[QuadList] VR-3000 History

Tue Aug 14 13:40:50 CDT 2012

Hi Don and everyone,

As I remember the machine you have, a VR-3000 is set-up to run with the TBC-900 which would provide stable, time base corrected playback was built for the ORTF ( France) to use to send back external events which were recorded on the VR-3000. They had some rule related to the signals on the microwave links.

The VR-3000B had the added audio package on the top left side of the machine. This was designed by Chuck Colby, and we took a system like yours with the TBC-900 to the Winter TV conference SMPTE held that year, in Detroit.
This was an epic conference and many stated it was the real birth of ENG ( Electronic News Gathering) and a Friday nite impromptu session was held to try the "Cracker Barrel concept", very informal, maybe there was beer, but it was held in a lower level room, maybe set up for 50 people maxium. Well, when we came back from dinner, about 9;30 there was a group of about 150 people filling the room, the hallway outside, and anywhere else to get involved. This session went on till about 11pm.

The next day I gave a paper on the VR-3000/TBC-900 system since it was the only system truly designed for ENG use at that time. It was sorta, alternate method, informative paper which SMPTE had asked for, as I remember. 
CBS had used a VR-3000 years before in this manner for ENG in Washington and had sent me pictures.

The next day the best paper was given by Hugo Bundy from WAGA-TV, and he talked about using Sony U-matic equipment and a DTBC, showed pictures (slides) of his set-up and discussed all the problems that they had and what the had solved.
The last slide was a picture of an ACR-25 with their call letters on it, in their tape room.

His commentary stated that without the ACR-25, none of this ENG experiment would have been possible, since the news department wanted to be able to "Punch In" with news stories, and none of the equipment was reliable enough to go to air in their newscast. He stated they would work to get a good locked up playback, with many failed attemps, to record on the ACR, and then they would tell the was director how to select it for "instant playback" and it was cued in a transport. 
This he said was the only way they could work thru all the problems and still look good "OnAir".
I was sitting in the audience, during his paper, next to my friend and the marketing manager of Ampex brodcast, Donald Kleffman, and he asked me, who is this guy?. I answered "that he was a Good Old Boy, CE who was really on top of what was going on, and was a great engineer", who I had met the previous year in the South East region. I bought Hugo a drink the next time I saw him, for the great ACR-25 endorsment.

I have my own opinion, shared by many that we (Ampex) never made a dime on the VR-3000/TBC-900 systems, that we sold. But since Maurice Lemoine had designed the VR-3000 in the late 60's, and the Digital Time Base Corrector in the 70's, and was from France and by this time he was not to busy, he put the two together with a goal . With some AVR-2 signal boards and the expert help of his  good friend and fellow great engineer, Al Trost who was the designer of the early SS quad proc amp, VR-1200 signal system, AVR-2 as Project engineer, VPR-20 as Project Engineer, and then as Project Engineer for the VPR-3 and then he consulted on the Zeus TBC project, and this small project, assured both of them a trip to the big International TV trade show in Montreau, Switzerland that year. 
They both went to the show, and the system was displayed and I never heard anything more about until now.

Bye for now,  Bill Carpenter

________________________________
 From: Don Norwood <dwnorwood at embarqmail.com>
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> 
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 9:25 AM
Subject: [QuadList] VR-3000 History

I've been restoring another VR-3000, and this one is diffeent from any of the others that I've done in the past.  From component date codes, it appears to have been made in early '76.  The unusual aspect of this machine is that it includes many of the features of a VR-3000B.  It does not have the additional audio circuitry of the "B", but it does have dual speed operation and the connector for the external TBC-900.  All of this, including the TBC interface card, appears to be original factory assembly.

I'm hoping Bill Carpenter or others can detail the evolution of the 3000.  I didn't realize that the external processing was available prior to the "B". The VR-3000B manual I have is dated '77, so I assume this machine may have been made just prior to the B's introduction.

Always good to learn more about the history of these amazing machines!

Don Norwood
Digitrak Communications, Inc.
www.digitrakcom.com 

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