The 2” Quadruplex

One of our two Ampex AVR-3 high/super-high band VTRs in action at our Hollywood studio.

These VTRs were first produced in 1975, and they are tremendously difficult to find parts for and maintain. It can take up to 30 minutes for an engineer to setup and align the tape for playback on one of these machines.

As an engineering “side project” in Hollywood, we're restoring an Ampex VR-2000 from 1964, almost 10 years older than the shown AVR-3. The VR-2000 was the first color-capable quad VTR. Ours has been modified to play low-band black & white quad video tapes as well.

The first Ampex 2” VTR (the VR-1000) was introduced in 1956, and was only capable of playing/recording black & white video. At the time, the VR-1000 cost approx. $50,000 - which is equivalent to about $450,000 today. This was the successor to film and the first broadcast video format, super historic stuff!

Fun fact, these machines require compressed air for operation, and each unit connected to an air supply. The magnetic video head sits on a spinning transverse head wheel, due to its extremely high rotational speed. Conventional ball bearings would wear out quickly, so an air bearing was used.