[QuadList] TCR-100 live to air

Fri Aug 24 12:02:46 CDT 2012

Worked at at least 4 stations with TCR-100's (KVRL-26 Houston, WSNS-44 Chicago, KWGN-2 Denver and WGN-9 Chicago), Add WBBM-2 Chicago with Ampex ACR25). The whole point of the TCR's was to eliminate the need for making up spot reels! Of course the machines played directly to air, otherwise why invest the $$. 

At WSNS we had the individual small reels in a room close by and on occasion would have to thread the 1200's when there was a cart jam. At KWGN and WGN there were multiple TCR's. 

At WBBM there were 2 ACR's, one for spot playback to air and the other for news clips direct to air after recording carts from NX, the news tape playback room. 

ACR was far superior, but then again double the cost of a TCR. Both machines totally revolutionized tape operations at V stations all over the country. 

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Today's Topics: 

1. Re: Servo Modes (Dennis Degan) 
2. Re: Servo Modes (Trevor) 
3. Re: Servo Modes (kylebook at aol.com) 
4. Re: Servo Modes (David Crosthwait) 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Message: 1 
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 10:07:15 -0400 
From: Dennis Degan <DennyD1 at verizon.net> 
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> 
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Servo Modes 
Message-ID: <EDA511CE-17E5-4609-83F0-5F99FA8CF724 at verizon.net> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes 

On Aug 24, 2012, at 12:50 AM, Wayne Watson wrote: 

> Also related to a similar thread we (an independent station with no 
network spot support) ran our only ACR direct to air for many years. 
It was something us techs were very proud of. 

I say: 

Not to throw cold water on it Wayne, but I don't know of a single TV 
station that DIDN'T run their cart machines live to air. Only 
networks would do this (with the notable exception of NBC). At the 
network level, where more money is at stake, reliability is of much 
higher priority than operator convenience. Not only would CBS and ABC 
cut their commercials into the program masters, they would run two 
copies of the commercial-inserted program on the air simultaneously to 
enable quick switching in case of a failure of the on-air tape. 
Again, no local TV station I'm aware of did this. 

Wayne also said: 

> So......speaking of proud....it is absolutely amazing what 
engineers did 30 to 40 years ago with no operating systems to take 
advantage of. Three developments to think about are the above fast 
lock VTR's; the Chyron and the ADO. I think most of this using massive 
TTL logic? Someone can back me up here but I think the ADO had a 200 
Amp 5 volt supply to run all those chips. The Chyron and ACR (logic 
bay) even did all this with wire wrap on the chips (I think). 

I offer: 

Wire wrap is very reliable. Obviously, if the equipment was being 
built today, wire wrap would probably not be used because the method 
was more labor-intensive than others. But it did have its advantages. 

Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank 
NBC Today Show, New York 

------------------------------ 

Message: 2 
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 16:23:02 +0100 
From: "Trevor" <videovault at sky.com> 
To: "'Quad List'" <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> 
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Servo Modes 
Message-ID: <001001cd820c$5d7612d0$18623870$@com> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 

I was at an ITV network TV station with around 6 million viewers and yes we 
started live to air with TCR100's 
I think it fair to say TC100's are not as reliable as the ACR25 
RCA did not have good digital TBC 
The RCA Pinch roller less Capstan had its problems as did the cassette 
design 

Everything could have been sorted except for misinformation "pinch roller's 
do not go wrong" 
"The cassette box is not in circuit once the tape has threaded", were the 
main themes of misinformation 

When the engineer Bill ..... who's name will come to me turned and spoke the 
truth 
Changing Pinch roller capstan assemblies and rejecting new ones RCA sent 
and showing how to diagnosed faulty cassettes then they could have continued 
to be live 

Alas by that time the decision was not to go live but to copy breaks to tape 
and they were never used again live on air 

I do not blame engineers the misinformation came from the top of RCA 
Never went ACR25 they were replaced by BCN 100 and then Panasonic marc 
machines D3 decks 

TrevorB 
UK Member 

-----Original Message----- 
From: quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com 
[mailto:quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com] On Behalf Of Dennis Degan 
Sent: 24 August 2012 15:07 
To: Quad List 
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Servo Modes 

On Aug 24, 2012, at 12:50 AM, Wayne Watson wrote: 

> Also related to a similar thread we (an independent station with no 
network spot support) ran our only ACR direct to air for many years. 
It was something us techs were very proud of. 

I say: 

Not to throw cold water on it Wayne, but I don't know of a single TV 
station that DIDN'T run their cart machines live to air. Only networks 
would do this (with the notable exception of NBC). At the network level, 
where more money is at stake, reliability is of much higher priority than 
operator convenience. Not only would CBS and ABC cut their commercials into 
the program masters, they would run two copies of the commercial-inserted 
program on the air simultaneously to 
enable quick switching in case of a failure of the on-air tape. 
Again, no local TV station I'm aware of did this. 

Wayne also said: 

> So......speaking of proud....it is absolutely amazing what engineers did 
30 to 40 years ago with no operating systems to take advantage of. Three 
developments to think about are the above fast lock VTR's; the Chyron and 
the ADO. I think most of this using massive TTL logic? Someone can back me 
up here but I think the ADO had a 200 Amp 5 volt supply to run all those 
chips. The Chyron and ACR (logic 
bay) even did all this with wire wrap on the chips (I think). 

I offer: 

Wire wrap is very reliable. Obviously, if the equipment was being 
built today, wire wrap would probably not be used because the method was 
more labor-intensive than others. But it did have its advantages. 

Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank 
NBC Today Show, New York 

______________________________________________ 
Please trim posts to relevant info when replying. 

Change subject to reflect thread direction. Thanks. 
_______________________________________________ 

Send QuadList list posts to QuadList at quadvideotapegroup.com Your subscribe, 
unsubscribe and digest options are here: 
http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/mailman/listinfo/quadlist_quadvideotapegr 
oup.com 

------------------------------ 

Message: 3 
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:25:43 -0400 (EDT) 
From: kylebook at aol.com 
To: quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com 
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Servo Modes 
Message-ID: <8CF5023DC2D0FA3-AE8-DEC4 at webmail-d053.sysops.aol.com> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 

Dennis Degan says: Not to throw cold water on it Wayne, but I don't know of a single TV station that DIDN'T run their cart machines live to air. Only networks would do this (with the notable exception of NBC). At the network level, where more money is at stake, reliability is of much higher priority than operator convenience. Not only would CBS and ABC cut their commercials into the program masters, they would run two copies of the commercial-inserted program on the air simultaneously to enable quick switching in case of a failure of the on-air tape. Again, no local TV station I'm aware of did this. 

I say: Not sure if this was standard operating procedure at other local stations carrying live sports events, but during my time at WHCT in Hartford, CT, when they carried a live Hartford Whalers hockey telecast, they did not use their spot playback system (The LaKart 3/4" system), but instead ran the spots from compilation reels. The reason behind this, similar to the network philosophy, was that these were high revenue generating commercials, where operational failure & "make goods" were just not option. 

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Message: 4 
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:32:38 -0700 
From: David Crosthwait <david at dcvideo.com> 
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> 
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Servo Modes 
Message-ID: <2BE2E0DD-78A5-4160-9652-5BB7FC79A854 at dcvideo.com> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 

I know of one TV station in the seventies in a top ten market who owned 3 ACR 25's. Two for commercial air and one exclusively for news casts. All film or ENJ were loaded to individual ACR cassettes and zero rolled during the newscast. I believe the TD was the newscast director. The anchor pitched to the story, then roll and take simultaneously. It made for a very tight and fast newscast. 

One station in LA had ACR-25's then ACR 225's. There was not enough Kleenex in the house for the tears that were shed for years afterwards having to give up their ACR-25's. They eventually got over that by getting rid of the ACR-225's. 

Regards, 

David Crosthwait 
DC Video 
Videotape transfers and more! 
david at dcvideo.com 
www.dcvideo.com 
Follow DC Video on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dcvideo 

On Aug 24, 2012, at 8:23 AM, Trevor wrote: 

> 
> I was at an ITV network TV station with around 6 million viewers and yes we 
> started live to air with TCR100's 
> I think it fair to say TC100's are not as reliable as the ACR25 
> RCA did not have good digital TBC 
> The RCA Pinch roller less Capstan had its problems as did the cassette 
> design 
> 
> Everything could have been sorted except for misinformation "pinch roller's 
> do not go wrong" 
> "The cassette box is not in circuit once the tape has threaded", were the 
> main themes of misinformation 
> 
> When the engineer Bill ..... who's name will come to me turned and spoke the 
> truth 
> Changing Pinch roller capstan assemblies and rejecting new ones RCA sent 
> and showing how to diagnosed faulty cassettes then they could have continued 
> to be live 
> 
> Alas by that time the decision was not to go live but to copy breaks to tape 
> and they were never used again live on air 
> 
> I do not blame engineers the misinformation came from the top of RCA 
> Never went ACR25 they were replaced by BCN 100 and then Panasonic marc 
> machines D3 decks 
> 
> TrevorB 
> UK Member 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com 
> [mailto:quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com] On Behalf Of Dennis Degan 
> Sent: 24 August 2012 15:07 
> To: Quad List 
> Subject: Re: [QuadList] Servo Modes 
> 
> 
> 
> On Aug 24, 2012, at 12:50 AM, Wayne Watson wrote: 
> 
>> Also related to a similar thread we (an independent station with no 
> network spot support) ran our only ACR direct to air for many years. 
> It was something us techs were very proud of. 
> 
> I say: 
> 
> Not to throw cold water on it Wayne, but I don't know of a single TV 
> station that DIDN'T run their cart machines live to air. Only networks 
> would do this (with the notable exception of NBC). At the network level, 
> where more money is at stake, reliability is of much higher priority than 
> operator convenience. Not only would CBS and ABC cut their commercials into 
> the program masters, they would run two copies of the commercial-inserted 
> program on the air simultaneously to 
> enable quick switching in case of a failure of the on-air tape. 
> Again, no local TV station I'm aware of did this. 
> 
> Wayne also said: 
> 
>> So......speaking of proud....it is absolutely amazing what engineers did 
> 30 to 40 years ago with no operating systems to take advantage of. Three 
> developments to think about are the above fast lock VTR's; the Chyron and 
> the ADO. I think most of this using massive TTL logic? Someone can back me 
> up here but I think the ADO had a 200 Amp 5 volt supply to run all those 
> chips. The Chyron and ACR (logic 
> bay) even did all this with wire wrap on the chips (I think). 
> 
> I offer: 
> 
> Wire wrap is very reliable. Obviously, if the equipment was being 
> built today, wire wrap would probably not be used because the method was 
> more labor-intensive than others. But it did have its advantages. 
> 
> Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank 
> NBC Today Show, New York 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________ 
> Please trim posts to relevant info when replying. 
> 
> Change subject to reflect thread direction. Thanks. 
> _______________________________________________ 
> 
> Send QuadList list posts to QuadList at quadvideotapegroup.com Your subscribe, 
> unsubscribe and digest options are here: 
> http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/mailman/listinfo/quadlist_quadvideotapegr 
> oup.com 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________ 
> Please trim posts to relevant info when replying. 
> 
> Change subject to reflect thread direction. Thanks. 
> _______________________________________________ 
> 
> Send QuadList list posts to QuadList at quadvideotapegroup.com 
> Your subscribe, unsubscribe and digest options are here: 
> http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/mailman/listinfo/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com 
> 

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