This Day In EAR History

This Day in EAR history -The Total Technolgy Catalog

EAR’s Total Technology Catalog Released – June 1st 1987

Information is changing with the blink of an eye. Products come and go and features evolve almost daily. But in 1987 the professional audio and video world was very different, change came at a predictably slow pace. The Total Technology Catalog (TTC) was bold and different for the late 1980’s. With most companies identifying themselves as either audio or video, EAR printed a catalog with both audio AND video.

Late Generation Audio MultiTrack (click to see more)

While a lot has changed in the decades since the TTC was released, our customers and markets have remained constant. Many of the people that helped us create this unique publication are still with EAR today. With literally hundreds of years of professional audio, video and systems expertise under one roof, we’ve decided to explain some of our history as a regular feature of our website.

ABOUT THE TTC

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Why was showing audio and video equipment in the same catalog different? 30 years ago audio and video products were entirely separate parts of the workflow – separate equipment and operators, even on the same project. As products became faster and smarter, the need to synchronize audio and video tape became fundamental. We don’t think much about it today – but locking to mechanical transports together and “syncing them up” was quite a trick!

Working with different film, video and audio transports during playback and record became a challenging new art. EAR was among the first companies nationally to specialize in helping people program this new generation of products and the synchronizing computers that controlled them. Some of our clients included Robert Altman, Paul McCartney, Lindsay Buckingham and many other artists pushing the technology envelope for that day.

As tape based workflows became replaced by file based computer systems, EAR moved from tape transport companies (Otari, Tascam and Fostex) to file based editing companies (apple, Avid, AJA, Adobe). Our goal has always been to deliver the most sophisticated and cost effective professional products. We are considered by many to be the go-to people in the Southwest for audio and video workflow design and product support. We can help provide the best value for individual parts – or turnkey systems that deliver the most for your investment.