This is the Ampex VRX-1000 (aka the Mark IV), the first videotape recorder. The cedmagic website has a good introduction about it (picture taken from there):

Research on recording video on tape was begun in the early 1950’s, and Bing Crosby Enterprises demonstrated a prototype system in 1951 that ran at 100 inches/second and had 16 minutes per reel. But the quality was poor. RCA demonstrated a better system in 1953, but it ran at 30 feet/second and only had 4 minutes per reel. The small Ampex Corporation came up with the ideas of using rotating heads, transverse scanning, and FM encoding which allowed broadcast quality recording at 15 inches/second and 90 minutes per reel.
The VRX-1000 set off a storm when it was demonstrated on April 14, 1956 at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention

50,000 bucks at that time! There seems to be a Buddy Holly look-alike in the background.

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