Replaying for Profit

One of the busiest TV performers during the strike against the networks has been the Ampex Corp. of Redwood City, Calif. As the supplier of 75% of the complex electronic equipment used in television production, Ampex accounts for most of the video tape recorders that are now working overtime, unreeling reruns while live stars man the picket lines.

When the need for reruns runs out, Ampex may be busier than ever. At the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Chicago last week, Ampex engineers showed off new gear that promises to greatly expand the versatility of television. Most impressive of the items is a $65,000 combination camera and videotape recorder (VTR) that will enable a single roving newsman to record news events on tape for immediate broadcast. The 50-lb., battery-powered pack can tape up to 20 minutes of black-and-white action on a single reel, does away with the gear-laden truck and crew now required for mobile videotape coverage.

Ampex also demonstrated a new $110,000 VTR that should have particular appeal to TV sports buffs. By recording on large metal disks rather than reels of magnetic tape, the machine will permit the first "instant replays" in color. As if that were not enough, it will allow action to be run forward and in reverse in both fast and slow motion.

For the rapidly expanding market in closed-circuit videotape for educational and industry-training programs, Ampex also introduced a color VTR that at $4,495 is the first ever to be available under $50,000.

Snickering Critics. No one gets more satisfaction from the new products than Ampex President William E. Roberts, 52. Once the No. 2 man at Bell & Howell, Roberts joined Ampex in 1961 after the loosely managed company had tumbled deep into the red. Many of Roberts' remedies were routine: he centralized administrative control, for example, and lopped off unprofitable product lines. Yet, despite Ampex' shortage of cash, Roberts also ordered a lavish step-up in research and development spending. R. & D. engineers and scientists were set to work on so many new projects that snickering critics took to calling Ampex "the model shop."

Ignoring the snickers, Roberts insisted on "an adequate yield for each dollar spent" on R. & D.--and got more than anyone expected. In five years, the returns have soared from 1961's $3,900,000 deficit to $8,510,000 profit. Sales have more than doubled, to $169 million in fiscal 1966; they are running 32% better than that for fiscal 1967, which ends April 30.

"Instant Re-Fry." For the future, Ampex looks for most of its growth to come from new and cheaper videotape equipment. Ampex competes with G.E. and Japan's Sony and Panasonic in the burgeoning closed-circuit VTR market, which is expected to quadruple to $400 million in five years. Ampex now controls some 75% of the market with $1,195 to $8,000 VTRs that are used for everything from training Burger Chef cooks in a course called "Instant Re-Fry" to giving Navy carrier pilots a flight-deck view of their own landing techniques minutes after touchdown. As far as the model shop is concerned, the next big project is to produce a low-price camera-recorder-TV receiver combination that Ampex says may be "the most promising home-entertainment innovation since television itself." Sony introduced a $1,345 set in 1965; Ampex, General Electric and Panasonic sets go for $1,600. Next year Roberts plans to be first with a version "priced in the range well under $1,000."

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