Charles Hubert Coleman Jr. (October 28, 1926 – July 13, 2005) was an American electronic engineer and a pioneer in the field of color

video tape recording A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. They were use ...

and later in high data-rate digital

tape recording An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present- ...

. He was also an amateur explorer and avid pilot.

Early life

Coleman was born on October 28, 1926, in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

and, as one of three children, grew up in

Charleston, Illinois Charleston is a city in, and the county seat of, Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 17,286, as of the 2020 census. The city is home to Eastern Illinois University and has close ties with its neighbor, Mattoon. Both are p ...

. His father was a professor of history at a state teacher's college. On his 17th birthday in October 1943, he joined the

US Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

. Following boot camp, he was shipped to the Pacific and spent the remainder of the war teaching young Marines how to be radio technicians. Upon discharge in 1946, he joined WBKB-TV (now WBBM) in Chicago. In 1953, WBKB-TV was purchased by

CBS Television CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

. At CBS he quickly became a pioneer in the brand new field of

. Coleman invented Autotec

time base correction Time base correction (TBC) is a technique to reduce or eliminate errors caused by mechanical instability present in analog recordings on mechanical media. Without time base correction, a signal from a videotape recorder (VTR) or videocassette ...

and applied it to improve the quality of the black and white TV broadcasts from WBKB

Career at Ampex

By 1960, engineers at

Ampex Corporation Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...

in had recognized the superior quality of the recorded TV images being shown on a certain Chicago TV station (WBKB). Coleman was quickly lured to join Ampex in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

where he spent the rest of his career on perfecting

and pushing the boundaries of high data-rate tape-recording. Coleman made many inventions and received many accolades for his work. He received both the

SMPTE The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the m ...

David Sarnoff David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971) was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career, he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities from shortly afte ...

Gold Medal and the IEEE Vladimir K. Zworykin Award in 1970 and, subsequently, the

Alexander M. Poniatoff Alexander Matveevich Poniatoff (russian: Александр Матвеевич Понятов, tr. ''Aleksándr Matvéjevič Ponjatóv''; 25 March 1892 – 24 October 1980) was an American electrical engineer. Poniatoff was born in 1892 in Russkay ...

Award at Ampex in 1971, for his contributions to color video tape recording. Coleman was also the driving force behind the Digital Cassette Recording System. Ampex' most successful digital product. His colleagues at Ampex included

Charles Ginsburg Charles Paulson Ginsburg (July 27, 1920 – April 9, 1992) was an American engineer and the leader of a research team at Ampex which developed one of the first practical videotape recorders. Biography Ginsburg was born on July 27, 1920 in San ...

, John Mallinson, and

Neal Bertram Neal Bertram is a physicist noted for his contributions to the theory of magnetic recording. From 1968 to 1985, he worked for Ampex Corporation in Redwood City. From 1985 to 2004, he was an Endowed Chair Professor at the Center for Memory and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Charles American electronics engineers 1926 births 2005 deaths Engineers from Washington, D.C. Military personnel from Washington, D.C. United States Marines 20th-century American engineers People from Charleston, Illinois Engineers from Illinois Military personnel from Illinois United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II Deaths from kidney failure