Marvin Camas working for BCE (Bing Crosby Enterprises) was able to solve this problem by not having the tape moving quickly, but having the video heads rotate. Camas set up a system that used three heads on a rotating drum that rotated at 20,000 rpm. By doing this the amount of tape was reduced tenfold. (Wolpin p.54) On November 11, 1951 RCA executives were given a presentation of this technology, but the picture had terrible quality and a running narrative was used to tell what was on the screen. However, another corporation was in the quest for the first VTR. This was the Ampex corporation and it would be they, not RCA who would eventually win the VTR race.

Dolby quickly made a replica of RCA's three head system, but noticed that the picture wouldn’t stand still. In order to fix this problem Dolby decided to four head that were paired into two synchronized sets. (Wolpin p. 57) However, this machine was extremely noisy and tore the tape. Seeing this, Shelby Henderson installed posts that would guide the tape through the heads. On November 19, 1952, the engineers demonstrated this early model to Ampex CEO Alexander Poniatoff, but the picture quality was so bad while watching a cowboy show Poniatoff commented "Wonderful! Is that the horse or the cowboy?" (Wolpin p. 57) This picture quality was fixed when Dolby decided to use a pulse modulation that widened the signals during the playback, but a new problem emerged. Every time the tape would go from on set of rotating heads to the other a horizontal streak would appear across the screen. Ginsberg labeled these streaks venetian blinds. (Ginsberg p. 4) The problem was not fixed when in March 1953, Dolby was drafted and by June that year the project was shelved for higher priority programs.