  An increase in the critical current and suppression of AC losses in
superconducting wires and tapes with soft magnetic sheath have been predicted
theoretically and confirmed experimentally. In this work we present the results
of magneto-optical investigations on a series of Ag-sheathed Bi-2223 tapes with
Ni coating. We visualize distributions of magnetic field at increasing external
field and different temperatures, demonstrating a difference between the flux
propagation in the superconductor with Ni rims and a reference sample without
Ni coating.
