[QuadList] From the TR 800 Crypt--Questions seeking answers

[David Crosthwait]

Hello Phillip,

Off hand, I cannot place what company that TBC manufacturer would have been in Florida. They may have been repackaging Japanese, British, or German product. Just a guess. Maybe John or Don would know from that era.

OK, the photo may have been Peter. I just don't recall his name, but I thought he was British. "Admin-Assist & Peter on his desk". Well now, some late night meetings going on. Never heard about that before in broadcasting (HA!).

"The RCA dynamic tracking head was made by Sony...We made one but it erased an Ampex Pal test tape provided by a visiting Australian Broadcast Group...Very Embarrassing". I can imagine.

Yes, the VITC and linear time code (in phase) have to match in pre-roll or it's abort city. Man, do I recall time code phase problems on some decks, usually not on the BVH 2000 (for another thread). CMX liked to see things right on pre-roll or it would abort (340 and 3400A/3600).

You at least seemed to have been one of those shining lights amidst all of the chaos with various product problems. And yes, I do recall hearing about the Sony scanner in later models, I believe.

David






On Feb 24, 2011, at 11:11 AM, Phillip G. Shaw wrote:

> The first TBC was designed by RCA but it had thermal problems. Jim Parker was brilliant (Taught the RCA Advanced Design) but he was Stubborn as Hell.. He refused to handle EE in the traditional manner and the vector Jitter became an unexplainable feature. Jim Parker went on to Panasonic America Research Labs  NJ.. He had a brain amorism and died young or he would have make history. Yes "up right" Modules like Sony
>  
> The Second Shop Order used a Florida designed TBC (Laurie is a name I remember) but I have forgotten the name of the Company. I had left RCA for NBC and was not directly involved with the Gibbsboro facility. I think customers of the First Shop Order got a swap out...
>  
> The First shop order Scanner was NOT exchangeable with Sony.. The RCA did not have the tape entrance guides mounted on the scanner Assembly, this was a mistake in my opinion and the Second SO may have used the Sony... The RCA dynamic tracking head was made by Sony...We made one but it erased an Ampex Pal test tape provided by a visiting Australian Broadcast Group...Very Embarrassing
>  
>  Ray & some others from RCA involved with Silver Lake went to Odetics. I think they got a deal from RCA . They had a proto type & the glossy prints when RCA Broadcast Closed... He didn't join Sony until the late 80's.. I was at his wedding and he was still with Odetics..I don't remember when he joined Sony Beta Cart. The News Carts were Odetics market...
>  
> The Ampex VPR 3 (Zeus) was purchased by NBC News (Shelly was Director) for  the 9th floor editing Suites.  NBC ON- AIR was solid Sony. The VPR-3’s were not handling VITC correctly (CMX Editing) this resulted in mis-cueing of ON-AIR playback...  The News Div wanted the VPR-3 gone...Shelly asked me to examine the problem & explain why!   The problem was easy to simulate because the VPR on board Editor was smart enough to rejected bad TC (faked during lockup) and aborted the Edit, a 1 sec pre-roll was consistently bad, 2 sec was 2 in 10.But the CMX was going into record & Jammed VITC Gen to invalid code... Bancroft came in and Ampex changed the Software to prevent recording bad VITC.. The VPR-3 stayed in NBC
>  
> I was in Vegas at Quality video but not at a shot.. That person was most likely Peter Stanley working for RCA Marketing.. He was gone from broadcasting after the changes he made to the Software....I called Peter " The British Ambassador" because he never fixed anything simple, modifying was his style and when you followed him you removed his crap & fixed the original problem.  I was following him in Australia, Camberra, and the CE asked me if I was Like Peter Stanley..I said NO… The Tape Engineer told me later that the CE ran Peter off, something about his Admin-Assist & Peter on his desk
>  
> Note: Bob Hurst, RCA training was a Quad Servo Guy.. I was asked to provide the customer Adjustment Setup for the TR-800 in his Class…After the Class he made it clear that he didn’t like my Velocity/Phase adjustment procedure, one overshoot.. we had a
> informative discussion on TCR/TR600 servo systems and the different ballistics of each
> transport..Bob knew more than me, and he knew it, but we got along good
>  
>  
> I don’t get all the pictures….to big for my Email account I think
> _______________________________________________


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