| The first Technical GRAMMY was awarded in 1994. This Special
Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy's National
Trustees to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions
of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. For
more info, see Technical Award
Recipients.
John Eargle
John Eargle was considered by many to be the foremost expert in the audio engineering field. In the mid-1970s Eargle, who was senior director of product development and application for JBL Professional, literally wrote the books that have become "the" audio reference library for modern sound reproduction and recording: The Handbook Of Recording Engineering; The Microphone Book; The Handbook Of Sound System Design; Electroacoustical Reference Data; Music, Sound And Technology; The Loudspeaker Handbook; and, most recently, The JBL Story: 60 Years Of Audio Innovation. He also wrote and coauthored many articles in the Journal Of The Audio Engineering Society and the SMPTE Journal.
Eargle received degrees in music from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan, as well as engineering degrees from the University of Texas and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He also pursued studies in acoustics with Dr. Cyril Harris at Columbia University. Eargle was a unique resource in the audio community. He was enormously knowledgeable and generous with his time. His talks and presentations were meticulously researched and always entertaining. His many books and other contributions to the field are unsurpassed.
His early professional affiliations were with RCA Records, Mercury Records and the Altec Corporation. Eargle was the director of recording for Delos International from the 1980s until his passing in 2007. He recorded and/or produced approximately 275 compact discs. He was nominated many times and received a GRAMMY Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical from The Recording Academy in 2000. In 2002, Eargle received a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences along with other JBL engineers for the concept, design and engineering of the modern constant-directivity, direct radiator style motion picture loudspeaker systems. If you've been to a cinema in the past 20 years, you've heard the results of his work.
Eargle was a fellow, honorary member and past national president of the Audio Engineering Society, and in 1984 he won the society's Bronze Medal. He joined the faculty of the Aspen Audio Recording Institute in 1980 and served the Aspen Music Festival and School in this capacity. He was a member of the Corporate Board of Music Associates of Aspen. In addition to memberships in The Recording Academy and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Eargle was a member of Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the Acoustical Society of America and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Ampex Corporation
The Ampex Corporation, founded by Alexander M. Poniatoff, has been developing audio tape recorders since the end of World War II starting with their Ampex Model 200. The company's first sales of the Model 200 were to Bing Crosby Enterprises and the American Broadcasting Corporation.
In 1956 Ampex announced a historic breakthrough, the first practical video tape recorder. Shortly after this introduction, Poniatoff acquired Orradio Industries and renamed the company the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division. The Ampex Magnetic Tape Division continued its development of leading edge recording tapes in conjunction with its sister division, the Ampex Audio Video Systems Division. (In 2005, the six inventors of the first practical videotape recorder were honored with the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy. They were Charles Anderson, Ray Dolby, Charles Ginsburg, Shelby Henderson, Alex Maxey, and Fred Pfost.)
Numerous major advancements in recording technology over the past 35 years have resulted in today's sophisticated digital recorders. And, it is fair to say, many of these advances would not have been possible without the equally significant advancements in magnetic tape technology developed by the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division.
An excellent example of the Ampex contribution to the science of magnetic tape manufacturing was the installation of the first metal particle coating line in the United States, and indeed the first such line outside of Japan. In 1958, NASA selected Ampex recorders and tape for all of its space missions.
With original headquarters in San Carlos, Calif., Ampex was one of the first major players in the burgeoning "Silicon Valley" high-tech haven south of San Francisco. For decades, they remained the leaders in magnetic tape and tape machine manufacturing.
After a long and fruitful partnership, the Ampex Corporation decided to divest itself of its media division and the Ampex Recording Media Corporation was put up for sale. The sale was completed in November of 1995 and the recording media pioneer became Quantegy Inc. The company filed for bankruptcy in January 2005. A few months later, CEO Peter Hutt and a partner purchased the assets and restored the company.
Convenient, time-saving digital audio systems have significantly diminished the prevalence of analog tape; however, engineers continue to use the medium in tandem with digital audio to achieve quality sound. In February 2007 Quantegy discontinued most of its inventory of analog tape, although they continue to work on alternative solutions, such as the Black Diamond hard drive series, FHD FireWire hard drive series, and other video, data and storage products.
Additional information on the Ampex Corporation is available at http://www.ampex.com/03corp/03corp.html.
(Portions of this biography were provided courtesy of Quantegy Inc.)
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