WHATEVER HAPPENED DAT?- LOOKING BACK TO 1987

Digital Audio Tape, what was it? What was it used for? Who used it?

OK Let’s refresh the memory…

DAT or Digital Audio Tape for short, was a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987.  The recording was in digital rather than analog and used a 4mm tape in a cassette. Recording times ranged from 15 to 180 minutes but the average was said to be that a 60m tape recorded 120 minutes.

DAT was used in many ways and by a range of people.

Pre-Recorded DATs

A common use of DAT was pre-recorded DAT. In December 1987, British post-punk band “The Durutti Column” became the first artists to commercially release on DAT with the song “The Guitar And Other Machines.” Others soon followed and in May 1988, “Wire” released their album “The Ideal Copy” on the format and several other albums from multiple record labels were also released as pre-recorded DATs in the first few years of its existence.

The Recording Industry

Another adopter of the DAT tap was the professional recording industry in the early 1990s as part of an emerging all-digital production chain. However, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) feared the prospect that consumers owning the technology could produce perfect digital copies of music. They lobbied for legislation to restrict digital recording and thereafter the Audio Home Recording Act was passed in 1992. The legislation required serial copy protection in every consumer player to prevent users from making more than a single generation digital copy and also required royalties on DAT machines and blank tape.

Amateurs and Recreational Usage

DAT was also used by amateurs, home users and for recreational use. They sold well in Japan, where high-end consumer audio stores stocked DAT recorders and tapes into the 2010 and second-hand stores continued to offer a wide selection of mint condition machines. However, they were comparatively expensive and few commercial recordings were available.

Data Storage

Initially the format was designed by Sony for audio use, but through the ISO Digital Data Storage standard, it was adopted for general data storage. Making DATS able to be used as computer data storage. The storage space depended on the model, standard and compression of tape, but typically it stored between 1.3 and 80 GB on a 60 to 180m tape.

Sony sold over 660,000 units over the DAT era. However, in November 2005, Sony announced that its remaining DAT machine models would be discontinued the following month after sales dropped to less than 100 units a month. 

Now the memory is refreshed, where are we now?

Technology is ever changing and ever developing at an explosive rate. As a result, data storage has come a long way since the introduction of DAT in 1987. New hardware and software technologies allow for larger and faster data storage, with a range of companies entering the market offering these products and services.

Data Deposit Box are early pioneers of cloud backup technology. They have has set a new industry standard by providing SMEs with the same level of security and protection that is available to large multi-national corporations. To learn more about Data Deposit Box and their services, click HERE

 

Macrium Software provide and support backup to local, network and USB drives as well as burning to all DVD formats to businesses and home users. With over 4,000,000 downloads worldwide, customers say they are the fastest and easiest to use disk imaging and recovery solution on the market. To learn more about Macrium and their products and services, Click HERE

 

ClearCrypt offer a range of 256 bit Encrypted Storage Devices designed to be robust, secure and cost effective. They offer industry leading encryption and a product range to suit all needs and requirements. With the growing amount of data stored on external drives to cater for the need to store and transfer files and data means that storing this securely is no longer an option, but is somewhat a necessity. To learn more about ClearCrypt and the products they offer, click HERE

 

Altaro, is specifically focused on virtual sever backups. Altaro VM Backup is a fast, affordable and high-performance backup solution, specifically developed for small and mid-market businesses. Furthermore, Altaro have an outstanding support team with an average 22 sec call response, 16 sec chat response and less than 1 hour email response. This has resulted in 99% of 30,000 customers being satisfied with Altaro solutions. To learn more about Altaro and what they have to offer Click HERE

 

If you have any queries, don’t hesitate to get in contact.