[QuadList] NBC Burbank: Au Revior--Historical tidbits about Burbank's early Quad operation

Sun Jan 6 22:09:36 CST 2013

Following up on David Crosthwait's latest post about the EOT for NBC Burbank's Videotape Central...  It played a significant role in the development of television videotape applications beyond time zone delay (TZD).

So, we offer for you a look at a few Tidbits about Burbank Videotape Central and some questions they raised as I was compiling this.

Automated TZD Recording and Playback:

In a 1959 document called "Automatic Control of Video Tape Equipment at NBC Burbank," NBC's Robert Byloff outlined the technology and how the equipment was used.

The Burbank system delayed the Eastern Time network feed for all other time zones, so that
programs were seen with—at most—only a one hour difference from the Eastern time zone.  

IE:  An 8 p.m. ET program would be replayed for Central and Mountain zones one hour after it fed from New York, and then replayed at 8 p.m. Burbank time for the West Coast.  

The system used eight Ampex Quads modified by RCA to record and play color, and four prototype RCA Color recorders. Because color programs occurred at random and increasing times in the network schedule, Byloff said that colorizing all machines was done to ensure flexibility as more color programs were transmitted.

Recordings were made of the Eastern time zone transmissions coming down the network line into Burbank. 

Since rewinding and cuing a one-hour reel couldn't be done in the (usually two-minute) terminal break leading into the top of the hour, Time Zone Delay recordings were done in half-hour blocks so that crossover would happen during station breaks and be un-seen by viewers.

Here's an example:  

Hour 1's first half-hour would be recorded on VTR 1, which would rewind after recording and wait until the top of the hour, then play the show back for the Central time zone. 

Hour 1's second half-hour would be recorded on VTR 2, which would rewind and be ready to play the second half-hour an hour after its recording started.

Both machines would then rewind and cue in order to play Hour 1 beginning two hours later for the Pacific time zone.

Each machine rewinds when finished, and is ready to record again, catching the first and second half-hours of Hour 4.

Here' a grid:

Each machine had input routing so that the incoming network regular and backup lines, all NBC Burbank studios, and test signals.

Each machine's output routing could feed playback to any Burbank studio for production, and four different "delay" feeds:  One-hour delay for the Midwest, three-hour delay for the West Coast, a two-hour delay for special purposes and a four-hour delay "for future playback to the Pacific Northwest," which didn't observe Daylight time.

A QC room in the back of the VTR area enabled monitoring of each machine in color and monochrome, and "control of output switching is provided there to permit switching between A and B copy tapes."

Since the staggered recording/playback plan outlined above doesn't provide for simultaneous main and backup record and play, perhaps there were workflows that enabled that on occasion?

In addition to the automated "DB Sequence" control outlined above, the Burbank control system enabled preset operation at the machine. 

An operator could arrange for a clock-time selection of input and output routing, record or play operation, start time and duration.  After the specified duration, the machine would rewind to the beginning of the recording and stop.

What's not outlined in the copy of the document I have (unknown number of missing pages) is how the system determined the beginning of the recording.  

A guess would be a cue tone automatically put on the cue track at specific locations in order to tell the machine to enter "Stop" so it didn't overshoot the head of tape and unthread... and then enter "Play" to find a cue tone marking the beginning of the recording.

The system also allowed for manual control and input and output selection at the machine, delegation from the machine of studio control... Stop, Play, Record, etc.,

Audio and Video AGC amplifiers were used between the input routing switcher handling feeds to the VTRs and each VTR's input.  

The video AGC amps were developed by NBC and separated luminance and chroma components.  Sync was stripped, "the baseline cleaned up and the signal controlled to a particular level," Byloff advised.  "In the chrominance channel, the burst is measured and by this means the chrominance is held to a predetermined level." Sync was reshaped and delayed, then added back to the signal before exiting the AGC amp.

Burbank Adds Ten TRT-1AC's:

In the April, 1961 "RCA Broadcast News" issue about "Color Television Progress," NBC Burbank recording engineer Russel A. Nies reports on what was a then recently completed installation of ten new RCA TRT-1AC color VTR's.

The ten new machines were arranged in five cubicles.  Transports and some of the racks involved faced each other, while the color monitors for QC were at the end of the cubicle.

The same "Color Television Progress" issue notes the quick playback in Burbank of the Nov. 10, 1960 "Tennessee Ernie Ford Show," the fourth time the show had been done on location.

The show wrapped shooting at Edwards Air Force Base at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time, with a 150 mile drive to Burbank.  The tape arrived around 5:20 p.m., and was playing back to the network at 6 p.m. from Burbank for 9 p.m. Eastern time zone viewing.  No indication of whether there was a backup tape or just one.

Burbank Pioneered Videotape Editing Methods:

In the article about the ten new TRT-1AC machines, Nies outlined how a large portion of Burbank's tape operations involved pre-recording shows for later release.  

Editing from a number of different reels required consistent and stable signal parameters, since recording sessions could span days, weeks or months, and involve different recorders, heads and tape stock.

Nies says the number of splices in an edited production might range "from 25 or 30 to as many as 200," and the material could come from a dozen different reels of tape.

NBC's Burbank facility became the "go to" place for production and editing when folks there developed a method of editing videotape picture and sound separately.  It was first used on "An Evening with Fred Astaire, a 1958 special Fred Astaire produced and starred in that was recorded and aired on NBC.

Reel from "An Evening with Fred Astaire"during restoration process in 1988.  (Screen capture from KTLA News video)

Called "Editor's Sync Guide" (or ESG), the process used 16mm kinescopes of the video and magnetic film transfers of the audio.  Long-time editor Art Schneider A.C.E said the word of mouth from Astaire "literally opened up the flood gates to producers and directors who wanted their shows edited at NBC. "

Schneider described how it worked in this webpage first posted on the late engineer/edit system designer Jack Calaway's "Museum of Early Video Editing Equipment and Techniques," preserved after his passing by the UK videotape website, VT Oldboys:

http://www.vtoldboys.com/editingmuseum/esg.htm

The Quad tape was physically spliced to conform to the film edit. (Would be good to know more about some of the audio sweetening process used.)

Conforming the tape required the use of a special reel-holding set up. It allowed the videotape editors who conformed the tape to roll through the reels much like film while hearing the audio from the ESG and show.  When splicing, they had to account for the physical offset between the sound head stack and video head.

The ESG system was used to create many shows in the late 1950's to the early 1970s.  

It enabled Schneider to win two Primetime Emmys:  One was shared with Craig Curtis in 1966 for Individual Achievements in Electronic Production - Video Tape Editing—they cut the 1965 Julie Andrews special.

Schneider second Primetime Emmy was solo in 1968 for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production.  The program:  The pilot of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," which aired as a special on September 9, 1967. 

"Laugh-In" took the number of cuts per hour from perhaps 80 to something like 400. 

In 2009, Schneider commented about ESG to QuadList member John Buck in connection with John's book about videotape editing, "Timeline." 

John shared Art's comments in a Feb., 2010 post to the QuadList:
http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-February/002208.html

The show became a mid-season entry on January 22, 1968 using the ESG system for editing, and ran 141 episodes through March 12, 1973.

Others who worked at NBC at the time recalled the process to QuadList member/former NBC Editor David Crosthwait in this January, 2010 posting:
http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-January/001931.html

Burbank Adds Timecode Editing:

By the late 1960's, time code based editing was making its way into video editing. 

At NBC Burbank, the RCA TRT-1AC's, RCA Labs heterodyne color, and Low Band recording had been replaced by RCA TR-70 series machines with High Band Color.  

As outlined in the June, 1971 issue of "RCA Broadcast News,"  NBC looked into the new technology in 1967, and implemented a special edit room in Burbank with two VTRs.  Completed in the summer of 1968, the room successfully edited a season of several prime time programs.

NBC Burbank Supervisor of Videotape Operations John Fishette mounts tape on an RCA TR-70  (RCA Broadcast News)

The experience led to ordering more time code editing gear, and incorporating more complete audio and video switching.  An Ampex Slo-mo disc was also incorporated.

First used for the fall 1969 season, the second room was averaging more than 12 hours a day of use cutting the Andy Williams and Don Knots shows, along with various specials. 

A third room was built for the fall, 1970 season, using the new RCA Time Code Editor developed by RCA engineers in Camden, New Jersey with experiences of the Burbank engineers and operators.

RCA Time Code Editor with programmer and nixie tube time code display.  (RCA Photo)

Its first work was the Dean Martin and Red Skelton shows.  

Editing the Dean Martin Show with the RCA Time Code Editor:
As a standard operating procedure, "Time of Day" time code was fed to the cue track all machines in the Burbank plant, allowing operators—and editors who often are the record engineers on shows like Dean Martin— to easily log takes as they were recorded, using clock time.

On the Martin show, two reels were generated during the Saturday evening sessions:  A live-switched reel and an ISO of a single camera usually used for close ups.

During the Monday/Tuesday edit sessions, shows were assembled on one-hour reels previously recorded with time code, video black and control track. A 15Hz frame pulse was added to the control track to help make color framing more accurate during editing, since the TR-70's didn't have a color framing detector.

The editor operated the record VTR on which the show was assembled, along with the switcher.  His assistant ran the playback VTR, its programmer and the slo-mo disc recorder when used.

If dissolves to other reels were needed a third VTR and assistant were assigned.

Contact closures at specified time codes rolled different video or audio equipment.

Credit rolls for the "Dean Martin" show used A and B reels built up checkerboard style using the slo-mo disc to pull stills from the show.  A third playback VTR was used to roll the credits for keying over the A-B roll pictures. The theme song was laid down from an audio deck during the playback to the edited master.  The use of time code significantly sped up the process for building the credits.

Audio sweetening was done after the master reel was assembled.  

Mono audio and time code were transferred from the edited master to two tracks of a four-track audio recorder equipped with a capstan servo and sync track.  The time code from the four-track audio recorder was fed back to the RCA Time Code Editor so its synchronizing feature would lock the VTR to the audio deck TC.

Sweetening added audience reaction and applause to smooth out transitions, along with equalization to match segment-to-segment sound and additional music.  

The results were mixed during re-recording to the mono audio track on the edited master.

QuadList member and former NBC Editor David Crosthwait described working in one of the newer rooms in this January, 2010 message:
http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-January/001917.html

So, there's a little bit of NBC Burbank Quad-related history.  And now you know what I was editing all day :)  

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary

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