OR, having very reliable and high quality solutions for the recording and playback of medical videos and images that are used to explain, educate, and share has never been more critical.
With this focus on quality and reliability in mind, TEAC continues to develop convenient and easy to use recording solutions that meet and exceed the needs of our customers and partners.

TEAC`s Commitment to the Medical Industry

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 30,000.

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.

Contributions of TEAC recording technology to leading-edge R&D

A rocket successfully launched beyond the stratosphere and propelled into space, is crucially dependent on the thrust from its rocket engines. Since the start of LE-5 engine development back in the 1980s, Japanese liquid rocket engine research has been heavily focused on increasing reliability and reusability along with achieving more economic efficiency. TEAC is proud that our Data Recorders have been in use since the start of the rocket engine development program over 30 years ago, supporting data recording of vibration and pressure measurements in harsh test environments. Engine vibration data analysis plays a very significant part in new rocket engine development.

In order to achieve progress in the development of highly durable and reliable rocket engines, it is important to duplicate the actual harsh engine operating conditions during testing, such as high-speed rotation under extremely low temperature and high pressure. For a successful engine test, having detailed data for analysis is essential, since excessive vibration can adversely affect the efficiency of the engine along with performance of other components. For decades, TEAC`s technology for reliable recording of test measurement data has been trusted to confirm engine soundness and efficiency. TEAC data recording products enable multi-channel, high-speed data recording of up to 128 channels. Mission critical test applications that are enormously costly in terms of time and resources, as in rocket engine development, deserve a secure data recording solution with numerous, wide-bandwidth channels. Clearly, TEAC recording technology is vital to numerous industries, including the medical field.

Presence of TEAC Video Technology on the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

The first Olympics held in Asia was in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. This event was referred to as the "TV Olympics" because it led to massive TV adoption by Japanese consumers. New TV broadcasting technology including satellite coverage to other countries in color as well as live coverage of the entire marathon race course resulted in a large and excited viewership through televisions.

Do you know that TEAC greatly contributed to the video technologies used in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics?

It was through the world`s first slow-motion Video Tape Recorder (VTR) : TEAC provided substantial technology development support to the Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) of NHK, the most popular national public broadcasting organization in Japan.

Stories from Mr. Iwasawa, a retired TEAC engineer, who led the slow-motion VTR development project:

Based on a strong requirement for "slow-motion VTR" from the Olympic Broadcasting Service Headquarters in July 1962, two different groups in the NHK STRL started competing to accomplish the development. I was a TEAC employee as well as a support member of one of the NHK STRL groups. It took 6 months for our group to come up with a prototype proposal. The hope of the group was really high. We knew that a good accomplishment (our success) would support not only a broadcast but particularly the Tokyo Olympics. TEAC really prioritized the support (for this project) driven by the words of Mr. Tani, president of TEAC. "There is nothing more important than the national project." Eventually, our proposal was adopted.

Talking about hardship in the development:

The prototype recorder used transistors along with vacuum tubes to control movement of internal components. We had a hard time to stabilize the operations, dealing with heat generation, power supply voltage fluctuations, temperature/humidity, dust, mechanical vibration, and faulty operation.

It was also difficult to establish a servo system technology to accomplish a stable motor spin. We needed to spin a motor with a precision of 0.1 microsecond fluctuation for the magnetic head to pass a tape while the head is running at the speed of the Shinkansen (the Japanese famous bullet train).

Talking about his impressive moment:

When broadcasting the 1963 Tokyo International Sports Week (Pre-Olympics), a Japanese athlete won the women`s hurdles. The scene was captured & recorded as a trial of the new slow-motion VTR. While the video was viewed in the on-air control room, a program director who was in a separate room grabbed a phone and screamed, "It`s amazing! It must be broadcasted right away!"

It was a very memorable event for me, and I realized that slow-motion videos can impress so many people as they want to watch every movement of an athlete`s performance.

Inheritance of Technology

This slow-motion VTR technology has continuously evolved and is utilized in various other visual fields beyond the Olympics and sporting events. TEAC continues to build on its core and inherited technologies to support diverse industries with products such as Medical Imaging Recorders, NVH Data Recorders, Measurement Products and In-flight Entertainment systems.

A record of human endeavors

Human culture can trace its heritage back to three things: fire, tools and language. Spoken words were first recorded as handwritten words, followed by the introduction of the printing- press, allowing documents to be widely accessible to the general public. Human memory, on the other hand, deteriorates overtime, making it unreliable for precise intellectual activities.
To compensate for this, accurate recording, storing and playback technology is indispensable for human progress. Therefore, advances in recording technology have been an integral element in the expansion of human thought and analysis. We all bear witness to the emergence of new ideas brought about by the ever increasing advancement of information and recording technologies.
From paper to electrons, the format of information and data storage is constantly changing.
As larger and larger databases are integrated into information systems, digital data storage will continue to play a key role in the establishment of new directions of creativity.

TEAC - Model UR-X / Xi - Surgical Video Recorder- Brochure