Company

TEAC has pursued the highest level of technology for recording and playback since its foundation in 1953.
It has provided products utilizing the technology cultivated since its foundation to the medical field for approximately 30 years, and the number of medical imaging products provided for this field up until now totals over 50,000.

In the past few years, the technology required for the medical field has significantly changed together with the development and advancement of medical technology.
For example, a gastrointestinal endoscope is used for the purpose of examining inside the gastrointestinal tract, mainly the stomach and large intestine, but the areas of concern in video output to the monitor are ordinarily recorded as still images.
However, as technology has advanced in recent years, a gastrointestinal endoscope not only has a role in examinations but is also used for patient treatment (resection), so the need to record video of the overall procedure in addition to still images has become great.
Furthermore, in the field of surgery, minimally invasive endoscopic surgery has also become widespread.
Unlike abdominal operations in which a large incision is made to open up the abdomen, an opening of about a few centimeters is sufficient with endoscopic surgery so the burden on the patient is greatly reduced.
The number and percentage of stomach, large intestine, and other endoscopic surgeries performed increase yearly, and there has been an expansion in the deployment of the new technologies of HD and 3D for endoscope video to show the site of surgery.
Currently, robots that perform endoscopic surgery are being used in actual medical settings.

The frequency with which cameras, in particular, endoscope cameras, are used in such medical settings has become high, and there is a growing need to record surgical procedures shown by such cameras as video.

A rocket is launched into space beyond the stratosphere.
The success of a rocket launch greatly depends on the rocket engine.
At present, there is a need for rocket engine development which started with the LE-5 not only to increase the reliability of launching a rocket into space, but also to enable reuse of the rocket engines used for the launch and to be conscious of the cost and increase economic efficiency.
TEAC's data recorders for vibration and pressure measurement have been in use for 30 years since the start of rocket engine development for recording rocket engine development measurement data.

Engine vibration data analysis is extremely important for new rocket engine development.
A simulation of actual harsh operating conditions such as extremely low temperature, high pressure, and high-speed spinning, and testing under these conditions enables the study of highly durable engines and the development of highly reliable rocket engines.
Vibration exceeding the prescribed threshold reduces the engine's energy efficiency and adversely affects other components.
Test data analysis is essential to eliminate such problems.
TEAC's recording technology to ensure more reliable recording of measurement data of tests is used to certify the health of engines.
Unlike other data recorders, TEAC's data recorders enable multi-channel high-speed data recording.
Accordingly, a large volume of data can be recorded at multiple locations (on up to 128 channels) for a single test.
For field applications where a lot of time and money are spent on a single test, there is a need to ensure the recording of data with a wide bandwidth even on many channels.
TEAC's recording technology is used in various locations besides the medical field.

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics was the first Olympics held in Asia.
This Olympics was also called a "TV Olympics" due to utilization of the latest video technologies at that time, including broadcast to foreign countries via satellite, color broadcast, and live coverage of the entire marathon course, which promoted explosive TV penetration.
Do you know that TEAC greatly contributed to the video technologies used in this Tokyo Olympics?
What TEAC contributed is the world's first slow-motion VTR. Upon request from the NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories at that time, TEAC greatly supported NHK in the development.

Mr. Iwasawa, a retired TEAC engineer, who led the development project at that time, tells the story as follows.

Upon strong request from the Headquarters at the Olympic Broadcasting Services for the development of a slow-motion VTR in July 1962, two sections of the NHK STRL (the Recording Technology Special Research Laboratories and the Development Department) started competing in the development of a new recording method.
The Recording Technology Special Research Laboratories, of which I was a member at that time, studied the possibility and feasibility of a recording mechanism and put together a prototype proposal with support from TEAC. It was the result of a half year's cooperation.
We hoped very much that if we made something good, it would be used for not just any broadcast but in particular for Olympic broadcast.
TEAC's President, Mr. Tani, said, "How can I say no when it comes to the national flag?" and the custom equipment group of TEAC immediately came to support us.

Mr. Iwasawa talks about the difficulty in the development.

We had difficulty in stabilizing the operation of the prototype recorder. Since the recorder used both transistors and vacuum tubes, we struggled with solving various problems, such as heat generation, power supply voltage fluctuations, temperature and humidity, dust, mechanical vibration, misoperation, and so on.
It was also difficult to establish a servo system technology to spin the motor stably. Our technology enabled spinning a motor with a precision of 0.1 microsecond fluctuation at the passage time of the magnetic head running at the speed of the Shinkansen (the bullet train).

Mr. Iwasawa talks about an event by which he was especially impressed.

When broadcasting the 1963 Tokyo International Sports Week (Pre-Olympics), a Japanese athlete won the women's hurdles race.
The scene was recorded with the slow-motion VTR being used on a trial basis and the slow-motion video was sent to the on-air control room.
A program director who watched it shouted, "It's amazing! Broadcast it right away." The order was given by phone and it was broadcast immediately.
It was a very impressive event. Mr. Iwasawa felt strongly that many people are looking forward to watching slow-motion videos that have captured the dynamic moments of athletes.

Inheritance of Technology

This slow-motion VTR technology has continued to evolve and is now widely used in various visual fields besides sporting events.
TEAC uses this inherited technology, for example, for video recorders that record medical images, data recorders that record vibration, pressure, electrical, image, and other signals, and video players for in-flight entertainment, thus continuing to contribute to the industrial field.