A brief overview of the life and works of the main achievements of Alexander M. Poniatoff is given. He was an outstanding engineer and founder of AMPEX – American company that won the world recognition in the field of magnetic recording of signals. The description of life AM Poniatowa in childhood and youth, his education in Russia and Germany, in the imperial service, and the "white" army, emigration and employment in the United States, including the establishment of the company AMPEX details and interesting facts from its progressive development into a global leader audio and video equipment. The AMPEX engineers created the world's first tape recorders and videotape recorders of professional quality, which contributed to the radical improvement of the radio and television broadcasting technologies. Twelve development AMPEX awarded prizes Emmy Awards, awarded by the American Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the four recognized as the best in the category Monitor Awards International Society of television production.