Odetics Wins Emmy Award for Its Robotic Videotape Unit

And the winner is . . . Odetics Inc.?

Although there were no big-name TV celebrities on hand to give out the honors, the Orange County technology company recently was given an Emmy award by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for its contributions to the broadcast industry.

The academy--sponsor of the annual awards ceremony honoring excellence in TV--cited Odetics for its development of a robotic videotape library machine.

Odetics, based in Anaheim, was one of 15 corporations honored by the academy for their technical achievements at a dinner in New York on Tuesday night. Several of Odetics’ rivals--Panasonic Broadcast Systems Co., Ampex Corp. and Sony Corp.--were also honored for their videocassette library machines.

Odetics’ TCS2000 Cart Machine is a computerized system that automatically organizes, records and plays TV commercials and programs--tasks that are still done manually at some TV stations.

The machine has robotic arms that select videocassettes stacked in a library, then delivers them to a videotape recorder for play. The robot arm selects the right tapes by scanning bar codes on the tapes.

The machines help broadcasters cut down on mistakes and lost revenue when TV advertisements are aired at the wrong time or not at all, said David Lewis, vice president of Odetics Commercial Products Division. For news stations, Odetics provides a touch-screen monitor that allows operators to quickly send commands to the robot arm.

Seeking a market for its robotics technology, Odetics began developing the machine in 1984 in a partnership with RCA Broadcast. RCA later sold its broadcast operation, and Odetics developed the machine on its own, said Kevin Daly, chief technical officer.

The company has installed more than 115 machines around the globe, mostly to news stations such as Orange County Newschannel (OCN), the 24-hour cable news station started by Irvine-based Freedom Newspapers Inc.

The machines accounted for 20% of Odetics’ $55 million in sales for its fiscal year ended March 31.