[QuadList] Picture of the day (link to)---and who's in it?

[David C. Crosthwait]

In '76, the station I was working for in Dallas received AVR-3 serial  
#'s 38 & 40. They had problems in production use with two issues at  
first: random color framing and crashing compliance arms. There seemed  
to be problems with the bearings in the guides also if I recall  
correctly. It came to a point that the AVR-3's could not be used for  
anything but recording for a while, relegating all other post, zone  
delay, and production to the VR 1200's we had. I left that station in  
'77 and proceeded to Hollywood where six VR 2000's, a 1200, and two  
ACR25B's awaited.

Can't recall the Ampex sales reps. name for Dallas at that time other  
than to say that he was a very nice person.

David
www.dcvideo.com


Quoting Bill Carpenter <wcarpen107 at yahoo.com>:

> Hi Don, and everybody!
>
> I remember that we shipped 256 AVR-2's in the first year. That was from April
> 1974 till NAB 1975. I remember a wall that looked like Monitor's, with call
> letters & logo's where the tally were located. I made a hit with our
> Photographers, sent them all over, and made a lot of large 20" 3x4   
> monitor sized
> back lit transparences. So, this was the wall facing out of the   
> Booth in Vegas
> (1975) with entrances on each side. Most of the pictures were taken with the
> C.E. standing in the Tape Room with each hand on a machine, and   
> color pictures
> on the Tekronic monitors in the bridge. Bob Sidenglanz was in the   
> one taken at
> Compact Video. The logo @ one station was the big neon sign on the   
> roof taken at
> night.
>
>
> So, my memories related to a build rate of about 30 a month or 360   
> per year. I
> turned the AVR-2 over to somebody else in 1976, when the AVR-3 was   
> dumped on me
> to clean up!
>
> I had the largest retrofit in the history on Ampex. The machines could not
> playback tapes with segments, since the Autotracking, set proper tracking and
> turned off, eliminating the "dither". The  TBC with bad ground loops  
>  also needed
> work. And there were some record problems also. I had over 60 units,  
>  usually in
> 3's all over Hollywood, that I had to rework in a hurry.
>
> So, in summary, 4 years could very easily equal 1200+ AVR-2's, and   
> somehow the
> 1800 units seems like the total number taht I remember. I can't even remember
> who was the last Product Manager.
>
> We built the 1200's at about 15-20 a month in 1973. They were much harder to
> build and test.
>
>
> And with all that work, the AVR-2's made better pictures with less efforts by
> the operators.
> The unions did not like eliminating block of time before playback,   
> to set-up the
> Intersync.
> The operators who stacked small reels on the flat deck and  played many
> commercials back to back with two machines loved the AVR-2's.
>
> Maybe if we found who has the highest serial numbered AVR-2, then I   
> will try to
> remember how I set up the serial number sequence?
>
> That's all for now, Bill Carpenter
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Don Norwood <dwnorwood at embarqmail.com>
> To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
> Sent: Sat, December 4, 2010 9:02:59 AM
> Subject: Re: [QuadList] Picture of the day (link to)---and who's in it?
>
> ?
> Bill:
>
> Any idea of the total number of AVR-2's produced and how that   
> compares to  how
> many VR-1200 series machines were made?  I have been told that there  
>   were more
> 1200's made than any other model, but I've not found anything in   
> print  for the
> 1200's.  Ampex literature states that in 1978, "over 1,400 AVR-2's    
> were in use
> worldwide".  That's the latest reference I have for them, but I  would guess
> that sales had peaked at that point.  Any insight?
>
> Don
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Bill    Carpenter
>> Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2010 12:16    AM
>>
>>
>> In answer to the speculation of why the AVR-2's have the greatest    
>>   survival
>> rate, it was the last, Hi Performance, yet simple Quad. And it also  
>>     had the
>> best video head life (no guide servo) since you could leave the   
>> guide    in one
>> position and let the TBC and the AutoChroma do their jobs. This greatly
>> improved the head life and tape life. Also it was more reliable due to less
>> connectors and single board subsystems.
>
>
>