Showers this morning, becoming a steady rain during the afternoon hours. High 67F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..
Tonight
Occasional rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 54F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
We are the VT Oldboys of BBC Television in the United Kingdom. Our website (www.vtoldboys.com) chronicles the story and stories of the engineers and editors who operated and maintained videotape recorders from their inception. One of our ex-colleagues who now works in San Jose has photographed the sign for us on his way to work and has now sent a link to your newspaper article about its removal and the letter from Billy James in the Aug. 18 edition of the Daily Journal (“Ampex sign comes down”).
For years, Ampex had been up with the world leaders in audio magnetic recording, but it was their brilliant innovation of the rotary video recording head that stunned the broadcasting world in 1956 by showing that television pictures could be recorded and be replayed within seconds, simultaneously kicking every other company and nation’s attempts to record a quality TV picture into the long grass (including the USSR).
Over the years, BBC Television in London worked closely with Ampex in Redwood City helping to refine each major development, from tubes to transistors, the transition from black and white TV to full color, slow-motion, the advances to miniaturization and portability, etc.
We old U.K. BBC engineers and operators of Ampex’s extraordinarily wide product range of broadcasting equipment treasure the memories of Ampex’s glorious 40 years of equipment production. There can’t have been many of BBC Television’s award winning programs that didn’t have an Ampex link in the production chain.
Redwood City should be proud to put that company sign in a place where folk can read the Ampex story and say proudly: ‘Yup, we did it.’
Chris Booth...Thank you for this letter. It's something the majority of us did not know. Like most American companies in the 40's, 50's, 60s', they kept their heads down and did their jobs. No fanfare. Thank you again.
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Chris Booth...Thank you for this letter. It's something the majority of us did not know. Like most American companies in the 40's, 50's, 60s', they kept their heads down and did their jobs. No fanfare. Thank you again.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.