Summer 2000 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

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THE, I{AGRA SAGA A chronologY of achievement (edited from Nagra {/SA's website) 1951 Stefan Kudelski, a physics student at what is now the Swiss Federal institute of Technology, Lausanne, working at home in his spare time, built the first Nagra portable self-contained audio recorder. This prototype was followed by several Nagra machines manufactured with the modest means then available to the young inventor. Two Nagra recorders, purchased by Radio Geneva, were taken on the Everest expedition led by Raymond Lambert. Professor Augustine Piccard used another during his deep sea dives in the bathyscaphe Trieste, and the French radio stafion Europe 1 acquired a machine for its news gathering. 1957 The Nagra III. a transistorised tape recorder with electronic speed control, was launched. For the first time ever, a unit weighing model no bigger than a wallet, is received enthusiasticallv bv Sound recordists. 1961 Invention of the Neopilot system 1964 At this time Stefan Kudelski's workshop was located in Paudex, to the east of l-ausanne. A subsidiary is opened in Renens, and a large plot of land purchas'ed at Cheseauxsur-Lausanne for the building of a new factory. 1968 Stefan Kudelski' Kudelski SA. 1970 - 1977 Several Nagra models are launched into the market: Nagra 4.2 for the cinema, the Nagra 45 (stereo) for film and record industries, the Nagra Sl for acoustic instrumentation use, the Nagra IS for reporters in the field, the Nagra E for low budget professional users, and the miniature Nagra SNST for security applications. 1977 The Nagrafax, a meteorological receiverirecorder system, designed specially for use by both commercial and private vessels was introduced. This system soon became standard on-board equipment for ocean-going ships. 1978 This year sees the introduction of the Nagra TI 'instrumentation recorder. X980 Kudelski SA takes its first step into video with a portable professional standard 1" C format video recorder. An agreement is signed with Ampex for marketine the Ampex/N-agra \zPR-S. A small studio machine, the Nagra TA , derived from the Nagra TI joins the product range. 1987 Kudelski SA and Honeywell Inc (USA) sign a cooperation agreement for the development of a rotating head data recorder (RTU) for instrumentation applications. 1988 Development begins on the Nagra-D digital audio recorder only five kilograms could be relied upon to Nugra I produce recordings of the same quality as those achieved by the best non-portable studio recorders. 1989 Canal + decides to replace all of its decoders 1960 The Italian Radio & Television Corp (RAI) with the Decodex system, developed by NagraVision. purchases about one hundred Nagra III machines for This division of Kudelski SA is formed to carry the the Summer Olympics in Rome. Kudelski is producing responsibility for all pay-TV activities, Canal + (Spain) adopts the NagraVision system during this year. 480 recorders vearlv. The Nagra SN, a new .i......::, n990 The NagraVision system is adopted by the German 'Premiere' TV channel. Development of the Nagra-D 4-channel digital recorder intended for the music and cinema industries near completion. 1991 Andre Kudelski takes over leadership of the company and is appointed president of Kudelski SA. The millionth decoder built under license from NagraVision leaves the Nogra II factory. The Nagra-D development team is reinforced and the first industrial s private company becomes prototype is made ready. t99Z The Nagra-D is officially launched at the AES Convention in Vienna. Nagra Kudelski GmbH (Munich) becomes a fully owned subsidiary of Kudelski SA and Nagra Kudelski (GB) Ltd (trndon) is formed. t0 ()tu' tlnnks to John Rudling of Nagra GB for the piaures af the Nagra I and II
LETTING OFF STEAM AMPS Meeting at Twickenham Studios 717100 Sadly the turn out was very poor - about a dozen, including our guests from New Zealand, AMPS member Kit Rollings and his wife Lee. Happily it was a high quality attendance and the UK members made our guests feel very welcome. There was a fine spread of Tony Luptons's tasty sandwiches along with good red and white wine to wash them down- Kit and Lee,like most New Zealanders were very sociable, mingling and talking easily with all present. I had, that afternoon, driven them out to Pinewood Studios where Graham Hartstone gave most generously of his time, taking them on a thorough, personally conducted tour of Pinewood Sound Department' s state-of-the- art facil ities. Kit was most impressed and so was Lee; being a sound man's wife she comprehended most of the goings on. On our way back to the Twickenham meeting I took them to see Denham Old Village, a time warp curiosity for those who live in the UK but it is exactly what every antipodean visitor expects an English village to look like. During the journey back they also got a good idea of London's Friday night rush hour traffic. Back to the meeting, we managed to get Kit to talk to us about his work in New Zealand. He gave a most interesting account of the New Zealand National Film Unit where he started off in the sound department in 1965. At that time the sound department staff were allocated jobs and looked after alJ the sound requirements for that production ie production souhd, FX recording, post synch when required, commentary recording, track laying, final mix and transfer to photographic. When the NFU ceased being, six or seven years back, the studios and processing lab were sold and Kit started out on his own as a freelance sound designer. He set up a studio and cutting room in the lower floor of his home situated on the hills overlooking Wellington Harbour. He uses Pro Tools and still treasures his veteran Nagra 45. Although he is in far flung New Zealand (Sydney, Australia, 1200 miles away is the nearest overseas city) he is not in a backwater. Most of the big equipment manufacturers have agencies in Auckland or Wellington who are able to supply all the latest gear and provide the know how to back it up. If problems arise that can't be coped with, there's always the internet to fall back on for direct communication with the manufacturer. According to Kit, there is a reasonable amount of film and TV work going on in NZ. The big job is local film maker PeterJackson's Trilogy of L,ord Of The Rings-- three features shot back to back involvins masses of dieital effects and crowds of 800 to 1OO0 extras. Peter Jackson seems to be New Zealand's film wonder boy. He bought the NFU studio complex and lab, saved the only surviving 70mm cinema in NZ. raised the monev for Lord Of The Rings, and has invented a spokenlanguage for the Hobbits. Unfortunately Kit is not involved with the project but we hope that when it comes to post production his expert sound design talents will be called upon. Other productions made in New Zealand and aired in the UK by Channel 5 are Xena, Hercules and Dtnk Knight. Xena and Hercules use NZ production crews but post production is done in the US. With talk about Maori politics, non-linear equipment crashes, tolerant attitudes to downtime caused by crashes, the lasting life of ll4' tape, digital tape and CDs plus other topics, a delightfully relaxed, informal evening was enjoyed by all who turned out as well as by our guests. Pity you missed it. BOB ALLEN 11 FROM HONORARY MEMBER JOHN ALDRtrD Congratulations on such a fine looking Spring issue, and what an enhancement colour makes, as well as a slightly stiffer cover. Well done! What a change from the 1994issues of a few pages stapled together. I was interested to read the item about Doltry's 35 years of hard work. I first came across a Dolby A-type unit whilst I was working in Canada, and made several generations of a magnetic recording without any apparent deterioration. But my boss at that time thought the unit was a waste of money! Back in the UK I was involved with all the preliminary tests which Dolby were making on photographic film sound, and the first Dolby Stereo recordings were quite exciting. They also excited the SMPTE Toronto Conference tn ITl2 where the system was unveiled. Ray Dolby deserves all the credit he has been given, but his film man Ioan Allen should not be forgotten. He was the engineer in charge of the film programme, and his efforts have been documented elsewhere as ['m sure you know. He has been suitably honoured by the BKSTS and the SMPIE, and I would like to propose that his name goes forward when AMPS are next considering Fellowships. He was a member of the ISO film sound committee when I was Chairman, and I learnt a lot from him. I also helped him with the Russians who hated all Americans - even though Ioan is British.
Page 1 and 2: t'- The Newsletter of the Associati
Page 3 and 4: PRO TOOLS DEMO FORAMPS MEMBERS Many
Page 5 and 6: RYCOTE'S International Sound Forum
Page 7 and 8: Interestingly Florian's wish list i
Page 9: The main difficulty then was the po
Page 13 and 14: THE PINEWOOD STORY The Autltorised
Page 15 and 16: ROBIN CLARKE MUSIC EDITOR 1932 - 2O

Summer 2000 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

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