The Invention and development of videotape
- 2 years ago
Before compact discs, Blu-ray, Apple TV, DVRs, and pay-per-view, home movie nights involved an extra step. Visiting the local video store was a weekly activity for many families: Children and adults roamed the aisles picking movies to rent or buy to watch at home over the weekend.
Even if it may be challenging to find a video store in your community these days, the invention of videotape and the industries it gave rise to revolutionized how people consumed entertainment, breaking with traditions that had been in place since the invention of film and television.
The dawn of the television age brought about several advances in how programming was brought to the masses. Film stock used in motion pictures was expensive and easily degraded, and developing the film took time.
“Live” television, the only other option, was limited by human error and the need for all the players in a program to be together at one time.
The evolution of videotape—the recording of sounds and images onto magnetic tape that could then be replayed—began in the early 1950s. Television giants such as RCA and entertainer Bing Crosby’s production company worked on adapting technology used in the music recording business, with some early success, but the images produced were grainy and hard to make out. The technology at that time required miles of tape on which to store data, making it expensive and impractical.
Despite these drawbacks, a videotaped performance of singer Dorothy Collins was included during the live broadcast of The Jonathan Winters Show in 1956, and the era of videotape was born.
The first commercially viable system was developed by an American company, Ampex, in 1956. Its “quad” system used 2-inch (or 5-cm) tape that four magnetic heads ran across, recording images and sound and allowing the entire width of the tape to be used, minimizing the amount of material needed to store data.
In the mid-1960s, Sony developed a videotape recorder for home use, and the industry exploded. Videotape would remain popular for public use until digital recording on compact discs or hard drives became widely available to consumers in the 21st century. However, videotape is still used for film and television production today due to its inexpensive cost and its lengthy lifespan
Even if it may be challenging to find a video store in your community these days, the invention of videotape and the industries it gave rise to revolutionized how people consumed entertainment, breaking with traditions that had been in place since the invention of film and television.
The dawn of the television age brought about several advances in how programming was brought to the masses. Film stock used in motion pictures was expensive and easily degraded, and developing the film took time.
“Live” television, the only other option, was limited by human error and the need for all the players in a program to be together at one time.
The evolution of videotape—the recording of sounds and images onto magnetic tape that could then be replayed—began in the early 1950s. Television giants such as RCA and entertainer Bing Crosby’s production company worked on adapting technology used in the music recording business, with some early success, but the images produced were grainy and hard to make out. The technology at that time required miles of tape on which to store data, making it expensive and impractical.
Despite these drawbacks, a videotaped performance of singer Dorothy Collins was included during the live broadcast of The Jonathan Winters Show in 1956, and the era of videotape was born.
The first commercially viable system was developed by an American company, Ampex, in 1956. Its “quad” system used 2-inch (or 5-cm) tape that four magnetic heads ran across, recording images and sound and allowing the entire width of the tape to be used, minimizing the amount of material needed to store data.
In the mid-1960s, Sony developed a videotape recorder for home use, and the industry exploded. Videotape would remain popular for public use until digital recording on compact discs or hard drives became widely available to consumers in the 21st century. However, videotape is still used for film and television production today due to its inexpensive cost and its lengthy lifespan