Person Record

Metadata

Name

Poniatoff, Alexander M.

Notes

Born in Russia, Alexi's prosperous lumberman father recognized the boy's talent in engineering and sent him to a technical academy in Karlsruhe, Germany to study. World War I interrupted Alexi's plan to build a turbine engine factory in Russia as he found himself trapped in Germany.
After finally returning home, Alexi joined the army, scheduled to go to pilot school. Again trapped by Civil War in Russia, he fled to China where he worked for the Shanghai Power Company. In 1927 he immigrated to the United States.
As an electrical engineer, he found his services in demand here. He moved from General Electric to the Dalmo-Victor Company during World War II. He worked on wartime products such as motors and generators for airborne radar systems. He became skilled at adapting precision tuned motors to German technology that had been developed to record sound on tape. Telefunken engineers in Germany had developed the high-frequency bias technique that Poniatoff used
In 1944, Poniatoff started his own company in Redwood City, using his initials AMP plus "ex" for excellence to form the name AMPEX. After the war, Bing Crosby asked AMPEX to develop audio recording equipment and that began many innovations in commercial recording technology. In 1948, the first American built magnetic audio tape recorder revolutionized the radio industry.
AMPEX also produced the first data instrumentation recorder for storing large amounts of data on tape. These machines were used to record rapidly generated scientific information in laboratories and aircraft.
In 1951, Poniatoff decided to expand into recorders for television images. Other companies were also trying to perfect this process. His research team included such people as Milton M. Dolby. In 1956 AMPEX was able to demonstrate the first commercial video recorder and the tape to go with it. This ended the era of live TV, and allowed for delayed broadcasts in different time zones.
Portable home video recorders followed, selling for $1500 in 1971. AMPEX had become a world leader in audio and video recording.
Poniatoff served as president of his company until 1955, when he became Chairman of the Board. In 1970, he retired and he died in 1980.
(Joan Levy/ 2006)

Role

Business

Othernames

Alexander Matveevich Poniatoff

Born

03/25/1892

Birthplace

Russkaya Aysha, Kazansky District

Deceased

1980

Occupation

Founded Ampex Corporation in 1944

Places of residence

Russia
Germany
China
Redwood City

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