The End of Video Tape (page 2)

Is This Really the End?

So, is the end of tape really here? Will all those cassettes in shoeboxes and on storage shelves become nothing more than the proverbial paperweight? It's not likely. Rest assured, you will not need to hunt for raw tape on the black market just to keep that old camcorder going for the next few years. Tape has secured a firm place for itself for at least the near future. However, with more and more manufacturers beginning to phase out development and production of new tape-based recording systems, there is no doubt that we are quickly heading for a future where solid-state recording is center stage. For how long is anyone's guess.

Michael Fitzer is an Emmy award-winning commercial and documentary writer/producer.

Side Bar: Working with Tape in the Good Ol' Days

The earliest Ampex VTR was the VR-1000 (Top left photo), used at WTVT in 1957. The RCA-TR22s (bottom left photo), introduced in the 1960s, were more efficient, reliable machines that made extensive use of transistors. The quad tape (only a few minutes in length) was inside a bulky plastic container. The tape was bar-coded and loaded into a carousel that held about fifty other tapes inside the machine. A computer would trigger the correct tape for air. A noisy suction device would pull the tape out of the cassette and around the heads for playback. In the foreground of the bottom center photo is an Ampex VR-1200. WTVT engineer Rick Rea stands beside two Ampex VR-2000Bs. One of them was equipped with the Ampex Editec that had animation capability. The bottom right photo has Rea and the Ampex ACR-25, the first quad VTR that used a cassette-style cartridge. Find more on quad VTRs and clips from the oldest restored quad tapes here. You can see more historical information on WTVT's site.