RADAR (Random Access Digital Audio Recorder) is a product line of professional digital multitrack recorders capable of recording and playing back twenty-four tracks of audio.
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History
The first model, the Creation RADAR I, was released in 1993. RADAR I was manufactured in North Vancouver BC by Creation Technologies(iZ Technology Corporation), but marketed and distributed in 1994 by Otari under an exclusive license. Creation/iZ also produced the RADAR II. iZ Technology terminated Otari's RADAR distribution agreement in 2000.
In October 2000, iZ Technology released RADAR 24 under the iZ brand, which was based on BeOS 5. In 2005, iZ released RADAR V. In 2012, iZ released RADAR 6 at the October 2012 AES show in San Francisco
Parallel to the development of the various hardware models, there have been many revisions to the RADAR system software.
RADAR I
The RADAR I was the first model released, under the Otari brand in 1994. It was capable of recording and playing back twenty-four tracks of 16 bit, 48k audio. It also was available with 24 Adat I/O Card.
RADAR II
The Otari RADAR II, released in 1997, was capable of recording and playing back twenty-four tracks of 24 bit, 48k audio on a single hard drive, editing and multiple-machine linking for up to 192 tracks. Until April 2000, the RADAR II was branded as the "Otari RADAR II." After April 2000, it was sold by iZ Technology as the "iZ RADAR II."
RADAR 24
RADAR 24, released in 2000, was the first new model branded by iZ Technology, and brought many hardware improvements including: sample rates up to 192k, networking, a faster processor, and ADAT I/O.
RADAR V
RADAR V, released in 2005, added many capabilities to the RADAR 24 including the ability to record on all 24 tracks at high sample rates of 96k and 192k; direct recording to industry-standard Broadcast WAV files; Dual Disk and Span modes for recording to multiple drives; File Flattening options to consolidate audio for handoff; and Gigabit Ethernet file transfer. The model name "V" is pronounced "Vee," not "Five."
RADAR 6
RADAR 6 was released in October 2012, with an entirely new, smaller, lighter and quieter form factor. The new model had a touch-screen interface and tactile transport keys on the front of the unit, and offered new storage options such as solid state drives, USB 3.0 drives and SD cards. At this time iZ also improved their AD/DA converter cards and consolidated to two card choices instead of three.
RADAR studio
RADAR studio, released in 2015, incorporated a 'Workstation' platform alongside the original RADAR software, allowing industry standard DAWs to be run on the RADAR, using RADAR as the host computer.
Software Versions
As of 2012, two RADAR software systems have been developed for RADAR V and RADAR 24. Software version 4.0 and up is currently under development for the RADAR 6 platform. 3.5x, iZOS, the first version of which was released in July 2008, requires a new system drive and a processor rated at a minimum of 800 MHz, and is no longer being developed. 3.4x is the older BeOS version of the operating system, which is also no longer being developed.