

1950

Ampex introduces the first "dedicated" instrumentation recorder, Model 500, built for the U.S. Navy.

1954

Ampex introduces the first multi-track audio recorder derived from multi-track data recording technology.

1954

Ampex introduces the first magnetic theater sound system, made for Todd/AO CinemaScope.

1956

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.

 In 2005, the six inventors of the first practical videotape recorder were honored with the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  They were Charles Anderson, Ray Dolby, Charles Ginsburg, Shelby Henderson, Alex Maxey, and Fred Pfost.

1958

NASA selects Ampex data recorders and magnetic tape, used for virtually all U.S. space missions since.

1959

The famous Nixon-Khrushchev "Kitchen Debate" takes place at the Moscow Trade Fair, and is captured on an Ampex videotape recorder.

1960

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents Ampex with an Oscar for technical achievement.

1961

Helical scanning recording is invented by Ampex, the technology behind the worldwide consumer video revolution, and used in all home VCRs today.

1963

Ampex introduces EDITEC electronic video editing, allowing broadcast television editors frame-by-frame recording control, simplifying tape editing and making animation effects possible. This was the basis for all subsequent editing systems.

1963

Ampex introduces a new computer peripheral digital tape transport, the TM-7. Its design far surpasses previous tape drives, using 80 percent fewer parts and completely eliminating pinch rollers and brake cylinders.

1964

Ampex introduces the VR-2000 high-band videotape recorder, the first ever to be capable of the color fidelity required for high-quality color broadcasting.

1967

ABC uses the Ampex HS-100 disk recorder for playback of slow-motion downhill skiing on World Series of Skiing in Vail, Colorado. Thus begins the use of slow motion instant replay in sporting events.

1967

Ampex introduces the RG memory. It is a medium capacity memory with an access time of 350 nanoseconds (less than half of one millionth of a second) and expandable from medium to very large capacity (up to 5,000,000 bits) by adding memory modules.

1967

The introduction of the Ampex VR-3000 revolutionizes video recording

1968

Ampex invents magneto-resistive (MR) heads, now used in advanced computer disk drives.

1969

Ampex introduces the Videofile® system, used by Scotland Yard for the electronic storage and retrieval of fingerprints.

1970

Ampex introduces the ACR-25, the first automated robotic library system for the recording and playback of television commercials.

1970

Ampex introduces TBM (TeraBit Memory), a 2-inch transverse tape-based online digital storage system for high-performance computing applications.

1972

The first TBM delivered reaches a never-before-achieved 3 trillion-bit capacity.

1974

Ampex introduces the AVR-2, the first modular quadruplex recorder/reproducer for professional broadcasters. It requires one-half to one-third the operating space required by other quad machines.

1976

Ampex introduces the VPR-1, helical scan, 1-inch videotape recorder. The VPR-1's successor, the Type C VPR-2 (1978), becomes the industry standard for video recording.

1977

Ampex introduces the AST® process, the first automated scan tracking for variable speed effects, making slow motion possible directly from tape for the first time.

1977

Ampex introduces Electronic Still Store (ESS™) which allows producers to store digital video images for later editing and broadcast.

1977

Ampex introduces the HBR-3000, the first high-bit rate, high-density magnetic recorder for logging and storage of electromagnetic data.

1978

The Ampex Video Art (AVA™) video graphics system is used by artist Leroy Nieman on air during Super Bowl XII. AVA, the first video paint system, allows the graphic artist, using an electronic pen, to illustrate in a new medium, video. This innovation paved the way for today's high quality electronic graphics, such as those used in video games.

1981

Ampex introduces the ADO® system, which creates digital special effects, allowing rotation and perspective of video images. This changed forever the way television material would be manipulated and created.

1983

Ampex introduces the DCRS digital cassette recorder, offering compact cassette storage with the equivalent of 16 digital, 14 inch, 8 DDR instrumentation reels on one cassette.

1983

Partial-response maximum-likelihood (PRML) data decoding technology has its first use in Ampex's DCRsi™ recorders. This technology is now commonly used in high performance computer disk drives and other high density magnetic data storage devices.

1988

Ampex introduces D-2, the first composite digital video recording format.

1991

Ampex obtains patent for keepered media, which adds a soft magnetic layer to magnetic recording media, increasing the resulting recording capacity.

1992

Ampex introduces its DCT® products, the first digital component post-production system using digital image compression technology to produce unsurpassed quality images. The system includes the finest videotape recorder ever made, the DCT 1700d.

1992

Ampex introduces its DST® products, high-performance computer mass data storage systems able to store half the contents of the Library of Congress in 21 square feet of floor space.

1995

Ampex introduces the DIS™ 120i and DIS 160i dual port, data/instrumentation recorders, making it possible for the first time to capture real time instrumentation data and then utilize the same recorder to process the data in a computer environment through its second port using SCSI-2 protocol.

1996

Ampex introduces the new double density DST data storage product line, offering the highest capacity data storage system in the industry. The DST 812 robotic library can now store 12.8 terabytes of data, the entire Library of Congress, in 21 square feet of floor space.

1997

Ampex introduces the DST 712 Automated Cartridge Library System capable of storing up to 5.8 terabytes with an aggregate data transfer rate of up to 40MB/sec.

1998

Fox Television Network becomes the first network to store its primetime television programs as data files on DST media and library systems.

1999

Ampex Introduces scalability to the to the DST 712 library system, allowing multiple DST 712 cabinets to be connected via a simple cartridge pass through mechanism Multiple libraries can be configured for almost unlimited capacity.