[QuadList] Some of RCA's "other" publications are on-line--Sarnoff Librar...

Sat Mar 8 10:34:47 CST 2014

interesting resource.... I remember hearing  Sarnoff library  had   a flood 
 .... pre- 2009   when these   folks   took over...

makes  me  wonder  what  had  been lost....

pretty  fun...  but the  way  they  did some of  this really  leaves me 
wanting for more...

 - later post  '45   ann. reports  missing.. 

--  sure  would like   to talk about the person that  scanned the    RCA 
engineer...   Where are the  wonderful  covers!? Like the  Radio age and  RCA 
BRAODCAST  mags...   the engineering  ones  had  great color   covers  
too....the pages is a  real low  res b/w    yea  you can read them  but.....
you can  lift  from  the ocr  test  pretty   well  though and is   good  
when you need to quote  something... cuts  down on typing...

guess I will keep  collecting  RCA ENGINEER in  paper   form!

Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)  

In a message dated 3/8/2014 6:50:16 A.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
Steve.White at 800CallNow.com writes:

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/an
d/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/e
xact/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/1910
4/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/3029
3/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/r
ec/61
) 

http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16038coll11/id/2361
1/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/2740
1/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/2746
0/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/2504
9/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

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