[QuadList] 1" Quad--and a Hitachi 2" Quad portable--

[Ted Langdell]

A remark on another list a week or so ago sent me looking up some of the information we've mentioned here before, but perhaps not with as much detail.

1" Quad? Yes! Think 2" Quad, but somewhat miniaturized.

This format was developed by ASACA in Japan in 1974 with the AVS-3200 "stationary" machine.
 
The ASACA AVS-3200 suitcase style portables were introduced in 1975, with production machines appearing in 1977. A companion 3-tube prism-type color camera was also introduced in 1975.

The format used a heterodyne modulation scheme, but I haven't been able to find out more about just how it was used.  

Heterodyne was the method used by RCA in 1958 to record and recover color on modified Ampex VR-1000 Quads, and in RCA's early TRT series Quad recorders.

The AVS-3200 package had a separate playback adapter to demodulate which could be run through the ATC-300 TBC.  

The AVS 3300-B studio machine was also developed and released in 1977.

The AVS-3200 portables were 52.6cm x 31.5cm x 14cm / 20.7in x 12.4in x 5.5in and weighed 16Kg / 35.2lb.

Ampex's VR-3000 2" Quad portable was 20 pounds heavier (55lb / 24.9Kg) with the backpack frame and slightly larger: 24in x 14in x 8in / 60.96cm x 35.56cm x 13.97cm.

Both systems needed power supplies, either AC or battery and external processing added to size and weight.

The ASACA  3300B 1" Quad Studio machines (Scroll way down) were way smaller than US and European made 2" Quads of the time, although the Shibaden SV-7000 Quad was one of the smallest that appears to have had full record/play capabilities.  (RCA's TR-5 and TR-10 not withstanding.)

In 1975, Hitachi introduced a 2" Quad portable.  According to the SMPTE Progress Committee Report for 1975 (SMPTE Journal, May 1976, page 312), this machine was 49 cm (19.3 in) wide, 19cm(7.5 in) high and 34cm(13.4 in) deep.

The Progress Report said the machine produced pictures comparable to studio units when used with a playback adapter and concurrently developed digital time base corrector.

The slow demise of Quadruplex recording for broadcast was marked by the 1976 introduction of the Ampex VPR-1 with Auto Scan Tracking and Sony's BVH-1000.

When broadcasters generally they'd prefer a single format, Sony, Ampex and SMPTE members worked over a two year period to create a new format from the Ampex and Sony formats into one.

In 1978, new machines—Ampex VPR-2 and Sony BVH-1000C—introduced the new The SMPTE Type-C recording format.

Type C retrofit kits were available for Ampex VPR-1 "Type A" machines, and Sony BVH-1000 and BVH-1100 Dynamic Tracking machines.

Ampex's VPR-20 portable and Sony's BVH-500 (sold by RCA as its TH-50) allowed location recording, and fully broadcastable signals with outboard processing and digital TBCs.

Even as 1" Type-C took over the bulk of high-end network, local station and production house duties, stations in small US markets kept using Quad VTRs into the 1990's, since they could keep the machines running and avoid the expense of new machines.

QuadList member Park Seward has three such examples from the Ampex VR-1200 series, retrieved from unfriendly conditions and put back into quite nice condition, still transferring tapes nearly 50 years after their series was introduced.

And in the East, QuadList member Guy Spiller has restored a number of RCA TR-70 series machines:

Guy posted this video Six years ago tomorrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4yEYYpckYw

And there you go.

Ted

Ted Langdell
(530) 301-2931
ted at quadvideotapegroup.com
Secretary for the  QuadVideotapeGroup.com: 
Preserving Tape, Equipment and the Knowledge to use them, in conjunction with the Library of Congress



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