[QuadList] History - what is the REAL story

[Rory Ryan]

I got to NBC NY in 1981 and worked in Video Tape Maintenance on the 5th
floor.  By early the early part of 1983 I was running the small satellite
shop that took care of the 8 TCR-100As and 2 TR-70Cs.  The TR-70Cs were used
to dub commercials onto the carts.  One of those TR-70s was soon replaced
with the 9th TCR-100 and the engineering and plant integration for that was
done by Phil Shaw who subscribes to this list. I was lucky to spend nearly
all of my time in the 80's tied (chained?) to those 9 TCR's before they
finally were pulled out in 88/89.  

  In 1981 when I first got there I remember 2 CMX rooms (teletype and paper
tape) that had 3 TR-70's each but I don’t remember if they were C's or not. 

  There were BVH-1000's - soon to be 1100a's and there were also BVU-2850s
used during Nightly News segment pb. 
 
  There were still 4 VR-2000s used for on-air playback. These were used
periodically through the day but during every midnight shift we aired 2
"Mary Tyler Moore's" and 2 "Newhart's". I also remember there was more than
1 time when 2 of the VR-2000s were used as a delay for soccer where 1
machine recorded and 1 machine played back and the tape loop in between the
2 machines was dropped into and fed out of a (presumably) clean garbage can.
It worked!   I am pretty sure the on-air VR-2000s were gone by '87 or '88.
Only one was kept - in a dub facility for 2" transfers and I believe that
machine was eventually moved to NBC's tape facility in NJ where it probably
still sits.  

-Rory


-----Original Message-----
From: quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com
[mailto:quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com] On Behalf Of dcfwtx at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 8:45 PM
To: quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com
Subject: Re: [QuadList] History - what is the REAL story





A clairification to my posrting below:

"Heterodyne color all the way. 8:1 and LBC".
Meaning direct color recording. Aired (played back 1958-1965 +/-) in 
heterodyne (non-phased color mode) until direct color recovery 
available. Many of the shows from that time look superior now (when 
recovered and digitized) as compared to when they originally aired, due 
to advances in video head S/N specs., time base correction (direct 
color recovery, velocity correction), and dropout compensation. 
Additionally, network transmission (The Bell System), tube transmitters 
(video via AM modulation), and tube driven color receivers of early 
design, have been replaced with superior delivery and display 
equipment.

What were the networks playing back on in the late 1970's? Dennis Degan 
noted the four (?) VR 2000's at 30 Rock.
NBC Burbank zone delay was almost all TR 70 A-main, TR 600-backup, both 
HBC. CBS TV City (when I saw it) was VR 2000 HBC-main, VR 1000 
LBC-backup. The same for ABC Prospect. ABC replaced the 2" setup with 
early VPR-2's. CBS went with the BVH 1000's (I think). NBC Burbank had 
BVH 1000's and 1100's, then early production BVH 2000's. Does anyone 
here have any clarification as to who was playing back on what at that 
time (or earlier, other than the very first VR 1000's and TRT's)?

David




-----Original Message-----
From: dcfwtx at aol.com
To: quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com
Sent: Thu, 30 Apr 2009
 3:40 pm
Subject: Re: [QuadList] History - what is the REAL story
 


Here is the TRT-1AC rack layout from 1958. Note color rack # 6 in the
middle. 
 

It was this machine model in the beginning (later the TRT-1B etc.) that
recorded and played back NBC color shows such as: 

The Bell Telephone Hour, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Andy Williams
Show, Fred Astaire, and on and on. Heterodyne color all the way. 8:1
and LBC. 
 

David Crosthwait 

www.dcvideo.com 






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