[QuadList] TBC

[Bill Carpenter]

Hi Scott & Don,

Yes you are correct, the glass delay lines used in the AVR-1,ACR-25, and the TBC 790 were Anderson Labs products. 

The president came to me in Elk Grove, and wanted to sell us a simple TBC, which they had in a very rough form.

They had shopped it around and nobody would buy it.

We had a short term need & I signed the development contract.

They knew there delay lines, but did not know how to handle video properly and sync handling was very poor. We tested it after we had moved to California in mid 71, and it did not work with the 7900.

They went away, redesigned with some new engineers, brought the product to market and then sued Ampex for breach of contract, because we had deep pockets.

I gave a couple days of depositions, and then one day I met our President, Charlie Stienberg in the hall, and we decided on a $ figure of a "go away" payment to end the litigation. They accepted, and went away as victorious for less than the price of a single TBC.

I learned a lot about contracts from that exercise.

Bye for now, lBill & Gewyn & Ginger (whoof...whoof)

--- On Fri, 5/6/11, Don Norwood <dwnorwood at embarqmail.com> wrote:

From: Don Norwood <dwnorwood at embarqmail.com>
Subject: Re: [QuadList] TBC
To: "Quad List" <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Date: Friday, May 6, 2011, 6:49 AM



 
 

Hi Scott:
 
Yes, that looks like the manual I have.  A very fair price if someone 
needs one.  Copying or scanning this would be a considerable task as many 
of the pages are 11x17 foldouts.
 
My impression of the company during the time that these were made was 
that Microtime was a company created to utilize some of the technology that the 
parent company, Andersen Laboratories, manufactured.  I believe Andersen 
 made the delay lines that were used in the TBC's.  Perhaps Bill can 
shed some additional light on this.
 
Don Norwood
Digitrak Communications, Inc.
www.digitrakcom.com
 
----- Original Message ----- 

  From: 
  Scott Thomas 
  
  To: Quad List 
  Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 3:37 AM
  Subject: Re: [QuadList] TBC
  

  I found a manual for sale online...
  

  http://www.dantiques2.com/vpasp/shopexd.asp?ccode=26768
  

  Fascinating story. I started tracing the company and it appears that 
  whatever was left was sold to Avid. (Along with Pinnacle, DF/X, Dubner)
  


  
  On May 2, 2011, at 3:27 PM, Bill Carpenter wrote:

  
    
      
      
        Hi Don & Everyone,

I spec'ed that unit in 
          early 71, and entered into a  contract with Andersen to build it, 
          on which they delivered a prototype in late 71, may be Nov, and then 
          the fun started. It did not work, got rejected, contract into default, 
          litigation began, gave depsitions, recommended how much for our 
          president to pay them to " Go Away", end of Andersen File.

I 
          had the "mini-buffer" TBC-790 available, before the Legal case was 
          started

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

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