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Racal Recorders Limited

Company type	Public
Industry	Electronics
Predecessor	Truvox Thermionic Products Racal Thermionics
Founded	Hythe, Hampshire, United Kingdom (circa 1946 (circa 1946))
Fate	Sold to Thales, then to NICE Systems
Successor	Thales Contact Solutions NICE Systems
Headquarters	Hardley Industrial Estate Hythe, Hampshire , United Kingdom
Key people	Sir Ernest Harrison OBE, Group Chairman
Products	Multi-channel communications and data recorders

Racal Recorders Limited (a subsidiary of Racal Electronics plc) was a British manufacturer of professional communications and data recording equipment based in Hythe, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

Early history

Racal Recorders traces its origins to Thermionic Products^[1], founded circa 1948. Racal acquired Thermionic Products in 1969, forming Racal Thermionics. Racal Thermionics was renamed Racal Recorders in 1977.
The company moved from various locations in Hythe town centre to a new factory on the Hardley Industrial Estate in 1974^[2].

Significant Communications Recording Products

ICR Series (International Communications Recorder)

In 1949, Thermionic Products produced the first all-British multi-track airfield voice logger, recording 14 channels onto a 0.7 inch wide paper based magnetic tape, with a duration of 24 hours. Known as the International Call Recorder, or ICR series, this product became a familiar site at airport control room across the world.
The ICR series of voice loggers recorded multiple tracks of narrow bandwidth analogue signals (typically 300Hz to 3,400Hz) linearly onto magnetic tape. Often the recording would be accompanied by an analogue time code signal. The tape moved slowly past the recording heads, a reel of tape would normally last for 24 hours. Recorders were normally operated in pairs, if one failed the other would start recording. Recordings from ICR series recorders were often used in court proceedings as evidence.
The ICR32

microprocessor.
The ICR series was ideal for logging multiple channels of radio or telephony traffic for applications such as air-traffic control, emergency services and financial trading. However because replaying recordings was complex and time consuming, it was reserved for major incidents.

Autostore

Introduced in the 1970's, the Racal Autostore recorder was designed to log between 4 to 8 audio channels, onto a custom designed tape cassette system. Autostore had a dual deck transport system, for change-over and redundancy purposes.

Wordsafe Series

The reels of tape used by the ICR64 series of voice logger were both expensive and bulky. To address these issues, Racal Recorders introduced Wordsafe, a voice logger which used standard VHS cassettes and a modified consumer VHS mechanism. Based on a patented^[6] invention by Chief engineer Neil Crick, Wordsafe's major innovation was the use of the helical scanning technique to record multiple audio channels onto the VHS tape, instead of the linear recording technique used by the ICR series. Project manager: Mike Foster.

Elfin

Racal Recorders introduced ELFIN, a single channel VHS based telephone and dealer screen (RS232) recorder in the late 1980's. This product was not a commercial success.

Rapidax Series

To address the need to provide instant access to recordings for tactical response, Racal introduced RAPIDAX

networking and DAT tape archiving options.

Wordnet Series 1, 2 & 3

Racal introduced the Wordnet range of recorders as a hybrid of the rapid replay functionality of RAPIDAX and the logging capabilities of Wordsafe. Wordnet used hard disk drives and DAT tape technology as removable media.

Significant Instrumentation Recording Products

Racal Recorders instrumentation recorders were primarily used as test and measurement equipment in the development of other products, typical uses included reducing car noise and vibration, recording seismic activity, sonar testing and various military tests.

Store Series

The Store 4 range dates back to Thermionic Products, available in 4, 7 and 14-channel formats, tape speed could be varied from 15/640 to 60 inches per second (ips)^[8], the Store 4 had a recording bandwidth of 300-300,000Hz at a tape speed of 60ips^[9].

Storehorse Series

Racal Recorders introduced the revolutionary Storehorse instrumentation recorder in the mid 1980's. The company was granted a patent^[10] based on an invention by Tony Miles, Peter Wrigley and Neil Crick which enabled Storehorse to automatically calibrate the signal channel through the tape media. Extensive use of microprocessor technology permitted complete automatic calibration and equalization (ACE) which dramatically reduced the time and expertise required to set up the signal channel characteristics prior to record or replay. Storehorse was manufactured in 14, 28 and 42-channel versions and utilised a co-axial tape transport accommodating reels of 1 inch wide tape of up to 15 inches in diameter. Signal electronics channels were available in DR (Direct Record), FM intermediate/wideband 1 and wideband 2 standards with a HDDR wrap-around option available. Record tape speed from 15/32ipd, up to 120ips, spool speed of 240ips. A configured Storehorse weighted approximately 61kg^[11].

V-Store

Racal Recorders introduced V-Store, a multi-channel VHS cassette based instrumentation recorder in the late 1980's. Racal's Chief Engineers John Lewis, Tony Henshaw and Zoltan Marfy designed an in-house VHS tape transport. Bandwidths of DC to 100,000Hz could be achieved with a tape speed of 30ips. V-Store recorded linearly onto VHS cassettes, not using the helical technique as used in a domestic video recorder.

Storeplex Series

In response to a requirement from a leading German luxury car manufacturer, Racal Recorders introduced the Storeplex instrumentation recorder in the early 1990's. Storeplex uses S-VHS cassettes and records using digital helical scan format, it is able to record up to 64 channels (with two systems), with a maximum combined bit rate of 12.8 Mbit/s. The product was a joint venture with Joseph Heim. Project manager: Mike Foster.

Callmaster Interactive Response System

In March 1991, Racal Recorders introduced

. Callmaster did not achieve the high level of commercial success anticipated by Racal Recorders. Project manager: Jill Fuller.

Former Management

Sir Gerry Whent, former production director, later the first CEO of Vodafone.
Mr. Chudley, Managing Director, 197x-1982
David Kempson, Managing Director, 1982-1989
Adrian Day, Managing Director, 1989-1993
David Poole, Managing Director, 1993-1997
Mark Land, Finance Director, 1990-1994
Tony Cross, Technical Director, 197x-1983
Tony Miles, Technical Director, 1983-1997
Nigel Vaughan^[13], Sales & Marketing Director, 1982-1991

Queen's Awards

Racal Recorders was awarded the Queen's award for Technology and the Queen's award for Export on numerous occasions.

Queen's award for technology in 1987^[14] for Storehorse.

Acquisition by Thales

In January 2000 Thomson-CSF announced a bid for Racal Electronics plc: Racal became Thomson-CSF Racal plc and later part of Thales plc with the renaming of the larger Thomson-CSF to Thales Group. Racal Recorders became Thales Contact Solutions.
On 31 July 2002, Thales announced that it had agreed to sell Thales Contact Solutions to NICE Systems for $55m ($30m in cash and 2,187,500 ordinary shares of NICE Systems)^[15]