Free NAB Registration--Eighth Annual Quad Videotape Group Lunch at NAB--12:30pm on Tuesday, April 14, 2015--

[Ted Langdell]

Greetings, as NAB rushes closer.

Free NAB exhibit passes go away this Friday (March 27). 

If you are going but haven't registered, please...

Click here for Free exhibit registration with Guest Pass Code: LV3545 from flashscan8.us/MWA/ZinVTR Works.

A bit of news:

We've had five new QuadList members subscribe since our last major update of members earlier this year.

For their benefit and as a reminder to others attending NAB:

Spring has sprung (hopefully not in a VTR),
The Grass has riz (but we hope not too much above black on the scope)
I wonder where the QuadLunch is?

Eighth Annual Quad Videotape Group Lunch at NAB: 
 
12:30pm on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Las Vegas Convention Center

I'll be announcing the specific location late next week.

Location and map link will be posted in several places: 

Here on the QuadList 

As a page on www.QuadVideotapeGroup.com and 

On our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/QuadVideotapeGroup

Of interest:  

The Museum of Broadcast Technology (MBT) 

MBT will be in a different location for NAB 2015.  The booth will be outside the main doors to NORTH Hall, next to the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) booth. 

MBT expects to have a Sony BVH-500 1" Type C portable machine pulling tape, in addition to vintage cameras, monitors and other museum items from the two-story former bank that's packed with cameras, video recorders and terminal gear.

Open by appointment, the museum is in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a relatively short detour from the NYC to Boston Interstate.  See more at http://www.wmbt.org/  


Quad VTR in Lower South Hall:

It is likely that a highly refurbished (aka ZinFurbished) Ampex AVR-2 will be on the floor in the flashscan8.us/MWA/Zin booth, Lower South Hall Booth SL14813. 

Ken Zin and Terry Smith are working at 30ips to install some cool technology applications that will make this machine do stuff it didn't do in 1974.

That's when QuadList member Bill Carpenter and other Ampexers rolled the debut models onto the NAB floor in Houston, Texas prior to the NAB 1974 opening March 18, 41 years ago... 

Please wish Ken and Terry luck, pray, send good thoughts, positive energy and/or other help as they do what many engineers have done for years with shipping deadlines looming.  Work long hours and get less than usual rest.  They're also 41 years older so it's not as easy to do.

NAB 41 years ago 

As cataloged in the pages of Broadcast Engineering and preserved on David Gleason's American Radio History.com website:

More than 150 manufacturers occupied 69,000 square feet of Houston exhibit space, bringing equipment worth $100million. 

Pres. Richard Nixon attended NAB and held a live, televised news conference on Tuesday, March 19, 1974. A part of his "super availablity" format intended to improve relations with "the press," the access to Nixon enabled Q and A by a variety of reporters.

Portable Electronic News Gathering  (ENG) or Electronic Journalism (EJ in NBC-speak) cameras (and recorders) were a big draw, and were profiled in a special section of BE, beginning on Page 44.

Kodak showcased Super-8 film cameras processors and transfer units as an alternative news gathering tool.

The Quad/Helical "battle" picked up on page 46... but there was a battle between Quad giants Ampex and RCA as profiled on Page 48. 

Ampex AVR-2 prices ranged from $69,000 to $92,000 depending on options. See blurb and "reply card" item on Page 73.

RCA's "compact" entry, the TR-600 ranged from $70,500 to "the high rent district in a hurry" if all the bells and whistles were added. 

Ampex and RCA showed their full range of Quads, including the Ampex VR-3000 backpack portable and AVR-1 mastering machine, the RCA TR-70

CMX had RCA TR-70 and Ampex AVR-1 Quads in its booth. (Page 35)

An International Video Corp. (IVC) employee is pictured inspecting the innards of an Ampex AVR-2 (page 18).

IVC introduced the IVC-9000 2" Helical recorder (two of which are at the MBT) and the IVC-7000 three Plumbicon camera. See camera details on P. 74  The IVC-9000 was in "the $80,000 bracket"  well-equipped with all the color correctors. Head warranty was 1,500 hours.

Videomax (then a subsidiary of Orrox Corp of CMX fame) refurbished RCA Quad  head assemblies for $890 with a 200 hour warranty. A paragraph on Page 48 reports Videomax claimed a 500 hour warranty, three times that of RCA or Ampex.

Recortec, Inc. pitched its Videotape Conditioners and Evaluators.

TBCs and Editors were "must see" for many attendees.

The late engineer and editor designer Jack Calaway, then VP of Engineering at Trans-American Video (TAV) is quoted as saying he couldn't tell the difference between a live television signal and one recorded and played from Memorex Chroma 90 2" video tape. (Inside cover ad)

Stereo phase shift and correcting it for monaural listeners was the topic of a presentation by Visual Electronics' Ron Eigenman for colleague Ronald S. DeBry.

Chyron was then spelled Chiron, displaying its Graphics II and Mark III titler.

CBS Laboratories advertised its CLD-1200 digital Calibration Test Generator for testing color television equipment.

And Howard W. Sams advertised Harold Ennes "Television Broadcasting: Tape and Disc Recording Systems" for $14.95, Harry Kybett's "Video Tape Recorders" for $8.95, and Dr. Howard Tremaine's "Audio Cyclopedia, 2nd Edition" (all 1,760 pages) for $29.95.

Today, Amazon lists the 1969 AudioCyclopedia edition with prices ranging from $100 for one of the 18 used books and from  $411.48 for one of four NEW ones.

Was one of my favorite books at the library.

Broadcasting Magazine's take on VTRs at NAB 1974 begins on Page 65 of the March 25 Issue:
http://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1974/1974-03-25-BC.pdf

Broadcasting notes the appearance in RCA's booth of a "TR-700" half-speed Quad,  with "virtually no sacrifice in performance level," according to RCA sources quoted. 

(Reading between the lines, it appears the TR-700 is a modified TR-70C.)  RCA called the TR-70C "our answer to helical scan."

RCA also said 7.5 IPS operation was one part of the "Quad 1A format" it plans to propose to to the industry" when it finishes developing the format.

Ampex's three AVR-2 units were the first production models off the line, and they were purchased at the show and shipped to the buyer off the floor. (See item below). 

Broadcasting dubbed the AVR-2 "the mod quad" due to the modular design. 

It notes that the Ampex VPR-7950A with built in TBC had a $31,480 base price, about half that of a Quad.

After NAB 1974, an item on Page 25 of the San Mateo Times from Tuesday, May 14, 1974 reported:

Ampex at Grand Ole Opry

WSM, Inc., of Nashville, Tenn. is the first user of the new AVR-2 modular design studio color videotape recorder / reproducer, Ampex Corp, of Redwood City has announced. 

Charles A. Steinberg, vice president-general manager of the Ampex audio-video systems division, said the AVR-2 is operating in a mobile studio, part of the production facilities at WSM's Opryland, U.S.A., home of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. 

Aaron Shelton, WSM director of engineering, said the Ampex AVR-2 was first used March 23 in the production of a television commercial for a Nashville bank. The commercial was videotaped on location at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. 

The AVR-2 was used also to record for television a performance by singer Johnny Cash at the Tennessee State Prison, Shelton said. 

Ampex introduced the AVR-2, the world's first modular-design studio quadruplex videotape recorder / reproducer for professional broadcast applications, at the 1974 National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Houston. 

Production models of the new lightweight, high-band machine were demonstrated there for the first time March 17-20. 

The first production models of the Ampex AVR-2 were purchased during the NAB show by the Chicago Archdiocesan Multimedia Communications Center and Network (CAMCAN) for use in its new multi-million dollar operations center now under construction.

(Wonder where all these machines are now?)

So, there's your Quad lead into NAB 2015.  

See you in Vegas!

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary for the Quad Videotape Group
Preserving Tape, Equipment and the Knowledge to use them, in conjunction with the Library of Congress

iPhone	(530) 301-2931
Email:	ted at quadvideotapegroup.com
Web:	www.quadvideotapegroup.com
FB:		www.facebook.com/QuadVideotapeGroup

Eighth Annual Quad Videotape Group Lunch at NAB:  12:30pm on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Las Vegas Convention Center

See us at NAB 2015, April 13-16, Lower South Hall Booth SL14813. 
Click here for Free exhibit registration with our Guest Pass Code: LV3545. Ends Friday, March 27. 


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