[QuadList] Some of RCA's "other" publications are on-line--Sarnoff Library digital collections
Steve White
Steve.White at 800CallNow.com
Sat Mar 8 07:49:59 CST 2014
WOW!
Thanks, Ted.
On 3/8/14, 4:03 AM, Ted Langdell wrote:
>
>
> There's more hours of reading ahead at the Hagley Museum and Library
> <http://www.hagley.org>, and details about RCA's involvement in
> television tape recording. Among a lot of other things!
>
> The Hagley Museum <http://www.hagley.org/info> is at the site of the
> original DuPont gunpowder mills, family estate and gardens, while the
> Library is in the Greenville area of Wilmington.
>
> The Wilmington, Delaware institution has a growing on-line collection
> that encompasses material from companies like DuPont, ConRail and RCA
> as part of collections that document the history of American business.
>
> The Hagley was recently awarded $291,500
> <http://www.hagley.org/12/20/library-news/sarnoff-clir-grant>to
> process and catalog the David Sarnoff Library collection, which was
> housed in Princeton, New Jersey before the Sarnoff closed in 2009.
>
> While the College of New Jersey received the /objects/ in the
> collection, the Hagley received nearly 3,000 linear feet of documents.
>
> They include David Sarnoff's personal papers, RCA corporate papers and
> publications and some materials from NBC.
>
> Some of the materials were digitized by the Sarnoff Library before the
> Sarnoff closed. Others have been digitized since processing began.
>
> http://www.hagley.org/2013/08/sarnoff-digital-collection
>
> The online collections include:
>
> * RCA Laboratories Newsletters, 1943-1986
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/search/searchterm/RCA%20Newsletters%20-%201943-1986/field/foldea/mode/exact/page/1>: internal
> publications used to disseminate information about research
> related to RCA product development
> * RCA Engineer, 1955-1974
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/search/collection/p16038coll11/searchterm/RCA%20Engineer/field/title/mode/exact/conn/and/order/nosort>: technical
> journal published by RCA's Product Engineering Division in New Jersey
> * RCA Annual Reports, 1921-1945
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/search/collection/p16038coll11/searchterm/RCA%20Annual%20Reports/field/all/mode/exact/conn/and/order/nosort>
> * RCA/Victor advertisements
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/search/collection/p16038coll11/searchterm/advertising/field/subjec/mode/all/conn/and/order/nosort>:
> advertisements for RCA/Victor products primarily from the first
> half of the 20th century
>
> Click here:
> http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16038coll11
>
> to see some recently digitized 1930s Broadcast News magzines, and a
> link to browse all the items currently digitized
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/search/collection/p16038coll11>.
>
> I found using the "Browse all items" link, sorting by subject and the
> maximum number of items worked well. 4 loooong pages, ending with
> issues of the RCA Engineer.
>
> You can download many of the PDFs... and make adjustments to the
> viewing window in the viewer.
>
> To get you started, here's a link to the Feb/March 1968 issue of RCA
> Engineer
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/19104/rec/162>,
>
> http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/19104/rec/162
>
> with articles that include:
>
> Spectrum Analysis of Magnetic Video Recorder FM System
> Correction of Hue and Saturation Errors in TV Tape Recording
> RCA's TA-19 Video Processor
> Improving Automatic Sensitivity Performance in Color TV Film Cameras
> and
> The World's Most Powerful Television Transmitter
>
> Here's a look at RCA color studio cameras from 1939-69 :
> ]http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p16038coll11/id/30294/rv/compoundobject/cpd/30341/rec/571
>
> These 47 pictures include a (1947?) view of a 4-camera studio at
> WNBT/NBC New York with cameras pre-dating the 1951 "Coffin" TK-40
> style cameras used in the color TV standard demonstrations.
> Dichroic mirrors, anyone? They show them.
>
> There are the cameras used at WNBW, Washington, DC, and what
> appear to be others used in the color TV field tests from NBC,
> NY... Studio 3H if the stencils on the lighting instruments are a
> valid clue. And a selection of pictures of TK-40s and TK-41s
>
>
> Television film and video recording are mentioned in the 1956 RCA Labs
> Research Department Annual Report
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/14697/rec/3> (click
> on the link for Page 69). There are other interesting items in the report.
>
> I saved the Quad for last...
> http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/30293/rec/581
>
> Here are pictures... beginning with a TRT-1AC captioned for
> release on April 12, 1981... including RCA's linear television
> tape recorder used on May 12, 1955 for "the first transmission of
> a tape recorded color TV program over commercial network
> facilities" from NBC-NY to 3M in Minneapolis.
>
>
> The development of RCA's Heterodyne approach to recording and playing
> color from Quad tape is described in the February/March, 1958 RCA
> Engineer
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/23611/rec/61%0A>
> http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/23611/rec/61
>
> This edition appeared just before NBC began full-scale time zone delay
> in Burbank using mostly Ampex VR-1000 units with RCA-developed color
> circuitry.
>
> In the article "Engineering Color Videotape Recording," A. H. Lind
> outlines the Quadruplex recording process, RCA's TRT-1
> development, and RCA's approach to obtaining stabilized color
> playback.
>
> "The basic technique is to cancel out time "jitter" in the
> chrominance signal by translating it to a higher frequency
> spectrum and then heterodyning this translated signal with a
> signal which also contains the jitter and is of such a frequency
> that the difference signal frequencies fall back into the original
> frequency band. If this signal is derived from a signal recorded
> on the tape, it will contain the same time jitter effects as those
> in translated chrominance signal, but the difference signal
> obtained by heterodyning will be free of the jitter because the
> errors have been cancelled by subtraction."
>
> He concludes by noting that "Special credit is due the RCA
> Laboratories for the color processing technique."
>
> Television Tape Head manufacturing is described in great detail in RCA
> Engineer's April/May 1961 edition:
> http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/27401/rec/1
>
> Click on Page 15 for the article.
>
> This is a good article to read in case anyone wonders why it costs
> what it costs to refurbish Quad video heads. The precision needed
> is quite... intense. As is the technical detail in the article.
>
>
> TV Tape at NBC is described on Page 4 of the June/July 1961 issue of
> RCA Engineer
> <http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/27460/rec/12>.
> http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/27460/rec/12
>
>
> Written three years after NBC began time zone delay in 1958, it
> offers a glimpse of how the network was actually several networks,
> patched together at different times for transmission in different
> dayparts.
>
> How NBC used recorders in New York and Burbank to achieve program
> delay during daylight savings time (DST) involves the use of three
> "networks."
>
> The "A" network---or "live" network---received the live feed
> from NY covering eastern and central US areas on DST. NY and
> Burbank both rolled two tapes each.
>
> A "B" network was fed tape playback from NY delayed an hour
> for southern and central areas /not/ on DST. Two tapes were
> running in sync during TZD to avoid glitches.
>
> Burbank played the A network feed to the western "C" network
> three hours after the NY start time.
> Shows that originated live in Burbank would be performed at
> the correct NY start time and fed to the A network, recorded
> in NY and Burbank, and then played for the "B" and "C" nets as
> outlined above.
>
> Viewership (and resulting ratings-related revenue) for shows
> in the B-network areas was improved by delaying an hour. It
> avoided people being outside when say, an 8pm DST show would
> have occurred at 7pm in their area.
>
>
> NBC's development of the successful "EditSync" off-line editing
> technique used on hundreds of shows is outlined in the article.
>
> The extremes taken to maintain the same picture quality over days
> of taping a single show are relayed, using the 1960 presentation
> of "Peter Pan" as an example. Star Mary Martin was appearing on
> Broadway in "The Sound of Music," so the recording sessions had to
> be scheduled around her performances.
>
> William Howard and Robert Mausler write:
>
> "Peter Pan is a show which was done in three different color
> studios; the Ziegfeld Theatre, located in Manhattan, and
> Studios I and II in Brooklyn, with the taping done over the
> period of nine days.
>
>
> Taping a two-hour show, done in three different color studios,
> extending over nine days, is a formidable undertaking. In
> addition to studio lighting problems, special precautions were
> demanded to insure matched luminance and chroma levels at the
> studio control room and TV tape room, if the successive
> tapings were to be free of flesh-tone changes or other color
> differences.
>
>
> All line equalizers, TV tape recording heads, and other
> circuit equalizers were logged, in an attempt to exercise as
> close a control as possible over signal-transmission
> characteristics."
>
>
> Differences between individual videotapes could cause as much as a
> 20% difference in chroma level, they report. So NBC used only the
> same tape recorders for the entire batch of sessions, and assigned
> specific headwheel panels for Peter Pan use, only... then stored
> them for later playback.
>
> NBC developed a procedure to match color from day to day, using a
> reference tape with the NBC Color Girl and bars, coupled with
> recordings made on the same piece of tape at the beginning of
> sessions. The "day-of-session" tests were played back to the video
> engineer so he could shade the studio's cameras to match the tape.
>
> What's not stated... but I seem to recall... is that back then NBC
> did all its NY recording at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, even though the
> studios were across town (or the East River in the case of the NBC
> Brooklyn studios
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwood,_Brooklyn#Television> in the
> Midwood section.)
>
> For some reason, the amount of tape used is quoted in feet, not
> hours or minutes.
>
>
> At 15 inches per second, 62,800 feet of tape seems to be 13.95
> hours of recording for a two-hour show.
>
>
> It would be interesting to know how they deployed the tape
> used, and what sort of production and post techniques were
> involved. Also where the tape elements are today.
>
>
> Howard and Mausler say that television tape made possible NBC
> programs that would have been harder or impossible to do live.
> They note the Jack Parr "Tonight" show taped Monday through
> Thursday in the early evening, with and edited "Best of.." show
> airing on Friday.
>
> We're accustomed to the morning counterpart, "Today" originating
> live in the Eastern time zone, with time zone delay in other parts
> of the country.
>
> In 1961, did they do "Today," yesterday? The article says:
>
> "The Today Show is taped five days a week for playback on the
> network early the next morning."
>
>
> Maybe Today Show editor Dennis Degan can provide some insight into
> the 1961 practices.
>
> And in the June/July 1973 issue of RCA Engineer...
> http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/25049/rec/1
>
>
> R. N Hurst describes RCA's development of the TCR-100 Quad cart
> machine.
>
> If you click on Page 78 (to see Page 77 of the magazine) you'll
> see three pictures at the bottom of the page. I'll bring Figure
> 3 to the Quad Videotape Group Annual Lunch at NAB. (Note to
> self... pack now.)
>
> It was one of several items Robert Hurst's son, QuadList member
> Norm Hurst made available via a November 22, 2010 post
> <http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-November/003276.html> to
> the QuadList.
>
>
> Which kind of brings the list back around to a question I posed of
> Norm... regarding RCA Labs Heterodyne Color, and his answer about the
> Sarnoff archives being dismantled.
>
> We know where things went, and with the digitization being presented
> via the Hagley Museum and Library, have the ability to enjoy some of
> the Sarnoff Library artifacts from home.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Perhaps some similar funding can someday (soon?) help unlock the
> information within the Ampex collection at Stanford University.
>
> Ted Langdell
> Secretary
> Skype: TedLangdell
> e-mail:ted at quadvideotapegroup.com <mailto:ted at quadvideotapegroup.com>
>
> Annual Lunch at NAB at 12:30pm on Tuesday, April 08, location TBA:
>
> NAB 2014, Las Vegas
> <http://nab14.mapyourshow.com/5_0/exhibitor_details.cfm?exhid=992>, April
> 7-10, 2014
>
> Free Exhibits Pass registration
> <http://registration3.experientevent.com/showNAB141/default.aspx?App=EO&Passcode=LV9822>! Use
> our number: LV9822. Free passes end March 21
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> Please trim posts to relevant info when replying.
>
> Change subject to reflect thread direction. Thanks.
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