[QuadList] Help get a VR-1000B to NAB --Update--Mike Boland donates $1000

Wed Mar 9 02:51:37 CST 2016

Ok  I need to turned in  but a  couple    quick things...
I was   considering it being blanket wrapped. That is how we  normally 
shipped    even very large mainframe systems  so  yes   crating add  to the  
mix...  

Although I never had  problems  with blanket wrap  transport  and shipped 
kazillions  with  back  when I  was    in the computer business.   

I was  forgetting about the union labor  also....

I was  assuming you  should  get the space gratis.
Most   conferences tend to give that  space up.   It
will be interesting to see where they position you though.

do  you have a spreadsheet  were  you have  divided  up  the    costs  yet?

I would  like to see the projections.

It is a neat   thing  to  do!  I hope    they gave you a  good  positioned 
booth.

I am just trying to find a different  place  for my TR-5   Quad  deck in 
our  building  this month.

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

In a message dated 3/8/2016 10:30:53 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com writes:

-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: [QuadList]  Help get a VR-1000B to NAB --Update--Mike Boland 
donates $1000
From: Ted  Langdell <Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2016 21:30:29  -0800
Cc: "quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com"  <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>,
"ted at quadvideotapegroup.coml"  <ted at quadvideotapegroup.coml>,
"TK41C at aol.com"  <TK41C at aol.com>,
"trs02446 at verizon.net"  <trs02446 at verizon.net>,
"imagenda at aol.com"  <imagenda at aol.com>
To: "COURYHOUSE at aol.com"  <COURYHOUSE at aol.com>

Hi, Ed,

I'll try to answer your question and challenge:

It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. More about that at towards the end  
of this message. More about why it costs what it costs and here:

It's big and it's heavy and some parts are delicate, and it has to come  
all the way across the country.

But, keep in mind that this VR – 1000Bs were used in trucks for  remote 
production, back in the day. 

When it gets to Vegas, you pay for it to be unloaded, moved to the booth,  
re-loaded into a truck and taken back across the country.

That's the short logistics. But the devil is in the details.

You're dealing with two, 7 foot tall racks of tube type  equipment.

The transport that you've seen pictures of is roughly 2 1/2 racks wide.  It 
has an overbridge. It's very heavy. It's not something one or two  people 
can physically lift up on their own. It requires the use of material  
handling equipment. 

All of this equipment should be crated in order to protect the gear, and  
to allow for easier handling during shipment and when it arrives at the  
convention center in Las Vegas.  There's a cost to create the crates and  get 
the equipment in them. But it makes safely moving stuff like this  possible on 
a routine basis. 

There's a significant difference in how much Per hundred  weight – 100 
pounds – it costs to move equipment that's crated and can be  moved with a 
forklift compared to equipment that is simply "blanket wrapped"  or is "lose".

The $25,000 we've been mentioning handles the cost of building  crates, 
getting the equipment into the crates, loading the crates into a  gentle truck, 
shipping across the country, scheduling the truck to arrive at  the 
marshaling yard at a particular time to wait for the go ahead to unload at  the 
convention center, unloading at the convention center on "move in"  day, moving 
the equipment to the booth, storing the empty crates during  the show, 
bringing the crates back to the booth after the show is over,  loading them on a 
truck for the trip back to Rhode Island, and unloading them  once they 
arrive back at the museum.

It also covers the cost of wiring  a three wire 220 AC feed to the booth to 
handle the power requirements of this  particular piece of gear.

At a convention center like Las Vegas, there  is a charge for all kinds of 
things. Power. Installing wiring for the power.  Moving stuff around, called 
"material handling." There may be a few hours of  labor time and one or two 
house labor people involved to extract the equipment  from crates and put 
it back in again when the show is over.

It's not that convention centers are trying to make huge amounts of money  
off exhibitors, although we exhibitors do tend to squawk when it gets  
expensive. 

There IS a cost for them to provide the services, have the equipment  
available to move things around, the people to do that, pay the power bill, et  
Cetera, et Cetera, etc.

And before anyone gets excited about volunteering to do X, Y or Z, there  
are restrictions on how much an exhibitor can do in their booth, who is  
considered exhibitor staff and what they are allowed to do. Part of it is  
safety concerns. Part of it is labor concerns. Part of it is logistics.

You can imagine what chaos would exist if every exhibitor insisted on  
having their own forklift(s) their own forklift operator(s), bringing the  
trucks carrying their equipment in at any time they wanted.

Or if power was not properly supplied to booths, power cables were  
miswired, or installed in an unsafe manner. Or not installed in time for  someone 
to get their booth up and running before Sunday's 2pm deadline.  

That deadline exists so that all forklift traffic and material handling  is 
done, aisles are clear and the aisle carpet can be  laid down. That's a 
process that takes all afternoon and night to  do. Try that in four huge 
exhibit halls.

It's just simply a fact of life that one deals with this Way of doing  
things when exhibiting at tradeshows like this.

The museum is quite blessed with the fact that the booth space is  donated 
by NAB.

Otherwise, A 10' x 10' booth in one of the halls would run  $10,000. 

Multiply exponentially for larger booths and you get an idea of how much  
the space goes  for for and the necessity of having a system in place  that 
ensures everybody gets set up in a timely fashion and later out the door  in 
a timely fashion.

This is not just a circumstance where somebody can roll something up in a  
truck, drive it across the country to Las Vegas unload, roll it in on their  
own and then set it up.

tthe cost of renting your own truck tall  enough to handle the racks and 
driving it across the country and back again is  not necessarily less 
expensive than shipping it by a carrier.

Calculate the cost of the truck rental, the fuel, expenses for five days  
on the road including meals and Hotel for one or two people. It all adds up 
to  quite close to if not more than the cost of having it shipped by a 
freight  company or better yet, a moving company that has a gentler ride for the  
equipment.

So... Why do this?  What's the ROI?

Quite a few, actually:

This Anniversary-connected opportunity is not likely to be  practical in 
the future, that is:

To show a working example of the VR – 1000 series equipment that kicked  
off video tape 60 years ago to mark and celebrate the 60th anniversary of  the 
introduction to videotape.. 

The benefits to NAB attendees include that they get to actually see  
something that is — in today's world — rather unusual, and to gain  some insight 
into the foundation of much the broadcast industry  today. 

Working on this equipment supported a lot of people over a period of  time. 

It opened the door to a variety of on-screen production techniques that  
are still used, even if the equipment is the size of a laptop or your iPhone  
and uses software instead of hey Smith splicer, Edivue, a razor blade and  
some metallized mylar tape. And on the hunan side, Skill, and  practice.

It enables a discussion with folks that have archives of videotape that  
needs migration about what it takes to do that.

For the museum:

iI showcases what it's founders are able to do with equipment, and helps  
generate support for the physical repository, the restoration of what's in 
it,  and I would hope, the ability to train younger people in how to restore,  
operate, and appreciate the equipment that's been collected and is slowly  
being restored.

Financial support would assist that effort. This  showcase can help 
generate that support. 

You can't support what you don't know about it. Exposing people through  
NAB helps people know about the museum of Broadcast  Technology 

Exhibitions like NAB are expensive. But NAB draws 90,000+ people —  
attendees and exhibitors included. 

It's unlikely that the museum would expose what it's doing to even a  
fraction of that many people if this equipment and other gear they have  brought 
over the years remained in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.  

While not all of the attendees are going to be passing the Booth by the  
doors into North Hall from the taxi stand area, there still a lot of people  
passing by, or would an effort to come see this unique opportunity if they  
hear about it.  

People do stop. And I guarantee you that a working VR – 1000 is going to  
stop traffic!  And generate word mouth about "you got to go see  this."

End it will generate recollections about when people used this sort of  
equipment, which can be recorded on site for preservation.

How do I know that?

Our little Zinfurbished Sony AV – 8650 EIAJ color deck stopped traffic  
passing our booth in lower South Hall last year, and I know it's going to do  
the same thing this year.  

People were talking. About their use of the equipment or, "I've never  seen 
that before. What is it?"

That's the value. 

What happens after that is up to whoever's in the booth and how they  
present information and the benefits of supporting the museum or in my case,  
buying a Zinfurbished AV 8650. 

For some of us who were between one and seven  years old when this 
equipment was initially in use, we might be able to push  Play on a piece of 
equipment we were likely never able to see or touch at that  age.

And it will certainly give us all something to appreciate and talk  about, 
feel, touch, here, during our annual Tuesday lunch at  NAB.

I hope this somewhat lengthy explanation helps folks understand  what is 
involved in safely getting this piece of equipment to NAB and back  again. 

Again, This Anniversary-connected opportunity is not likely to  repeat 
itself.  

The equipment's getting older. We all are getting older. And who  knows 
what's going to happen or be possible five or ten years from  now. 

If 25,000 NAB attendees contributed a dollar, this would be no sweat  or 
strain at all. 

A start is to get this message in front of them and direct them to the  
museum's GoFundMe page:

https://www.gofundme.com/wmbt.org

If this is helpful, please share this fundraising effort with  your 
colleagues and friends who are attending NAB, or who might make the  effort to 
attend if this unique piece of equipment was  there.

Free NAB exhibit passes are available through the end of March.  Feel free 
to use LV3654. 

Cheers from California. 

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary, Quad Videotape Group
_Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com_ (mailto:Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com) 
(530)301-2931

Dictated into and Sent from my iPhone, which is solely  responsible for any 
weird stuff I didn't catch.

On Mar 8, 2016, at 5:49 PM, _COURYHOUSE at aol.com_ 
(mailto:COURYHOUSE at aol.com)  wrote:

How  big is this  thing?  in what  world  does  cost 
$25,000  to bring the machine to the show. 

my gut  says thee is something wrong   with this  price.
prove me wrong.

Ed#

In a message dated 3/8/2016 12:51:41 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, 
_quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com_ (mailto:quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com)   
writes:

-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: Help get  a VR-1000B to NAB --Update--Mike Boland donates $1000
From: Ted  Langdell <_Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com_ 
(mailto:Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com) >
Date:  Tue, 8 Mar 2016 11:51:18 -0800
Cc: "<_quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com_ 
(mailto:quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com) >"  <_QuadList at quadvideotapegroup.com_ 
(mailto:QuadList at quadvideotapegroup.com) >,
Tom  Sprague <_trs02446 at verizon.net_ (mailto:trs02446 at verizon.net) >, Pete  
Fasciano <_imagenda at aol.com_ (mailto:imagenda at aol.com) >,
Jay Ballard  <_TK41C at aol.com_ (mailto:TK41C at aol.com) >, "Paul R. Beck" 
<_Paul_Beck at emerson.edu_ (mailto:Paul_Beck at emerson.edu) >
To:  Ted Langdell <_ted at quadvideotapegroup.com_ 
(mailto:ted at quadvideotapegroup.com) >

Quad list member and Boland Communications LCD/OLED monitor  company 
founder Mike Boland has donated $1000 to get the VR  1000B to NAB. 

Richard Milton has donated $35. Park Seward has donated $100.  Norm Herzog 
has donated $100. Chuck Conrad donated $50, and Glen  Pensinger kicked it 
off with $50.  

That's $1335 and $23,665 to go. 

34 days left until Wednesday, March 30.

$696.02 needed per day  to raise the total. Please share with your friends 
and broadcast  colleagues.

https://www.gofundme.com/wmbtorg

And visit Mike in the Boland booth: SL4995

http://nab16.mapyourshow.com/7_0/exhibitor/exhibitor-details.cfm?ExhID=396&C
FID=182736697&CFTOKEN=2d08dab5175884b5-8327B944-5056-9271-4E451899CCB44486

Thanks to all!

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary, Quad Videotape Group
_Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com_ (mailto:Ted at quadvideotapegroup.com) 
(530)301-2931

Dictated into and Sent from my iPhone, which is  solely responsible for any 
weird stuff I didn't catch.

On Mar 2, 2016, at 12:33 PM, Ted Langdell <_ted at quadvideotapegroup.com_ 
(mailto:ted at quadvideotapegroup.com) >  wrote:

Greetings on the first Hump-day in March!

There seems to be some confusion about the nature of the VR-1000B  that the 
Museum of Broadcast Technology wants to display at NAB on  the 60th 
Anniversary of Videotape.

About the VR-1000B involved in this NAB 2016 Display:

This post is to clarify:

MBT has two VR-1000 models:  The one they’d like to display  at NAB which 
is seen here in Sept. 2013:

<DSC_2483.jpeg>

and another just to the right of this unit’s racks that uses  VR-1200 
electronics, which was posted about earlier this week.

Confused?:

Perhaps the confusion occurred when a photo of the machine with  VR-1200 
electronics was posted, but the poster but did not change the  subject line or 
make clear which machine was involved.

A later series of posts attempted to do that including several  that were 
sent by MBT co-founders who aren’t subscribed to the  QuadList. Yet. 

(See below for their comments and what I’m doing to subscribe  them.)

Because of that, I’ve had some off-list e-mails from people who  were 
confused.  So this e-mails is an attempt to address that.  

Please make sure you DO change the subject line when taking a  thread in 
another direction, and please DO try to caption pictures in  such a way that it
’s clear what’s pictured. 

Ooopses happen, and I hope we can forgive them and do better  moving 
forward. 

The machine to be displayed as it is now:

This photo shows the VR-1000B to be displayed in operation at  MBT, with 
its two racks of tube electronics to the right of the  transport:

<12799152_10153956202118166_8217335024342297710_n.jpeg>

What this VR-1000B is equipped with:

Tom Sprague advised in a non-list communication that this  machine for NAB 
has what was “native” to the VR-1000 series:

“One thing I should make clear is that we did NOT modify the  machine for 
color operation."

Yes, the original VR-1000B could not do "direct color," but the  official 
Ampex upgrade path was to install Intersync, Amtec, and  Colortec. 

That is what was done at some time in the past, maybe 1964  or 1965? The 
machine came all wired and all modified for these  accessories. 

The machine was in service at least until 1975, so it  operated as a color 
machine for most of  its life. 

Tom"

Regarding the “other” machine, Tom advised:

"Yes Ted. David is pictured with the VR-1000HB. This is a  VR-1000B 
converted to high band with VR-1200 components by Ampex of  Canada. The conversion 
was offered as a kit. 

We have had that one working for a while. 

Tom"

MBT co-founder Jay Ballard replied to the post containing the  picture of 
the “other” machine," (which didn’t go out to the QuadList  because he’s 
not yet subscribed.)

In the message CC'd to the poster Jay's MBT colleagues and myself,  he said:

Tom has worked tirelessly to get the 1000B working  w/o complete 
documentation.  It  eventually locks up and  plays LBC with AMTEC  and Colortec..  We 
are desperate for  an Ampex tube Intersync drawing, V6

I had to rebuild the WFMs, PIXM, and 5 250 V 1 Amp  PSUs in between camera 
repairs.  BTW, it is not the VTR in the  picture, but it is to the left of 
that VTR.

Tom deserves the Order of the Iron Test Pattern  for his hard work. Me, the 
John Frishette award for  boozing.

Jay  Ballard

Note: (I am attempting to subscribe all four  MBT correspondents to the 
QuadList, as their replies have been held as  non-subscribers.  However the 
admin access right now is not  behaving properly.  Bad caps? Off frequency?  
Will try  again later from a different device.)

Donating:

Getting this example of the first model of  video tape recorder to NAB for 
the 60th anniversary of the unveiling  of  commercially successful video 
tape can be achieved if you and  991 other people contribute $25 or more.

QuadList and long-time engineer, SMPTE Member  and author Glen Pensinger 
kicked the drive off with a $50 contribution  on Sunday. 

Chuck Conrad followed with $50 on Monday.  

And 18 hours ago, former Ampex “old timer”  and Quad guy Norm Herzog gave 
$100.

So there’s only  $24,800 to  go. 

The Museum needs to have funds in hand by  March 30.

33 people a day  making a $25 contribution
15 people a day  making a $50 donation or 
8.26 people a day  giving $100

Where to donate:

The clock is ticking  and Museum of Broadcast Technology has reactivated 
its GoFundMe  page:

https://www.gofundme.com/wmbt.org

What you can do in addition to funding this  project:  

Please share this with  your friends and colleagues, the broadcast 
engineering and technology  societies of which you may be a member. 

Pass the hat at your  March organization meetings, (or pass around an iPad 
set to the go  fund me page, so individuals can make contributions while 
your meeting  is in progress.)  

At the least, print out  a flyer with this information.  (I’ll try to 
devise a PDF and  post it to the list.)

Use your Social Media  (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to spread the word.

Your contributions are  tax-deductible, and will be recognized by the 
Museum of Broadcast  Technology, and by the Quad Videotape Group which is helping 
the  fundraising effort.

The Museum of Broadcast  Technology has been bringing equipment to NAB 
since 2013, beginning  with the smallest quad machine you've ever seen, the 
Ampex VR – 3000.  In 2014, they brought an RCA TP-10 portable Quad.  

Your help will make it more likely that there’s a Quad  machine at NAB on 
the 60th Anniversary of the unveiling of  videotape.

These machines provided work for engineers,  employment for television 
production staff, Ampex employees  and their parts manufacturers, and improved 
the quality of what  television viewers have seen since 1956… particularly on 
the West  Coast and then world-wide.

Thanks for your time, interest and help moving this machine  from 
Woonsocket, Rhode Island to Las Vegas and back. 

It will certainly give us all something to talk about and marvel at  during 
the Quad Videotape Group Annual Lunch at NAB at 12:30pm, Tuesday,  April 
19, 2016.

And a working backdrop for oral histories about your experiences  with 
VR-1000s and other Quad machines.

Cheers!

Ted

Ted  Langdell
Secretary
 (http://www.quadvideotapegroup.com/) _Quad Videotape Group_ 
(http://www.quadvideotapegroup.com/) 
iPhone:  (530) 301-2931
_ted at QuadVideotapeGroup.com_ (mailto:ted at QuadVideotapeGroup.com) 
Skype:   TedLangdell 

_Web_ (http://www.quadvideotapegroup.com/) :  _www.QuadVideotapeGroup.com_ 
(http://www.quadvideotapegroup.com/) 
_Facebook_ (https://www.facebook.com/QuadVideotapeGroup) : 
https://www.facebook.com/QuadVideotapeGroup

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