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Topic: Mag Tape is Dead? Quantegy Closes.

John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 01-03-2005 09:40 AM

Quantegy (successor to Ampex) closes plant. Was likely last manufacturer of reel-to-reel magnetic tape:

Opelika-Auburn News

quote:
Opelika plant closes

Tamiko Lowery
Staff Writer
Sunday, January 2, 2005

When they clocked out for the Christmas holidays, Quantegy employees planned on returning to work, as scheduled, Monday. But, there's no job to go back to - for some 250 employees.

"No Trespassing" signs were erected Friday afternoon and security passwords were changed at the Opelika plant, 2230 Marvyn Parkway.

"Quantegy, Inc. has ceased operations pending restructuring. This is due to financial issues that have plagued the industry and Quantegy for some time. All employees are on lay off pending further notice," according to a brief press release issued by the company Friday. The Opelika plant, once employed some 1,800 workers, has recently filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Almost 60 years ago, the story was different. "In 1945, after capturing several German 'Magnetophon' tape recorders from Radio Luxembourg, the American Signal Corps recorded a speech by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to be played to the people of occupied Germany. Due to a shortage of recording tape, the speech had to be recorded on a reel of used German tape.

Due to a problem with the German tape recorder, the tape was not completely erased and the voice of Adolph Hitler was intermittently heard along with Eisenhower's voice. This caused a great deal of fear and confusion among the German people and obviously a great deal of embarrassment for the Allied Signal Corps.

Gen. Eisenhower issued an immediate order that no more captured German tape was to be used and assigned Maj. John Herbert Orr to develop an American magnetic tape manufacturing facility.

Maj. Orr located a German scientist, Dr. Karl Pfleumer, who gave him a basic formula for magnetic tape. Within two weeks, Maj. Orr had managed to manufacture his first reels of usable audio tape. After returning to his home in Opelika, Alabama, Orr set up a magnetic tape manufacturing facility and soon afterwards began marketing his own tape under the "IRISH" brand name. Orr continued his manufacturing operation and in 1959, Orradio Industries became part of the Ampex Corporation.

Founded by Alexander M. Poniatoff, The Ampex Corporation had been developing audio tape recorders since the end of WWII starting with its model 200. The company's first sales of the Model 200 were to Bing Crosby Enterprises and the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In 1956, Ampex announced a historic breakthrough - the first practical video tape recorder.

Shortly after this introduction Poniatoff and Orr entered into negotiations and in 1959, Orradio Industries became the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division of Ampex Corporation. In November of 1995, the Ampex Recording Media Corporation was put up for sale, and the recording media pioneer became Quantegy Inc., according to www.quantegy.com Fast forward 2005...

"It's like Happy New Year - you don't have a job," said one former Quantegy employee. "Most of these employees have worked there 28 to 30 years - they don't know anything else; they are a different breed of people, dedicated to the company. The average age is 50 plus, and no matter what they say - it's not easy to start over."

Quantegy management could not be reached Saturday.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 01-03-2005 10:10 AM

What with this and Ilford having gone under last August, times certainly do seem to be changing. I'm not surprised that studio/professional analogue audio tape is now to all intents and purposes an obsolete technology, because two decades or so of Moore's Law now means that even a cheap PC and sound card can equal the performance of the seriously expensive 1/4" decks in use a generation ago. It's exactly the same principle whereby no-one uses manual typewriters for word processing anymore.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 01-03-2005 10:26 AM

First of all, how nice of them to treat their employees so well. Not even a warning.

Videotape is still being made in mass quantities, isn't it? Surely these are not wildly different products. I can see where when, say, VHS sales have collapsed that it might be hard to sell it in very small quantities because all the bits and pieces that make up the cassette shell are only economic when mass produced. But audio tape? Sure it may differ a bit from videotape but once you make it it need only be slit (2", 1", 1/2" 1/4") and spooled onto reels. There should still be a market for it for years to come. So perhaps this is more about overseas competition.

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 01-03-2005 12:17 PM

Too bad. We used miles of 1/2" Ampex 456 when I was a soundman at the original MGM Grand (now Bally's) here. Great stuff.

And what of mag film? I assume it's inevitable that double-system projection will drop tape altogether...

[ 01-03-2005, 06:23 PM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 01-03-2005 12:30 PM

I talked to my contacts at Kodak FPC, and they said FPC magnetic films are sourced out of Europe, and are not affected by the Quantegy announcement:

http://www.fpchollywood.com/magnetic-film-fullcoat-5-mil-.html

http://www.fpchollywood.com/magnetic-film.html

quote:
With low noise and lower overall distortion, FPC Fullcoat Magnetic Recording Film ensures an award-winning performance every time
This magnetic film has contributed to many “Best Achievement In Sound” awards for such films as Gladiator, Empire Strikes Back, and Saving Private Ryan
Available in 16mm and 35mm

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 01-03-2005 03:33 PM

quote: Steve Kraus
First of all, how nice of them to treat their employees so well. Not even a warning.

It seems totally acceptable within the current culture of American big business. Employees are more of a nuisance than anything else. The only people that matter are the CEO, COO, CFO and members of the board. Everyone else can get bent. Just have to elevate that stock price at the expense of everything else.

I've seen similar closures of smaller businesses. A local pizza restaurant and video game entertainment center here in Lawton closed down in the same surprise manner. Except the employees in this case were greeted by members of the Lawton Police Department and told to get off the premises. There were rumors the business owners were laundering money or some other stuff like that. But there has been no evidence to suggest any charges were filed. They made their money and left.

In previous years I've been big on the idea of trying to buy American products. But with so many American CEO's getting paid much higher than any of their foreign counterparts and seeming to have no loyalty whatsoever to anything, why should I support them? I drive a Chevy pickup truck right now. But the next vehicle I buy may be a Honda hybrid. If big business American CEO's say outsourcing is a great thing, then there's nothing wrong with me outsourcing the profit they want to a foreign executive.
[fu]

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 01-03-2005 05:39 PM

Apparently these unfortunate employees are not covered by The WARN Act because Quantegy was a "faltering" company.

I hate to be a jerk, and I sincerely sympathize with anyone who gets laid off like this. I've been through a company closure myself and it's traumatic to say the least. But how can anyone working for a US-based company manufacturing reel-to-reel tape (and in Chapter 11) be surprised by its closure? [Frown]

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-03-2005 07:09 PM

quote: Steve Kraus
First of all, how nice of them to treat their employees so well. Not even a warning.

Component Engineering did a similar thing to their Employees when they were bought out. No one knew for quite a while......

Mark

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-03-2005 07:12 PM

quote: David Stambaugh
But how can anyone working for a US-based company manufacturing reel-to-reel tape (and in Chapter 11) be surprised by its closure?

While it is true that Quantegy was the only company left in the world still manufacturing reel-to-reel tape, that was not the only product they made. They were also a leading pro digital media (CDR, DAT, etc) manufacturer as well.

Hopefully another manufacturer gets hold of the Q'gy tooling and formulas and begins running off more runs of tape; the market IS still out there.

-Aaron

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-03-2005 07:43 PM

What about BASF? Are they still manufacturing tape? I actually prefered some of the BASF stuff(911) over Quantagy?

Mark

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Jon Miller
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 973
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-03-2005 08:50 PM

For sake of argument, Mark, kaput. [Frown]

In 1995, BASF sold their recording-media operations to EMTEC, an independent company, which continued BASF's passion for excellence (and carried over, with only a name change, BASF's "spool of tape" logo). EMTEC went insolvent in April of 2003 and liquidated most of their production equipment just last September and October. (Visit this link for more sad details).

It looks like the coffin has been all but sealed on the reel-to-reel era. [Frown]

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Luciano Brigite
Master Film Handler

Posts: 277
From: Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 01-03-2005 09:29 PM

Being a Reel to reel fan,I ran tru a lot of tape brands,most of my reels are 3M's Scotch brand and a few other variants (3M brand followed by a number code) and Maxell. what happened to those two?
Other brands I used were Basf and Ampex (both before name changes).
There are a few Sony tapes in the collection too but I don't think they're still made, tho Sony still seems to be making 1" reel tape for video recorders (not really sure on this )

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-03-2005 10:45 PM

quote: Luciano Brigite
Being a Reel to reel fan,I ran tru a lot of tape brands,most of my reels are 3M's Scotch brand and a few other variants (3M brand followed by a number code) and Maxell. what happened to those two?

In 1997, 3M sold off their audio media division to... you guessed it: Quantegy.

Quantegy GP9 and 3M 996 are the exact same tape, if you were a fan of 3M 996.

Maxell stopped production of reel to reel tape sometime in the late 90's as well. Rumor has it that Maxell still has all the tooling to produce reel to reel tape again... TDK quit making reels in the late 80's.

Quantegy's main US retailer, US Recording Media , claims that this situation will only be temporary, but the reel to reel stock they do have is going FAST...

Below is a message regarding Quantegy's demise from US Recording Media:

NOTICE--------NOTICE------------NOTICE----------NOTICE-----------NOTICE
Quantegy Inc. has unfortunately shut down production of all their products and shut down the entire factory in Opelika Alabama which explains why we have so little Quantegy product left. We're told this is a temporary situation for restructuring (financial.)

The recording business consists of thousands of talented engineers, artists, and studio people who are not going to, in our opinion, let analog tape die. It is still the preferred method to capture sound although it may be mixed and edited digitally. It is also the preferred archiving method in many circles. Many recording artists will not record on digital equipment and this includes some of the biggest names in recording history.

It may be a little while but we're convinced there will be analog tape manufactured once again and we don't feel it's dead. The new tape may not be a Quantegy product. If it isn't, we're talking about a brand new production line with brand new equipment here in the USA. We want to thank everyone who supported Quantegy and AMPEX over the years. Be patient, we feel everything will be ok.

This matter will have little financial impact on US Recording. We're not going anywhere. And we're looking forward to dealing with the new owners of Quantegy or whomever might be "drafted" into making new tape.

Better get it while its available!

-Aaron

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Bill Enos
Film God

Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 01-04-2005 12:21 AM

What're the bets that the next reel to reel tape comes from from the home of all things cheap, China?

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-04-2005 03:28 AM

We won't be able to get razor blades & white china markers next!

quote: Bill Enos
What're the bets that the next reel to reel tape comes from from the home of all things cheap, China?

Or some similar place with environmental regulations so lax, as the PC industry in China seems to be tied very closely to the cheapness of being able to create environmental watelands around the industry. I believe the Opelika, AL plant (originally Ampex or 3M) had some serious, expensive environmental mess from their operation. Apparently the solution is just to close shop, leave their mess behind, & will likely proceed as Bill Enos said, to China or someplace where they can do it again.

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