2-inch quad is no longer used as a mainstream format in TV broadcasting and video production, having long ago been supplanted by easier-to-use, more practical and lower-maintenance analog tape formats like 1" Type C (1976), U-matic and Betacam.
Television and video industry changes to digital video tape (DVCAM, DVCPro and Digital Betacam) and high-definition (HDCAM) are making analog tape formats increasingly obsolete.

When it was in use, 2-inch quad VTRs required ongoing maintenance, usually 3-phase power or one phase 220 V to operate, plus an air compressor to provide air pressure for the air bearing that the spinning transverse headwheel rode on due to its high rotational speed (some quad VTRs, such as the portable Ampex VR-3000, used ball bearings instead due to the lack of availability of compressed air, but these wore out quickly).

Operation of VR-1000-era machines required the skills of a highly trained video engineer.
When a tape was changed, the operator spent as much as half-an-hour, "lining-up" the VTR — that is, carrying out specialized technical adjustments to calibrate the machine to the tape before it was ready for playback.
 From VR-1200/2000 onward, improvements in head manufacturing/refurbishing tolerances, timebase correction, and greater thermal stability of solid-state electronics made tape changes possible in under a minute and servo calibrations needed only once per shift.
From AVR-1 onward, servos were self calibrating and tape changes as fast as the operator could articulate threading.

The few quadruplex VTRs which remain in service are used for the transfer and/or restoration of archival 2-inch quad videotape material to newer data storage formats, although mainstream TV serials from the 1950s to late 1960s have mostly already been remastered onto more modern media some years ago, even digitized within the last decade.
2-inch quad is no longer used as a mainstream format in TV broadcasting and video production, having long ago been supplanted by easier-to-use, more practical and lower-maintenance analog tape formats like 1" Type C (1976), U-matic and Betacam. Television and video industry changes to digital video tape (DVCAM, DVCPro and Digital Betacam) and high-definition (HDCAM) are making analog tape formats increasingly obsolete.
When it was in use, 2-inch quad VTRs required ongoing maintenance, usually 3-phase power or one phase 220 V to operate, plus an air compressor to provide air pressure for the air bearing that the spinning transverse headwheel rode on due to its high rotational speed (some quad VTRs, such as the portable Ampex VR-3000, used ball bearings instead due to the lack of availability of compressed air, but these wore out quickly).
Operation of VR-1000-era machines required the skills of a highly trained video engineer. When a tape was changed, the operator spent as much as half-an-hour, "lining-up" the VTR — that is, carrying out specialized technical adjustments to calibrate the machine to the tape before it was ready for playback.  From VR-1200/2000 onward, improvements in head manufacturing/refurbishing tolerances, timebase correction, and greater thermal stability of solid-state electronics made tape changes possible in under a minute and servo calibrations needed only once per shift. From AVR-1 onward, servos were self calibrating and tape changes as fast as the operator could articulate threading.
The few quadruplex VTRs which remain in service are used for the transfer and/or restoration of archival 2-inch quad videotape material to newer data storage formats, although mainstream TV serials from the 1950s to late 1960s have mostly already been remastered onto more modern media some years ago, even digitized within the last decade.
Quadruplex videotape