The early days of video tape recording on 2 inch tape and editing by cutting the tape. Photos from Reeves Video and Chuck Pharis's collection at www.pharis-video.com
As I continue to watch this video, I'm reminded of my own experience with what was probably the biggest television/video transition that I've experienced in my life: I used to do work with the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as an actor (doing some of those comedy sketches). I remember THE day we went in to shoot something and we were shown the first high-definition cameras & monitors! I think this was the world of 1080P (this was, I suppose, in the spring of 1999!). I remember the monitors they were using had a wider aspect ratio than I had ever seen before AND the picture on that little 12-inch monitor or whatever was so incredibly clear! I was honored to be, I guess, among the first actors shot on high-definition television for a major network. As a good friend of mine might say, it was "cool beans!"
Early 1960 I attended American Bandstand in PHL and WFIL just started to video tape shows on the weekend for airing the following week. It was such a big deal back then to video tape shows and view later. Thanks for sharing.
I started working in TV broadcast engineering in 1972. I came in at the tail end of the all vacuum tube generation of equipment. At the time about 70% of the equipment in most TV stations was still with vacuum tubes equipment. This video is very informative about TV history. We still use color bar and resolution tests to verify TV monitors. Signal testing is much more complex in the digital world.
This was well put together, I agree. As for the "color bars" - I recall seeing those several years back while in Istanbul. It was during the day time - perhaps mid-day or so. The color bars were on the only television channel not working on the set at the hotel. It was, ironically, from an Iranian television channel. Enjoyed this clip - very informative. Thanks for sharing.
Memories. From B&W 1/2" open reel tape in high school (c. 1978) to 1" tape and color Norelco plumbicon tube studio cameras. Then 3/4" cassette, DigiBeta, DVCAM, CMX linear editors to Media 100 (early Mac edit software). Yup. Those were the days.
Thank you David for the trip down Memory Lane. Those studio cameras were massive and sometimes required 3 people...one to operate the camera, one to pull and steer the pedestal base, and 1 to drag the cables so the camera remained stable on the shot. Very informative and enjoyable video!!
I started in TV in 1971 but there was too much noise and bustle at the studio so I prefer the (usually) peace and quiet of the transmitter which was out in the country where there was room for the 870 ft tower and it's guy wires. Of course, the tube transmitters back then required a lot of maintenance and there was always the chance something would blow and we'd be off the air. So I could go from hours of boredom to sheer panic at any moment. :-/
Thanks Dave I never noticed that it had the Native American sheep on the top of the test pattern... Being Native American,,,, I respect that ....this video gets six Stars******
People are impressed with digital data. It's awesome, no doubt, but the actual recorded "signal'' is bone simple when compared to an old school analog NTSC video signal. It's actually amazing that ANY of it WORKED over the air, let alone being able to be captured on magnetic tape!
Thank you David - nicely explained. I can understand using foil tape to make joins may cause run snags. Also as explained the transistor and microprocessor has touched all aspects of our lives. Thanks for uploading - Liked.
Early video tape was also very expensive. That's why so many early videotaped shows are missing. It was considered far more economical to simply erase a tape, and record another program over it. Keeping a copy of a program in a library was unthinkable. I remember Johnny Carson saying that almost none of the first three years of "The Tonight Show--starring Johnny Carson" exist.
Unfortunately it was common practice to erase the tapes after broadcast while 16mm film recording copies which were half resolution were retained on a small scale & most of the full resolution 35mm film recordings were kept such as most of Adam Adamant Lives Season1 with 2 episodes existing as low quality 16mm reduction copies & with the exception of of 3 complete serials, one of which was recreated from 2 different sources, one Serial with one episode missing & a few fragments of otherwise lost serials from Season 3 & half the episodes or in the case of The Evil Of The Daleks 1 out of 7 episodes & 2 out of 6 Episodes of The Faceless Ones from Season 4 with no other episodes from Seasons 3 & 4 existing today as an example of the devastation of the 1960s era of Doctor Who & The Jon Pertwee era did survive better considering half the episodes survive as black & white 16mm film prints most of which contained the colour information from the original videotapes.
Wow, I worked on all of the mentioned RCA gear in the 60s. The TRT1b was a beast, but you were never cold when you were around it. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. OF course all of the mentioned equipment was NTSC, now relegated to the heap of "things that were". I loved it all!
When I got my first intern job which turned into a paid job, my boss was Chuck Pharis, CP. We edited on the Ampex 2000, which I learned how to make dance. Still the lack of precision just something people can't understand. Later I did the beta testing of Final Cut Pro, which was developed into a great program. Too great, so they had to discontinue it and dumb it down to what is Final Cut Pro X.
I've gone from working in film to video, video thru the Betacam era, and now digital, shooting 4K Video to edit in Final Cut Pro X (Ten, not "X"). It's been quite a ride. I may reminisce about the old days, but I'll take my little Sony over the Ikegami HL-33 "Handee-Lookee" anytime. Thanks for a fun look back!
This was well put together and informative of the history of the color television. Thanks for sharing. I remember seeing a color bar during a visit to Istanbul on the television in the hotel room. Only one channel was like this - it was from Iran, ironically, during the day time. I assumed the channel was offline and the others were still broadcasting. Again, thanks for sharing. Was enjoyable. :-)
This obviously dates me, but I well remember that Indianhead test pattern! It seems to me I would see it if I got up very early in the morning before normal (in my case, cartoon) programming began (this was Los Angeles television in the 1960s). I don't know if I remembered still seeing the test patterns in the 1970s but I think they were phased out probably sometime in the early 70s, if I were to guess.
If anything this video really highlighted the challenges The BBC faced when they were recording episodes of Doctor Who with some being film recorded onto 35mm film rather than videotape since the technology of the 1960s couldn't handle the complexity of these episodes such as The Seeds of Death, Episode 5 (625) or The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, Episode 5 (405) with 10 episodes film recorded onto 35mm but 3 of them were destroyed with The Daleks, Episode 4 existing today as a 16mm reduction print & 2 others lost forever. Back in the 1950s The BBC was experimenting with a videotape format known as VERA but due to it's linear recording method & tape reels spinning at 85 MPH the whole project was cancelled especially considering the early commercial broadcasters such as Associated-Rediffusion adopted the Quadruplex format in c.1961. The film recordings such as Quatermass II showed, to some degree, what viewers would have seen from TV cameras such as The Pye MK 3 in Lime Grove Studio G mostly in 405 lines with later film & videotape recordings such as Doctor Who The Enemy Of The World onwards being recorded in 625 line but transmitted in 405.
I always thought the test pattern was just a camera pointed at a printed poster. The monoscope tube with the pattern etched internally was a brilliant idea.
I actually worked on every model of VTR that AMPEX made from the VR-1000 to the AVR-2 and ACR-25 & 225. The quads have a very simple tape path, unlike the 1" machines. The RCA tape machine were inferior to the AMPEX equipment. In NY I would often here the tape operators at NBC tell me they wish they could use AMPEX equipment, but since RCA owned NBC, they were stuck. I love the quad equipment and hate helical scan. I used to edit sports for the news and did it fast for the sportscaster. Using quads, you could not see a picture in fast fwd or rewind. I relied on sounds. The tape was never on contact with the delicate video head during fast fwd or rewind which I liked. Unlike helical, where the tape was always in contact with the head drum. Like sandpaper on metal, not good In addition we never used 1kHz tones as a test audio signal in the early days, it was 440Hz or middle-c
We use to record show from NBC on the Ampex 2000, edit and then play the show back on the 2000's from a small room, running two play back at the same time and in sync.. This was calle Reeves Sound Studio, video section. Two blocks from the UN on 44th st.........
David Quam odd because I would hear engineers that would constantly complain about the RCA machines. In later tines I did work on the TR-70's and 600s I disliked rhem as well. Never a big fan of RCA tape machines. I loved the AMPEX 2000Bs
David Quam wasn't REEVES called REEVES/TELETAPE? I also worked at Teletronics and S/T (Sony/Teletronics)in NJ. Teletronics had the patent for the pan and scan mechanism, so we used to do all the film xfers for HBO, and they would insist upon a 5 min overlap on reel changes which you only needed 30 seconds to do. Guess they didnt have skilled operators then. Also at Teletronics we bought the source code for the CMX editing system and built our own interfaces for almost every piece of equipment we had, even the AMPEX HS-100 (SLOW MO) when you stood in the tape room and watched all the video tape machines working on one edit session it was amazing. One machine in record, maybe two in playback, some waiting for thier cue to roll, and others Looking for thier in-points, was amazing. Eel also had the CMX non liner system as well which we modified. It was fun to be in tape back then. Working in broadcast was a stressful beast unlike production or post. Rememebe the motto: "Air come FIRST!"
I wonder how those machines did the transitions between the heads. With VHS the transition is done right after the frame so the tv has time to catch up. I can't imagine several transitions happening inside the frame without any effect showing up. Did they have some alien technology digital time delay compensator or something?
@@alexstevensen4292 Yes. The time discontinuities at head switch time show up in various artifacts that can be concealed by (at that time) analog TBCs. Quad machines were nasty because the TBC had to handle instantaneous, step-like changes in timing.
I found one of these cameras in my town behind a mechanics shop. Even had a massive rail to it. All of it was rusted, seized, and gutted and weighed more than a vehicle. Was gonna get someone with a vehicle to pick it up but it was moved before I could get it. Amazing to see one in real life though. It's gigantic
I remember taking a tour of the WOC TV studio in Davenport Iowa in 1970. They didn't have the big RCA cameras. The color cameras looked a bit smaller and they didn't have the turret lenses. I don't remember what brand cameras they had in the studios. I only remember that the studios were quite hot especially when they turned on the studio lights.
I know that some shows (like I Love Lucy) were recorded with regular film so they could be resold, but others were recorded live. It looks like the early videotape equipment was probably more expensive than using 16mm film.
most times the actual equipment for tape was much more than film, but the film itself was more expensive, not to mention the time and money to develop the film.
All shows were shot on film. The only things on TV that were shot directly on videotape were talk shows, soap operas and the news. And this wasn’t until the late 50s/early 60s. Actually the news was just done live, but it was shot with a video camera so it looked like what videotape eventually would. _All in the Family_ premiered in 1970 and it was the first network show shot directly onto videotape. Norman Lear wanted it to look ‘real’ like a documentary. Also film was a mature product, while videotape was not. Consequently tape was *more* expensive than film until the 70s. This is why old episodes of classic talk shows like Carson don’t exist, the tapes were routinely wiped and reused to save money..
@@HailAnts There was a horror show called Way Out in about 1962 on CBS that was shot on video tape. It was an anthology similar to the Twilight Zone only it was video taped.
@@glennso47 - Six episode of _The Twilight Zone_ were actually shot directly on videotape. It was done to save money, but it turned out being more expensive, so they went back to film..
Anyone wanting to see 60s color and how the color cameras were sometimes not so well matched, could do worse than buying the box set of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Looking at the early shows I would say they used only two color cameras for the show. But they did have the benefit of the new technology of Edi-Tech on the color Ampex 2000s VT machines to cut various items together....
I used Laugh In for my test footage when I built my one inch Tiny Triniscope monitor. I also noticed the two cameras in the first season. One of them is frequently out of registration. I kept correcting for his by adjust the triniscope. That was how I discovered the whacked camera. ruclips.net/video/7nmsZuRa0aU/видео.html
I worked in the early days of television and the test pattern had a 440hz tone, not 1khz, that came later with the color bars. I worked on EVERY model of VTR that AMPEX made beginning with the VR-1000. Did you know that AMPEX copyrighted the phrase "videotape"? RCA called it television tape. RCA claims to be the inventor of electronic television, not true. RCA was like Microsoft, buying all the patents and inventions from a lot of people. They tried to buy the patent for the phosphor coating from Dumont labs (who made crts for the military radar systems) but Dumont didnt sell it to RCA, which pissed off David Sarnoff
Wait a minute, New Dream Read 180 Library; Different Videotapes, Different Discs, Different Books, Different Mail, Different News, and Different Games.
Today anyone can do it, where's the fun and effort in that? it took skill and inventiveness back in those days, people had to think and posses knowledge. I prefer it.
It would have been nicer to have had the winter scene you edited with the software to have been more colorful. It was like watching a black n white TV. Just sayin, is all.
It took a long time for transistors to be perfected for practical use. Even simple transistor radios didn't appear until 1956. Many more years before they could be used for television.
And, the germanium transistors that became commonplace in consumer electronics in the 1960s weren’t that great...noisy, inconsistent, limited in frequency. Many early circuits were built entirely of PNP transistors because it was still difficult to manufacture NPN. The first transistor in 1947 resembled a rock with wires attached. It’s a bit much to assume the date of invention represents the date of viable commercial products. It took 20 years or so before good quality silicon transistors were marketed.
One of our Ampex 2000B vtr machines had a proc amp which generated non-standard pulses in the vertical interval when it warmed up and we had to slide the unit out so it could cool down. I remember synching the sound on a backup machine.
RCA had a great sales move, they offered a 'turnkey' operation. If you signed up for it, they would come in and install an entire station full of RCA equipment, get it running and hand it over to you at completion. It was a clever idea, but in reality, the only stations that bought this idea were those who had no money to afford better equipment. Most RCA gear was rubbish.
My cannon tlr can shoot good digital video and can shoot 24 frames a second too gi giving a film look . Early video cameras could only shoot 30 frames a second.
Why did you say "color didn't exist then" (1950's) when one of the cameras you showed is 1953 RCA TK40 camera? It was the first commercially-available color television camera & revolutionized televsion, IN THE 1950's !
As I continue to watch this video, I'm reminded of my own experience with what was probably the biggest television/video transition that I've experienced in my life: I used to do work with the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as an actor (doing some of those comedy sketches). I remember THE day we went in to shoot something and we were shown the first high-definition cameras & monitors!
I think this was the world of 1080P (this was, I suppose, in the spring of 1999!).
I remember the monitors they were using had a wider aspect ratio than I had ever seen before AND the picture on that little 12-inch monitor or whatever was so incredibly clear! I was honored to be, I guess, among the first actors shot on high-definition television for a major network.
As a good friend of mine might say, it was "cool beans!"
Early 1960 I attended American Bandstand in PHL and WFIL just started to video tape shows on the weekend for airing the following week. It was such a big deal back then to video tape shows and view later. Thanks for sharing.
Television and Video cameraman .... /SECAM/PAL/NTSC/ > (1977-2021)
I still remember all of that stuff !!!!
Greetings !!!!
I started working in TV broadcast engineering in 1972. I came in at the tail end of the all vacuum tube generation of equipment. At the time about 70% of the equipment in most TV stations was still with vacuum tubes equipment.
This video is very informative about TV history.
We still use color bar and resolution tests to verify TV monitors. Signal testing is much more complex in the digital world.
This was well put together, I agree. As for the "color bars" - I recall seeing those several years back while in Istanbul. It was during the day time - perhaps mid-day or so. The color bars were on the only television channel not working on the set at the hotel. It was, ironically, from an Iranian television channel. Enjoyed this clip - very informative. Thanks for sharing.
InstaBlaster.
As an analog video/TV geek I really appreciated this video
too
It All started at a little 5,000 Watt radio station in a in Fresno California, a 65 dollar paycheck and a crazy dream.👍😊👍
Memories. From B&W 1/2" open reel tape in high school (c. 1978) to 1" tape and color Norelco plumbicon tube studio cameras. Then 3/4" cassette, DigiBeta, DVCAM, CMX linear editors to Media 100 (early Mac edit software). Yup. Those were the days.
Thank you David for the trip down Memory Lane. Those studio cameras were massive and sometimes required 3 people...one to operate the camera, one to pull and steer the pedestal base, and 1 to drag the cables so the camera remained stable on the shot.
Very informative and enjoyable video!!
I started in TV in 1971 but there was too much noise and bustle at the studio so I prefer the (usually) peace and quiet of the transmitter which was out in the country where there was room for the 870 ft tower and it's guy wires. Of course, the tube transmitters back then required a lot of maintenance and there was always the chance something would blow and we'd be off the air. So I could go from hours of boredom to sheer panic at any moment. :-/
great video. I learned a lot about video in 1974 at school on a Panasonic reel to reel machine. good memories.
Another nice video from Dave Quam. It takes a lot of work to put something like this together. Thanks for the memories Dave.
Thanks Dave I never noticed that it had the Native American sheep on the top of the test pattern...
Being Native American,,,, I respect that ....this video gets six Stars******
People are impressed with digital data. It's awesome, no doubt, but the actual recorded "signal'' is bone simple when compared to an old school analog NTSC video signal. It's actually amazing that ANY of it WORKED over the air, let alone being able to be captured on magnetic tape!
Definitely. It’s much simpler to deal with a discrete digital signal than an analog one. What’s the sampling rate for broadcast video?
Great video, Dave. I learned a lot working with you and the other talented folks at Editel. Thank you.
Thank you David - nicely explained. I can understand using foil tape to make joins may cause run snags. Also as explained the transistor and microprocessor has touched all aspects of our lives. Thanks for uploading - Liked.
Early video tape was also very expensive. That's why so many early videotaped shows are missing. It was considered far more economical to simply erase a tape, and record another program over it. Keeping a copy of a program in a library was unthinkable. I remember Johnny Carson saying that almost none of the first three years of "The Tonight Show--starring Johnny Carson" exist.
Unfortunately it was common practice to erase the tapes after broadcast while 16mm film recording copies which were half resolution were retained on a small scale & most of the full resolution 35mm film recordings were kept such as most of Adam Adamant Lives Season1 with 2 episodes existing as low quality 16mm reduction copies & with the exception of of 3 complete serials, one of which was recreated from 2 different sources, one Serial with one episode missing & a few fragments of otherwise lost serials from Season 3 & half the episodes or in the case of The Evil Of The Daleks 1 out of 7 episodes & 2 out of 6 Episodes of The Faceless Ones from Season 4 with no other episodes from Seasons 3 & 4 existing today as an example of the devastation of the 1960s era of Doctor Who & The Jon Pertwee era did survive better considering half the episodes survive as black & white 16mm film prints most of which contained the colour information from the original videotapes.
Wow, I worked on all of the mentioned RCA gear in the 60s. The TRT1b was a beast, but you were never cold when you were around it. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. OF course all of the mentioned equipment was NTSC, now relegated to the heap of "things that were". I loved it all!
When I got my first intern job which turned into a paid job, my boss was Chuck Pharis, CP. We edited on the Ampex 2000, which I learned how to make dance. Still the lack of precision just something people can't understand. Later I did the beta testing of Final Cut Pro, which was developed into a great program. Too great, so they had to discontinue it and dumb it down to what is Final Cut Pro X.
Incredibly fascinating. Thank you so much
I've gone from working in film to video, video thru the Betacam era, and now digital, shooting 4K Video to edit in Final Cut Pro X (Ten, not "X"). It's been quite a ride. I may reminisce about the old days, but I'll take my little Sony over the Ikegami HL-33 "Handee-Lookee" anytime.
Thanks for a fun look back!
This was well put together and informative of the history of the color television. Thanks for sharing. I remember seeing a color bar during a visit to Istanbul on the television in the hotel room. Only one channel was like this - it was from Iran, ironically, during the day time. I assumed the channel was offline and the others were still broadcasting. Again, thanks for sharing. Was enjoyable. :-)
Very interesting. Thank you.
Great video.... I enjoyed that very much. Thank you.
Thanks for that David, appreciated.
This obviously dates me, but I well remember that Indianhead test pattern!
It seems to me I would see it if I got up very early in the morning before normal (in my case, cartoon) programming began (this was Los Angeles television in the 1960s). I don't know if I remembered still seeing the test patterns in the 1970s but I think they were phased out probably sometime in the early 70s, if I were to guess.
If anything this video really highlighted the challenges The BBC faced when they were recording episodes of Doctor Who with some being film recorded onto 35mm film rather than videotape since the technology of the 1960s couldn't handle the complexity of these episodes such as The Seeds of Death, Episode 5 (625) or The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, Episode 5 (405) with 10 episodes film recorded onto 35mm but 3 of them were destroyed with The Daleks, Episode 4 existing today as a 16mm reduction print & 2 others lost forever. Back in the 1950s The BBC was experimenting with a videotape format known as VERA but due to it's linear recording method & tape reels spinning at 85 MPH the whole project was cancelled especially considering the early commercial broadcasters such as Associated-Rediffusion adopted the Quadruplex format in c.1961. The film recordings such as Quatermass II showed, to some degree, what viewers would have seen from TV cameras such as The Pye MK 3 in Lime Grove Studio G mostly in 405 lines with later film & videotape recordings such as Doctor Who The Enemy Of The World onwards being recorded in 625 line but transmitted in 405.
“This camera recorded in B&W because color didn’t exist yet” 😂💀💀🗿🗿🗿
Nice bit of history there, with great archive.I would love to have operated those old cameras!
Ampex museum of the history of tape, in Redwood City, is closed. Where did they go...?
The invention of the vacuum tube revolutionized our world. The invention of the transistor revolutionized the revolution.
Damn, technicians back then wore tux's to work? Different times..
I always thought the test pattern was just a camera pointed at a printed poster. The monoscope tube with the pattern etched internally was a brilliant idea.
No. It would burn the image on the face of the camera tube
Thanks, well put together and interesting.
it occurs to me that people way back then are more efficient than my generation because you need to be to get over the difficulties of such equipment
It’s amazing how far we’ve come. Wonder why I work harder now than in the days of film?
I actually worked on every model of VTR that AMPEX made from the VR-1000 to the AVR-2 and ACR-25 & 225. The quads have a very simple tape path, unlike the 1" machines. The RCA tape machine were inferior to the AMPEX equipment. In NY I would often here the tape operators at NBC tell me they wish they could use AMPEX equipment, but since RCA owned NBC, they were stuck.
I love the quad equipment and hate helical scan.
I used to edit sports for the news and did it fast for the sportscaster. Using quads, you could not see a picture in fast fwd or rewind. I relied on sounds. The tape was never on contact with the delicate video head during fast fwd or rewind which I liked. Unlike helical, where the tape was always in contact with the head drum. Like sandpaper on metal, not good
In addition we never used 1kHz tones as a test audio signal in the early days, it was 440Hz or middle-c
We use to record show from NBC on the Ampex 2000, edit and then play the show back on the 2000's from a small room, running two play back at the same time and in sync.. This was calle Reeves Sound Studio, video section. Two blocks from the UN on 44th st.........
David Quam odd because I would hear engineers that would constantly complain about the RCA machines. In later tines I did work on the TR-70's and 600s I disliked rhem as well. Never a big fan of RCA tape machines. I loved the AMPEX 2000Bs
David Quam wasn't REEVES called REEVES/TELETAPE?
I also worked at Teletronics and S/T (Sony/Teletronics)in NJ. Teletronics had the patent for the pan and scan mechanism, so we used to do all the film xfers for HBO, and they would insist upon a 5 min overlap on reel changes which you only needed 30 seconds to do. Guess they didnt have skilled operators then.
Also at Teletronics we bought the source code for the CMX editing system and built our own interfaces for almost every piece of equipment we had, even the AMPEX HS-100 (SLOW MO) when you stood in the tape room and watched all the video tape machines working on one edit session it was amazing. One machine in record, maybe two in playback, some waiting for thier cue to roll, and others Looking for thier in-points, was amazing. Eel also had the CMX non liner system as well which we modified. It was fun to be in tape back then.
Working in broadcast was a stressful beast unlike production or post. Rememebe the motto: "Air come FIRST!"
I wonder how those machines did the transitions between the heads. With VHS the transition is done right after the frame so the tv has time to catch up. I can't imagine several transitions happening inside the frame without any effect showing up. Did they have some alien technology digital time delay compensator or something?
@@alexstevensen4292 Yes. The time discontinuities at head switch time show up in various artifacts that can be concealed by (at that time) analog TBCs. Quad machines were nasty because the TBC had to handle instantaneous, step-like changes in timing.
I would love to see those cameras in person!
Imagine having vacuum tube tv on your vacuum cleaner.
Ah brilliant. Thanks. :)
This was before transistors, they used vacuum tubes!
I found one of these cameras in my town behind a mechanics shop. Even had a massive rail to it. All of it was rusted, seized, and gutted and weighed more than a vehicle. Was gonna get someone with a vehicle to pick it up but it was moved before I could get it. Amazing to see one in real life though. It's gigantic
You snooze you lose you should have called your friend and said come right over....
I think I bought it last week it was a red toaster...?
Thumps Down!
great video!
Neat to see an early camera from WCHS-TV (Charleston, WV).
I thought I spotted one from WSAZ channel 3 from Huntington, WV.
@@buddyclem7328 Charleston-Huntington, WV was HUGE TV market back in the 50s and 60s! At one time 3rd or 4th highest audience in the country!
I remember taking a tour of the WOC TV studio in Davenport Iowa in 1970. They didn't have the big RCA cameras. The color cameras looked a bit smaller and they didn't have the turret lenses. I don't remember what brand cameras they had in the studios. I only remember that the studios were quite hot especially when they turned on the studio lights.
I miss the old Grass Valley 100 switcher.
Amazing.
I know that some shows (like I Love Lucy) were recorded with regular film so they could be resold, but others were recorded live. It looks like the early videotape equipment was probably more expensive than using 16mm film.
most times the actual equipment for tape was much more than film, but the film itself was more expensive, not to mention the time and money to develop the film.
All shows were shot on film. The only things on TV that were shot directly on videotape were talk shows, soap operas and the news. And this wasn’t until the late 50s/early 60s. Actually the news was just done live, but it was shot with a video camera so it looked like what videotape eventually would.
_All in the Family_ premiered in 1970 and it was the first network show shot directly onto videotape. Norman Lear wanted it to look ‘real’ like a documentary.
Also film was a mature product, while videotape was not. Consequently tape was *more* expensive than film until the 70s. This is why old episodes of classic talk shows like Carson don’t exist, the tapes were routinely wiped and reused to save money..
@@HailAnts There was a horror show called Way Out in about 1962 on CBS that was shot on video tape. It was an anthology similar to the Twilight Zone only it was video taped.
@@glennso47 - Six episode of _The Twilight Zone_ were actually shot directly on videotape. It was done to save money, but it turned out being more expensive, so they went back to film..
You're not a real engineer until you've erased at least one master tape...
Anyone wanting to see 60s color and how the color cameras were sometimes not so well matched, could do worse than buying the box set of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Looking at the early shows I would say they used only two color cameras for the show. But they did have the benefit of the new technology of Edi-Tech on the color Ampex 2000s VT machines to cut various items together....
I used Laugh In for my test footage when I built my one inch Tiny Triniscope monitor. I also noticed the two cameras in the first season. One of them is frequently out of registration. I kept correcting for his by adjust the triniscope. That was how I discovered the whacked camera. ruclips.net/video/7nmsZuRa0aU/видео.html
I worked in the early days of television and the test pattern had a 440hz tone, not 1khz, that came later with the color bars.
I worked on EVERY model of VTR that AMPEX made beginning with the VR-1000. Did you know that AMPEX copyrighted the phrase "videotape"? RCA called it television tape. RCA claims to be the inventor of electronic television, not true. RCA was like Microsoft, buying all the patents and inventions from a lot of people. They tried to buy the patent for the phosphor coating from Dumont labs (who made crts for the military radar systems) but Dumont didnt sell it to RCA, which pissed off David Sarnoff
What Is the name of the program for digitalizzing the tape?
What do studio cameras look like today?
it was far easier to cut 35mm film and broadcast it than cutting magnetic tape
Wait a minute, New Dream Read 180 Library; Different Videotapes, Different Discs, Different Books, Different Mail, Different News, and Different Games.
Today anyone can do it, where's the fun and effort in that? it took skill and inventiveness back in those days, people had to think and posses knowledge. I prefer it.
But not everyone can do it well 😀 it still takes skill
TV history
we're now in 2021 and I'm afraid in about 5 years from now my grandson will ask me : Grandpa, what's a camera ?
It would have been nicer to have had the winter scene you edited with the software to have been more colorful. It was like watching a black n white TV. Just sayin, is all.
They seen unnecessarily huge.
And now all of this has been replaced with SD Memory cards and cheap laptops.
"They didn't have transistors in those days..."
WHAT days? The transistor was invented in 1947. LOL.
It took a long time for transistors to be perfected for practical use. Even simple transistor radios didn't appear until 1956. Many more years before they could be used for television.
And, the germanium transistors that became commonplace in consumer electronics in the 1960s weren’t that great...noisy, inconsistent, limited in frequency. Many early circuits were built entirely of PNP transistors because it was still difficult to manufacture NPN.
The first transistor in 1947 resembled a rock with wires attached. It’s a bit much to assume the date of invention represents the date of viable commercial products. It took 20 years or so before good quality silicon transistors were marketed.
One of our Ampex 2000B vtr machines had a proc amp which generated non-standard pulses in the vertical interval when it warmed up and we had to slide the unit out so it could cool down. I remember synching the sound on a backup machine.
Corruption too
RCA had a great sales move, they offered a 'turnkey' operation. If you signed up for it, they would come in and install an entire station full of RCA equipment, get it running and hand it over to you at completion. It was a clever idea, but in reality, the only stations that bought this idea were those who had no money to afford better equipment. Most RCA gear was rubbish.
Those TV cameras were $200,000
My cannon tlr can shoot good digital video and can shoot 24 frames a second too gi giving a film look . Early video cameras could only shoot 30 frames a second.
Why did you say "color didn't exist then" (1950's) when one of the cameras you showed is 1953 RCA TK40 camera? It was the first commercially-available color television camera & revolutionized televsion, IN THE 1950's !
WNBQ Chicago (now NBC channel 5) was the first all color station in 1955.
Thanks Chuck! I watched quite a few shows on your WCHS-TV Channel 8 camera here in Charleston, WV back in the 60s...I still live in Charleston today!
transistors didn't make machine to machine editing possible.