Further to various developments in the USA we regret to announce that Quantegy Europa Ltd. distributors of Quantegy (formerly AMPEX) professional audio tape in the UK and Europe, have ceased trading and are now in the hands of an administrator.

The move follows efforts in the US to re-structure the manufacturing company based in Opelika, in Alabama. However, despite support from US dealers and trade organizations, the planned re-structuring has not been possible in time to avoid application for 'Chapter 11' bankruptcy protection.

The US court is expected to define the terms of the 'Chapter 11' application by the end of February, in the mean time industry concerns are growing over the availability of Quantegy / Ampex tape, a staple consumable for many recording studios. There is believed to be no open-reel stock available for sale in the UK.

There is a hope that a delivery of new stock already in the UK that has been frozen because of the legal action will be made available for sale as a matter of urgency, however, the administration process is likely to cause some delay.

We understand there is still some prospect of the US manufacturing company re-appearing under new management and ownership but, in any event, it is likely that existing tape formulations will be changed.

Quantegy is the last remaining manufacturer of 2" open-reel tape pro audio in the world and its loss will have significant impact on the music and film score recording industries.

Whilst many studios and producers have moved to hard disks/digital media, it is largely recognized that only original analogue recordings preserve the entirety of recorded sound, not reducing a
recording to digital samples, no matter how high the sample rate. Apart from studio recordings, analogue tape is used for long term audio archiving and by scientific institutions including NASA for reliable long terms data storage.