ABOUT US
Stancil’s only business has been to design and manufacture voice logging recorders. While the Company traces its origins to 1946, we have roots in the sound industry reaching back into the 20’s.
Here are some of the events and milestones for our Company, our Founder, William V. Stancil and Sharon Stancil Custer, who carries on the family tradition.
Fifteen year old Bill Stancil received an early Amateur Radio Operator’s License in 1925 awarded by Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover. ‘Ham’ Radio Operators of today will recognize the vintage of the 8PF and the W6PF call signs.
Barnstormed with aviation pioneer Eddie Stinson and demonstrated the Stinson Biplane to, among others, Henry Ford. It wasn’t long before Ford began production of the Trimotor which gave Stinson some unwanted competition.
1920's
ON THE SET OF HOWARD HUGHES PRODUCTION OF “HELL’S ANGELS FILMED IN THE LATE 1920’S.
Stancil, seated with lead actor Ben Lyon, started early working his way into Hollywood sound departments. You can see the back of Erich Von Stroheim who always played one sort of German or another. Hell’s Angels was a classic WWI aerial combat picture of the late 1920’s. Howard Hughes, the Producer, loved the aerial combat scenes but this was Jean Harlow’s first picture and she became such a big star that the advertising campaign changed pretty fast.
1930's
Worked as soundman for Howard Hughes and in the lab at MGM Made one of earliest stereophonic demonstrations to the Audio Engineering Society Worked at most major film studios; Goldwyn, MGM, RKO, Republic on pictures such as “Stella Dallas” and “Gone With the Wind” and in 1935, the first Technicolor feature, "Becky Sharp” Arranged first Associated Public Safety Communications Officers California North/South meeting Patented a system for synchronizing tape and film in movie productions.
ON A SOUND STAGE AT GOLDWYN.
William Wyler directs Humphrey Bogart and Marjorie Main in “DEAD END”. Stancil is on the boom mike.
Hewlett-Packard’s first product was an audio oscillator. Stancil helped engineer the sale of the first 9 to Disney for use on the landmark animation film “Fantasia”.
See the details on this HP site.
And how is this beautiful lady related to the project?
The HP demo for Disney was at the Cansino Dance Studio on Gower in Hollywood. Their daughter, Margarita is shown here dancing with Fred Astaire (after she changed her name to Rita Hayworth).
Bill Stancil left the studios in the late ‘30s and went to work for an up and coming company - Motorola! He was responsible for sales west of the Rockies now handled by 2000 people! He won the statewide contract for the California Highway Patrol which involved surveying all 57 counties in the state and putting in the first statewide radio network.
1940's
Bill Stancil left the studios in the late ‘30s and went to work for an up and coming company - Motorola! He was responsible for sales west of the Rockies now handled by 2000 people! He won the statewide contract for the California Highway Patrol which involved surveying all 57 counties in the state and putting in the first statewide radio network.
The recorder pictured here is among the world's first. Called the Magnetophon, it was made for the German army by AEG Telefunken. The production cycle ran from 1928-1945. The Stancil archives have this battery powered recorder and a wind up reproducer which operates like a clock mechanism for playback. These were acquired from Portugal. During the war, the allegiances of Portugal were suspect. We are told that Adolph Hitler gave these two to Salazar, the Dictator of Portugal.
After the war there was some more work for Motorola. Here Gregory Peck, on the set of “Duel In The Sun” looks at some of the equipment used to coordinate some of the action.
Early efforts included modifying an early recorder, the Brush Soundmirror, here being demonstrated to Ginger Rogers.
Production of the earliest multi track reel to reel recorder shown here installed at United Airlines.
1950's
Stancil’s MINITAPE™ was one of the first American made portable recorders. Manufactured 32 channel dual deck recorders in 1955 Worked on first 3D film “Bwana Devil” and wide screen formats such as Cinerama and CineMiracle. Started using solid state devices and modular construction.
In the 1950’s recording began to move into many more applications. The radio, television, journalism, education and public safety industries found uses for this new technology.
Journalism:
:
Radio:
In this newspaper article, Ann Sheridan, a Director of our Minitape™ Corporation, demonstrates the recorder to Cary Grant. This may have been around the time they were promoting their film, “I Was A Male War Bride” in 1949. It is likely that there was perfect attendance and no tardiness for Board Meetings!
Journalist Lowell Thomas with the MinitapeTM in Tibet!
Jazz great Lionel Hampton listens to the first Armed Forces Radio broadcast to the troops in Korea.
Television:
Education:
Public Safety:
Outfitting the Red Skelton Program in Hollywood.
Equipped the Film School at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. These are film recorders but Language Labs were an important application for audio recording systems.
Now recording traffic stops is commonplace. Here KNX Los Angeles radio personality, George Martin, demonstrates happily receiving a well-deserved citation from the L.A.P.D.
Another first in 1978 was the Stancil 56 channel logger which was a great leap from the 30 track systems then being produced. The first of Stancil’s installations at NASA’s Johnson Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston was an array of reel to reel recorders to capture space shuttle communications.
In 1980 Stancil Corporation was ahead of its time with the first digital voice logger based on an 8" rigid disk. It was the size of a shoe box and it weighed 23 pounds. But it did have one Megabyte to record a grand total of 33 minutes. The E Series became very successful with 64 channels on one inch tape. In 1981 the company became privately held as Stancil Corporation. The 1980’s saw the USAF as the major Stancil recorder customer. Over 700 dual deck AN/GSH-56/57 reel to reel recorders were installed in Air Forces Bases worldwide.
In the 1960’s 20 channel recorders were being delivered on a major Air Force contract.
The golden age of reel to reel recorders was ushered in By Stancil’s AN/GSH-34 - the first multi channel logging recorder to pass Mil Spec testing. This secured the first of several prime contracts for the U.S. Air Force that continued into the 90’s.
The TRC-89 was supplied to the Federal Aviation Administration as an ATIS or Air Terminal Information System. The TRC used an innovative motor system to directly drive a special cassette. This system was used to continuously provide flight information to pilots saving air traffic controllers from this repetitive task.
The E Series Reel to Reel Systems were in production for the last third of the 20th Century. In 1986 the E Series replaced the AN/GSH-34 (See The 60’s) as a part of one of the largest contracts ever awarded for voice logging recorders.
Michael and Sharon Custer (she is Bill's daughter) had been involved with the company since 1972. Immediately after his passing they elected to carry on the tradition of family ownership and management. By 1991 our digital instant recall recorder made its debut along with a complete line of VHS loggers. In 1993, Gemini was a 32 channel Logging Recorder using an OS2 operating system and DAT Tapes. Centurion increased the capacity to 64 channels on DDS3 DAT s. The 64 channel digital logger arrived in 1994. Networked recording systems were installed in 1995. Stancil’s Centurion became the second generation of our equipment to be installed at NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center. In 1997 we delivered the world's first Windows NT digital recorder. Public safety, financial institutions and call centers took to this new networking capability using recorders much more intensively than in the past.
Here is a picture of Bill Stancil with friends General Curtis and Helen LeMay in late 1990.. They all passed away soon thereafter.
The Century began with Stancil embarking on a completely new software design for voice recorders. The TEN-4™ Voice Logger and the TEN-9™ Repeat Instant Recall systems are a part of Stancil’s VoiceXP™ series of recording solutions.
Of special note: TEN-4 systems with a total 144 channels represent the third generation of our equipment recording NASA’s Air Ground Communications at the Johnson Spaceflight Center in Houston, Texas.
1960's
1970's
1980's
1990's
2000's
2010's
Stancil Corporation is a leader in the recorder market. This is shown by its commitment to NG9-1-1 through to how users will interact with our systems as tablets and smartphones become mainstream.
Stancil Corporation has interfaced into the leading VOIP and ROIP manufactures and have undertaken many custom developments for their OEM partners.
News
Events
14th - 16th May 2013
Booth: 1112
AFCEA
Virginia Beach Convention Center
Virginia Beach, VA.
18th - 21th August 2013
Booth: 1100
APCO 79th Annual Conference
Anaheim, CA
15th -20th June 2013
Booth: 116
NENA 2013
Charlotte Convention Center
Charlotte, NC
