Ampex machine's high price tag. Ampex sold only about 50 or 60 ATR-124 machines, and withdrew from the professional audio tape recorder market entirely in 1983. By the 1990s, Ampex focused more on video recorders, instrumentation recorders, and data recorders. In 1991, Ampex sold their professional audio recorder line to Sprague Magnetics. The Ampex Recording Media Corporation spun off in 1995 as Quantegy Inc.; that company has ceased producing recording tape. Starting in the early 1950s, RCA, Bing Crosby and others tried to record analog video on very fast-moving magnetic tape. As early as 1952, Ampex developed prototype video tape recorders
First video-recording from a submarine successful video-recording of the inspection of Tenneco’s "Molly Brown" 32,500 barrel oil storage unit. Fred Hartdegen, Gulf Coast Operations Manager for Hydro Products, and James Smith, Hydro Products Field Operator, reconfigured a Sony two-inch, helical-scan video-recorder to fit through the hatch of the sub (video-recorders in the 1960s were a relatively new technology and were rather large) and used a “frequency stabilizer” from Cubic Corporation for the power supply. The “frequency stabilizer” converted the sub’s DC power (which varied significantly during maneuvering) to a stable DC which was then electronically converted by crystal oscillators into an AC sine wave with