[QuadList] Passings--Ampex Quad & GVG engineer Bill Barnhart at 88--

[Ted Langdell]

Television and videotape engineer Bill Barnhart—who played several roles in the famous color video recording of the Nixon-Kruschev "Kitchen Debate"—has passed away in Grass Valley, California.

http://www.theunion.com/news/obituaries/8396446-113/bill-nevada-barnhart-broadcast

Barnhart was 88, and extended early amateur radio and WW II US Navy training in radar into a long career in television broadcast product engineering.

After graduating from Stanford University in 1950 with a degree in Electrical Engineering, Barnhart began his career at pioneering Los Angeles television station KTLA, where television was live and local, unless it was part of a "never been done before" event like covering an atomic bomb test in Nevada via multiple microwave hops over desolate desert and high mountains.

Barnhart's Ampex experience began in the mid-1950s as the pioneering audio recorder company was pioneering the development of the Quadruplex video recorder. 

In 1959, Barnhart was in Russia supporting the Ampex VR-1000 Quad VTR being shown at the American National Exhibition in Sokolniki Park in Moscow. 

He is seen running the recorder as Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev and US Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in what came to be called "The Kitchen Debate."

Stories are told about how the tape smuggled out of Russia, and Barnhart regaled  Sacramento SMPTE section event.  

Member Pete Challinger recalled the telling in a post to the Telecine Internet Group in 2006:
Kruschev and his handlers were not aware at the time that the exchange was recorded, or most likely even that it was possible it could be recorded.  

After it was over the Ampex engineers realized what they had and discussed how to get it home, knowing that sooner or later someone would realize what had happened.  

It so happened that Joe Roizen and another engineer were scheduled to return home that day.  Bill spooled off the tape and wound it tightly around a pencil then Joe took the pancake back to the hotel and hid in his dirty socks while packing to come home.  

By the time they were heading for the airport speculation was spreading amongst the Russians that something was going on.  Fortunately by the time the Russians had worked out there was a tape and that Americans were leaving Moscow, the plane was in the air. 

After our meeting of course we all kicked ouselves recognizing the irony of failing to preserve the retelling on videotape!
See the July 26, 2009 QuadList post "[QuadList] Kitchen Debate Video turned 50 this weekend--Pictures from an Exhibition" for more and a photo of the event.

In 1967, Barnhart became Grass Valley Group's twelfth employee, and was a cheery fixture at NAB and other trade shows demonstrating Grass Valley's range of video processing and switching equipment.

Barnhart was tapped to be part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Videotape, as the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers presented an All Day Historical Seminar on Saturday, Oct. 21. 2006, joining engineers from the CBS, NBC and ABC who installed and ran early Quad machines, and former Ampex Quad development team member Ray Dolby, who passed away a few weeks before Barnhart.

The 2006 Conference's co-chair Bill Hogan said at the time, "The innovations these individuals and companies produced decades ago profoundly changed the television industry. Their seminal ideas are present even in the devices we use today. The pioneers' perspectives and remembrances will enhance what is going to be a fascinating day-long look at motion picture and television history"

https://www.smpte.org/news-events/pr/smpte-historical-seminar-celebrate-vtrs-50th-anniversary

Barnhart had a love of recorders—the musical kind—and while at Ampex founded a group in Palo Alto:
http://www.mpro-online.org/DetailedHistory.htm

In Grass Valley, he was part of the Nevada County Concert Band, and in 1978, co-founded the Sierra Community Symphony.
http://www.nccb.org/pdfs/NCCB120990Program.pdf

Barnhart was married to the late Nevada County Supervisor Ilse Barnhart, until she passed away in 2002.

He is survived by son John of Elk Grove, California, daughter Shirley Rodriquez of Reno, Nevada, niece Nancy Struble of Nevada City, nephew Dirk Miller of Incline Village, Nevada and eight grandchildren.




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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