1987

Digital tape panorama, from a japanese catalog printed february 1988.

The x-rare PCM-2000, PCM2500A & PCM-2500B and an unidentified two-box patchbay + error rate counter for the professional world atop a DTC-500ES, DTC-M100 and the original TCD-D10 portable recorder. The PCM-2500 was, as we all know, derived from the consumer DTC-1000ES which also gave way to the DRD-100 studio & broadcast duplicators.

Since the professional PCM-2000 was scarcely distributed (or even shown), the TCD-D10 was rapidly upgraded to become the TCD-D10Pro and then the TCD-D10ProII. I have no idea why the PCM-2000 was kept so discreet, but that didn't stop the TCD-D10 series from selling very well in the professional world !
Yet to come was the broadcast and industry standard PCM-7000 series, which I myself have used many many many times.

If DAT may seem like a "failed" format to many, it isn't so at all : for more than ten years, DAT was THE choice format for studio mixdowns and sessions backups. And ten years makes a lot of tapes, a lot of backups and a lot of future bootlegs ;-)
The pro world doesn't benefit from media and advertising mania as does the juicy consumer market but it nevertheless means a lot of sales, and maintenance contracts, too.