[QuadList] ACR-25 Cue Times was: Ampex Models

Wed Mar 9 16:20:01 CST 2011

Somewhere in my Ampex "stuff" I have the "target"
operational parameters for the ACR-25.  when I find it I  will send it 
along.

Now as far as to cycle times and running :10's back to back to  back all 
day long...  Yes, that is the case.  During the threading  time etc, you could 
call up a bin, open the door and change out a  cassette.  You could edit 
the playlist if the cassette #
was not loaded.

The cassettes were limited to 6 minutes playing  time.

We normally wound our cassettes with 2 minutes of 
tape, plus time for roll up and roll out, according to the  Ampex Cassette 
Construction sheet.

In normal operation, all cassettes were rewound  before
being ejected into the carousel.

You could run an   A B C A  break where the A  element
is a :120 and the B & C are :10's...

Running the same :120 at the beginning and end of a  break
separated with two :10's put the machine to the ultimate  test.
the :120 had to be rewound, ejected into the  carousel
and then the machine had to go get the next :10, inject  the
cassette into the clamp, thread, and cue in less than  :10!

Those of you, not familiar with the ACR-25, would  be
impressed!!

The machine spun the carousel the shortest distance to get to  the next bin 
to play...

An amazing machine.  Definitely quieter than the  TCR-100.

One design feature... There were no metal against metal  moving parts.  If 
something was going to break. it would be some cheap  easily replaced 
plastic part!!

I'd pay to be part of the operating crew at NAB  2016!!   ;-)

Don Murray, W4WJ
Retired from 40 years of Miami TV Engineering
35+ years at NBC O&O WTVJ  

In a message dated 3/1/2011 11:41:05 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
david at dcvideo.com writes:

In my  opinion, there is nothing quite impressive than watching a station 
break with  back-to-back 10 second promos being played on A, then B playing 
while A  ejects, threads up, and almost immediately plays A again when B is 
done, etc.  This theoretically can occur to a carousel full (24) of 10 second 
spots if the  ACR is told to do so. Of course, in this mode, the spots have 
to be rewound or  cued up later, but that's not a problem. It is a flawless 
transition from deck  A to B and back to A again etc.   

How many on this list would be willing to see such an ACR 25 procedure in  
the year 2011? Would anyone except us be impressed? 

After I left KCOP for NBC (goodbye ACR, hello TCR), it was just a  memory.

David

On Mar 1, 2011, at 9:03 AM, Gary Adams wrote:

In  the early 70s, a friend of mine and I visited WBBM in Chicago.  I was  
currently working at a CBS affiliate in Lincoln, NE.  We got a great  tour 
and spent quite a bit of time with the ACR-25 specialist (wish I knew  his 
name).  Gave us the great 7.5 second turnaround test.  Very  impressive.  
Wanted one for our very own as we were making “daily”  reels over night to free 
up the machines during the day.  We ended up  getting to sit in their news 
room studio during their local news. They had  us sit at two of the news 
desks looking like we worked there since it was  also part of the set.  We were 
pretty scared when they threw a story to  the person at the desk next to 
ours.  The lights came up and they  started their report.  A bit worried we 
would have to do one.   Great fun.  It was in the Cronkite era so the CBS ONOs 
sort of did the  same thing. 

I  came back to our humble station and pleaded with the Chief Engineer on 
the  advantages of the ACR.  We ended up buying a demo TCR-100.  I  
threatened to quit (being quite juvenile at the time).  In the end I  did quit going 
to work for RCA working on TCR-100s among other things.   Looking back, 
either way was fine, my path would have been quite different  if they would have 
bought the ACR.  Probably would have been working  with David now.  J

Gary

From: _quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com_ 
(mailto:quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com)  [mailto:quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com] On 
Behalf Of David  Crosthwait
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 11:38  AM
To: Quad  List
Subject: Re:  [QuadList] Ampex  Models

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