[QuadList] History - what is the REAL story

Thu Apr 30 14:45:29 CDT 2009

So who's idea was it to have head the switching in back porch?

Dave Keleshian

________________________________
From: C. Park Seward <park at videopark.com>
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:06:52 AM
Subject: Re: [QuadList] History - what is the REAL story

Don,

Seems like you and Ted are correct:

In 1957, Ampex agreed to compare notes with RCA, which was working on its own video tape recorder. The deal assured compatibility of tapes between machines and also gave Ampex the technology to record color television signals, a concept which RCA was eager to promote. 

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Ampex-Corporation-Company-History.html

A little known fact not publicized by RCA is that early NBC color recordings (1958 and early 1959) were recorded on Ampex VR 1000 monochrome VTR's modified with RCA Labs-designed color circuits. Early in 1959 the two companies compromised on a different color recording format and the early "RCA Labs" color tapes were obsolete and could only be played on a very few of the Ampex-RCA Labs VTR's. RCA sold color VTR's before Ampex did by offering a color upgrade kit for their TRT-1B VTR

http://www.ev1.pair.com/colorTV/TVtape1.html

But from Jim Wheeler:

Ampex gave RCA exclusive rights to the VTR technology in exchange for Ampex being able to use RCA electronic circuit patents. It was weird to have an RCA engineer come into my office and I had to tell him what I knew.

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/amia-l/2009/01/msg00045.html

Perhaps the "electronic circuit patents" included the color circuits.

Best,
Park

C. Park Seward
Cell: 818-535-2747
Home: 949-679-1870
Visit us: http://www.videopark.com

On Apr 29, 2009, at 8:09 PM, Don Norwood wrote:

Hi Park:

Much of this very same discussion about RCA and Ampex took place on the Ampex mail list at various times between 1999 and 2005.  During that time, a number of former Ampex employees contributed to the discussion including Ross Snyder who was video products manager at the time of the events in question, David Sarser, Stan Busby and others. 

Unfortunately, after almost 50 years, there are some differences in first-hand accounts. Consequently, written material from the actual time period tends to be more accurate.  Still, there was total agreement in these exchanges that what Ampex wanted and got from RCA was rights to their color technology, and that is borne out in the written documents on the subject as well.  I'm fairly certain based on verifiable information that it was indeed color technology, and not transistor technology, that Ampex received in exchange for their knowledge of the FM recording system.

That being said, the sort of conversation that you had with Jim offers fascinating insight into what it was like "back in the day".  The stories from all the folks that were actually present comprise a fascinating look into the history of this technology.   Unfortunately, Ross Snyder passed away last year and there is an all too quickly vanishing opportunity to capture the memories of others in the esteemed group.  However, while I cherish the stories I've heard, I'm always mindful of the need to consider the effects of time on the accuracy of the details.  

Below is an excerpt from what I posted on the Ampex list in early 2005.  It sumarizes the outcome of my research at that time and the conversations with the folks who worked at Ampex at the time of the color developments:

Thanks to everyone for all your input regarding the development of color 
capability for the quad machines!  As Larry pointed out, there's lots of 
sometimes conflicting information, and often from good sources that may have 
been involved in different aspects of the project.  Since I wasn't old 
enough in the late 50's to be aware of videotape, all of my knowledge has to 
be built on what I can learn from experts such as yourselves and from what 
printed material I can find.  My collection of machines consists only of 
Ampex but the first VTR's I ever saw were RCA and they were probably 
responsible for my lifelong fascination with these beasts.

There's lots of documented info on the VR-1000 development, both from 
Ginsburg and Dolby.  After that, I have been able to find less info about 
the ongoing developments through the years.  RCA published 'Broadcast News' 
which did a fairly good job of documenting their product development but I 
do not have similar info from Ampex.  Having gone through a lot of the 
printed material I have, here are my findings, some of which support what 
has been said here and some of which may need more discussion or 
clarification.

1)  Ampex was experimenting with color in 1957.  At that time, they had 
given a development contract to Stanford Research Institute, and they were 
attempting to achieve color by perfecting the servo system of the machine to 
a point where timebase errors would be almost non-existent.  Mechanical 
limitations proved this to be impossible.  According to Dolby's notes as 
presented to SMPTE in 1986, on Aug 28, 1957 he demonstrated a pilot tone 
system to achieve color and noted that "color stability appears to be good". 
Beyond that point, I can find no further reference to this method being 
considered for use on the quads and as far as I know, it was not used until 
the helical machines applied a similar approach in the 60's.

2)  At about this same time, RCA demonstrated a color tape system to the 
trade press in October of '57.  The February 1958 edition of "Broadcast 
News" previews the new "Color Processing in RCA Video Tape Recorder".  A 
small number of prototypes were delivered to NBC in 1958 as the model VTRX 
quads.  These used the heterodyne system that would later be the basis for 
their first production color machines.  In 1959 (month unknown but see #3 
below), they began delivery of the color rack for updating the RCA TRT-1A 
quads.  A later updated version of the color system was made available the 
following year in 1960 (month unknown) with the delivery of the TRT-1B 
machines.  References for this info include "Engineering Color Video Tape 
Recording" by A.H. Lind.

Finally, to wrap up an already too long post, there are a couple of books that are good sources of information about both RCA and Ampex machines. 

    "Video Tape Recording" by Julian Bernstein, copyright 1960 by John F. Rider, 268 pages, covers the VR-1000 and the TRT-1 and their respective color systems.
    "Television Broadcasting Tape and Disc Recording Systems" by Harold E. Ennes, copyright 1973 by Howard W. Sams, ISBN 0-672-20933-0, 576 pages, covers everything from the first models up through the ACR-25 and the TCR-100.  There is also a second edition published in 1979 (ISBN 0-672-21567-5) that is updated accordingly but actually contains less info on the early models.

Both books are available on Amazon and the Ennes books are cheap!  Good additions to your ancient technology libraries.

Don     

----- Original Message -----
From: "C. Park Seward" <park at videopark.com>
To: "Quad List" <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 4:39 PM
Subject: Re: [QuadList] History - what is the REAL story
> Jim Wheeler joined Ampex five years after the first Quad was  
> introduced. I had the pleasure of speaking with him today and asked  
> him about our question.
> 
> Jim was familiar with the Ampex/RCA exchange and said Ampex got  
> transistor technology plus $100,000 and RCA got the FM patent. As we  
> know, analog video needs FM recording to make the VTR possible.  
> Without that patent, RCA would have never made compatible quad VTRs.
> 
> He said RCA was first with experimental color recording. They used a  
> direct recording with heterodyning playback. This was the method used  
> in the famous Astaire recording. Ampex invented high band direct color  
> record and direct color playback in 1964.
> 
> Jim was the inventor sol-mo replays, of the air bearing effect of the  
> Ampex scanners, the VR-660, the AST slo-mo heads and the product  
> manager for the VPR-1 and 2.
> 
> Best,
> Park
> 
> C. Park Seward
> Visit us: http://www.videopark.com
> 
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