[QuadList] CBS Broadcast Center NYC--Pix from Harold R. Deppe (Sr.) and links to others/CBS Retirees lunch is May 24, 2012 in Teaneck, NJ

Sat May 12 20:41:59 CDT 2012

What got recorded on Quad tape had to originate as something else... a live video picture, film, and later, other videotapes and electronic graphics.

Harold Deppe, (aka Deppe Sr.,) was a long-time CBS engineer in New York City. 

Now 95, he's the father of list member Harold W. Deppe, (aka Deppe, Jr.) and lives not far from his son, who is also a broadcast engineer. At ABC affiliate KGUN, Tucson, AZ.

Both Deppes have been members of the QuadList, although Sr. is not at the moment.

Back in 2010—not long after CBS NYC VTR maintenance engineer George Keller joined the list—Sr. sent me a batch of pictures, and some narrative to accompany them.

I've been remiss in posting them to the list... but here they are.

Harold Deppe wrote:

I worked for CBS in NY from 1949 to 1973. I started in video and telecine 
maintenance in Grand Central Studios and ended up in operations in the 
Broadcast Center. 

Never worked in tape, but always had a great interest from the 
first VR-1000 that was installed on the second floor of Grand Central. Then 
the tape department expanded and moved to the seventh floor. 

I have been reading, with interest, George's more recent CBS tape stories, 
especially about the archives across 57th. 

I wonder what formats, besides Quad, are being archived and are there any film transfers being done. 

What model Quads and other VTR's are in use and in what quantity? I remember some 
recordings of the Apollo flights being stored on the floor in the hallways 
collecting dust. I wonder if these have been rescued to the archives?

Do these names ring a bell? Bob Muller, George Hartman, Carl Prince, Herb 
Gardner?

I've attached a picture of me at the Broadcast Center setting up a PC-70 in 
the late 60's.

Harold R. Deppe

Thanks, and I look forward to many more interesting posts.

During the era(s) that Harold R. worked at CBS, the significant portions of of prime-time
entertainment programming, commercials and on-location news coverage was aired from film.

Here are some of Harold R.'s photos of the CBS Broadcast Center facilities circa 1970-1973.
In some cases, I've added information regarding equipment to expand what Harold sent.

Prime-time film programs and many commercials aired on the network were from 35mm film.  
Newsfilm was 16mm.
Slides were the source of graphics used much like today's still stores and character generators.

Insight into CBS practices for prepping and airing would be appreciated.

Harold's pictures begin here:

Slide chains at ends of the film islands:  (Who made the slide projectors?)

A closer look at a CBS film island, showing an Eastman (285?) 16mm projector with what looks like a PikClear liquid film cleaning system's pipes and bowl on top.
A Marconi 35mm projector is partly visible on the opposite side of the multiplexer.  

In a 2000 post to the CBS Retirees website, Harold mentions 35mm projectors at the Grand Central Station facilities having a pulse light source triggered by vertical sync. Was that the same here? (Did this equipment move from GC to West 57th?)

Film islands had General Electric four-vidicon cameras. One is shown here with the cover off.

TL notes: To integrate flat artwork or large slides or transparencies, facilities could use the "Telop" or Television Opaque Projector, seen below.  They evolved into pretty sophisticated machines.  If I understand correctly, the T-bars on the control panel could be used to dissolve between sources.  

Note what appears to be a slide tray with three 4 x 5 or slightly smaller slides hanging below the T-bar panel. The bottom one appears to be a resolution chart.

Harold advises the Telop camera is an RCA TK-21 monochrome vidicon camera. 

In 1973, CBS did video standards conversion using a German made Fernseh "optical" system:  A monitor displayed the incoming video at its native rate, and a 525 line, 29.97fps monochrome camera picked it up the image off the CRT.  It appears there were at least two of these units in 1973.

Harold describes the Kinescope recorder below as a "Fast Film Processor," one of two seen in this photo, and labelled "FR-2." 

The gray, rounded cover hides a specialized picture tube which is photographed by a 16mm film camera seen just to the right of the of the CRT housing. Film is fed into the camera from a magazine we don't see, and then out through the black tube that connects the film to the Eastman (Versamat?) processor on the right.

The processor was designed to quickly process the black and white film so it could be shipped rapidly to worldwide destinations. Kinescopes of appearances on entertainment and news programs were also given to guests, since home video recorders were neither common or standardized, and film was easily viewed.

An Ampex HS-100 videodisc recorder was also on the floor, its electronics mounted in CBS Gray racks, with foam padding under the Conrac monitor to protect an operator's head.

Harold R. is an active contributor to the webpages and blog of retired CBS NY engineers:
http://www.cbsretirees.com

You can see pictures of Harold at work here... 
http://www.cbsretirees.com/rem-images/page_7/page1.html

and of a VR-1000 series machine in the Grand Central facilities at the bottom of that page.
http://www.cbsretirees.com/rem-images/page_7/image27.html

Harold notes in the same August 2000 Retirees post mentioned earlier that "Video Tape Started with 2 Ampex 1000 Tape Recorders on the 2nd Floor Grand Central next to T.V.R.in 1956 or 57. With Joe Geiger at the Controls.  Later on Video Tape Became a big Operation with many Recorders on the 6th or 7th Floor in Grand Central."

We'd like to know more from some of the VT people.  T.V.R. refers to Televison Recording where Kinescopes were made.

Broadcast Center through the years:
There are 1985 photos of the CBS Broadcast Center taken by QuadList member/NBC Today Show Editor Dennis Degan.
http://www.cbsretirees.com/Degan/page1.html

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. Click again to return to the thumbnails.
The Retirees webmaster and members have identified people in the pictures where possible.

Dennis's photos also are on his Flickr pages:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdegan/sets/72157600588273750/

Several of Dennis' pictures show some of the 35mm chains used to air network programming.  These appear to be dedicated 35mm projectors shooting through a rack into a dedicated GE film chain camera.  

Comments and CBS practices from Harold R. would be appreciated.

Quads, including Ampex ACR-25 cassette machines are seen, along with various Master Control facilities.

The last two Quads at the Broadcast Center:
http://www.cbsretirees.com/pho262.htm

In another 2000 Retirees post, Harold R. said he remembered when the first Quad machine was installed in the CBS Grand Central facilities. He asked what's happening now.  

CBS Videotape department member Jesse Michnick replied in a post on 10/5/2000:

To answer Harold Deppe's question about the video tape equipment presently in use.  Telecine has given up it's rows of projectors and telops to a wall of Sony Beta tape recorders.  They come in both analogue and digital flavors.  The digital machines are sought after as their content can be duplicated without generation loss.  

Two Ampex 2" machines still live and are used everyday transferring the many reels of CBS News footage to the new tape formats.  You can still see Charles Collingwood or Richard C. Hottelete reporting somewhere from some not so long ago time.

The video recording business is now in transition. Computer hard drives now make recordings without the need for tape.  Random access takes the place of rewind and fast forward.  

Sporting events now have "instant-instant" replays that can be called up in a highlight package at any time with the flick of a few buttons.  This new powerful technology now places the operator with the responsibility of cataloging every important play and memorable crowd shot.  

All this recorded information must later be transferred to videotape as there is no floppy disc that can presently hold the pictures and sound. 

This process of transfer is known as the "post game melt."  We sure have come a long way since the Ampex HS 100 slo-mo disc that only held 30 seconds of material.  

To see how things are today, here's a link to the CBS Broadcast Center website:
http://cbsbroadcastcenter.com/

The CBS Retirees Luncheon is on Thursday, May 24, 2012 at a restaurant in Teaneck, NJ.

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary

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