Mr. Alexander Matveevich Poniatoff

founded, in 1944, the Ampex company, using his initials, A.M.P., plus "ex" for "excellence" to create the name. The high-frequency bias technique, which made quality recording possible, was invented by Telefunken engineers, and Poniatoff was the beneficiary of what was effectively war-booty. Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen's original magnetic recorder was previously only usable for telephony recording. In 1956, engineers of Ampex created the world's first rotary head recorder, the VR-1000 videotape recorder. Poniatoff served as president of Ampex until 1955 when he was elected chairman of the board.