[QuadList] Quad Carts--Links to RCA and Ampex photo examples

[Ron Fleury]

Don't get me started on what a leap backwards the whole MII boondoggle was.  In local news we were trying to go 3/4" Sony SP which would have improved quality 
a lot.  Instead, we got what netted out to be VHS quality on-air.  The rest of the universe went Betacam.  Even NetNews refused to adopt it!


________________________________
 From: David Crosthwait <david at dcvideo.com>
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> 
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 7:52 AM
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Quad Carts--Links to RCA and Ampex photo examples
 



Yes, the "miracle" of the MII format and the MII cart machine. It was a sad day when the stereo-modified TCR's were shut down for this robot:




The whole idea of abandoning 2" quad cart (and other formats i.e. 1" type C and 3/4") was to have a unified "one size fit's all" for everything at the network. Office viewing, Net Promos, commercial air, program air (including prime time), EJ, editing, sports slo-mo, field production and on and on. One common format and less NABET operators. A brilliant concept. IIRC, the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson was the first to go back to 1" type C (BVH-2000) from MII after a very short "experience" with MII air. 

Comparing a TCR or ACR cart to an MII cart and the machines that ran each format was an eye opener. I wonder if anyone has a working MII Video Cart (MARC) in their garage operation or museum? At one time I had possession of an M format cart machine from a TV station in Waco Texas but it was scrapped. Watching a working TCR or ACR is much more impressive and worthy of the time spent to keep it running in my opinion.


Regards,

David Crosthwait
DC Video
Videotape transfers and more!

177 West Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA. 91502
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On Aug 17, 2012, at 9:50 AM, Rory Ryan wrote:


>MARCs (ARPS) were used on-air at NBC from the passing of the TCR-100 era until 12/31/99 when their xenix OS's failed to go past Y2K.  
>
>- Rory
>
>
>On Aug 17, 2012, at 12:23 PM, Scott Thomas <scottgfx at mac.com> wrote:
>
>
>The Panasonic system with the M-II decks was called a MARC II.
>
>I saw one on a visit to WFLA-TV in the late 1980's. There were engineers from Panasonic there, rather late, trying to get the system to talk to the station's Utah Scientific automation. They were still using a TCR-100 for playback, and had a second TCR for backup. (This is the one I saw that had EPIS)
>
>MARC II used an X-Y parallelogram arm.
>
>There was an earlier MARC system was based on the original M-Format. I remember seeing a brochure for it, but I don't remember how it worked. I remember seeing pictures with either the tapes or the transports in pull-out drawers. Were these ever installed anywhere?
>
>Scott Thomas
>
>On Aug 17, 2012, at 11:38 AM, Dennis Degan wrote:
>
>
>
>>
>
>>
>      On Aug 16, 2012, at 9:46 PM, David Crosthwait wrote:
>>
>
>>
>One interesting note that I've said in the past on this list: As far as I am aware, NBC New York and Burbank were the only operations to air prime time commercials directly from a cart machine. I am fairly certain that CBS and ABC integrated their commercials into slugs in the air master being played back, but I stand to be corrected.
>>>
>
>>
>      I offer:
>>
>
>>
>  This was true for the TCR/ACR era, but when CBS updated their ACR-25s to digital machines (I think they were ACR-225's), I'd heard that the digital carts were used directly on-air.
>>
>  I was not present at NBC NY from 1979 to 2003, so I don't know what they did after the TCR-100's.  I believe they had Panasonic cart machines using MII VTR's, whatever it may have been called.  I had also heard that NBC had Sony Betacart machines.  Whether any of these were used directly on air or not is unknown to me.
>>
>
>>
>          Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank
>>
>                       NBC Today Show, New York
>>
>
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