The Big Quadruplex Tour at M.B.T.

Paul Beck, Mark Berman and Jay Ballard embark you on a tour of some of the working Quadruplex VTRs belonging to the Museum of Broadcast Technology located in Woonsocket, RI, thanks to Tom Sprague of National, Boston, who conducted the restoration of all the VTRs presented here. They are RCA TR-70B, TR-60, TR-600 and a revamped AMPEX VR-1000B with VR-1200 electronics.
Other VTRs featured in this video are RCA TRT-2, RCA TCR-100, RCA TR-22, AMPEX VR-1200, AVR-2 and AVR-3.
Please visit M.B.T. at : www.wmbt.org

[@RosamondSkypark]

Great to see these old machines still operational, and kudos to those who put the effort into making them so. Not a trivial task!

[@AdairComaru]

You made my day guys, what you did is outstanding. I'm a support engineer working for Broadcast TV Networks and Adv production companies since 1979 (in Brazil). I learned to do maintenansement in RCA Video Tapes like, TR60, TR61, TR600 (w/ AE600) and TCR100, later going to 1" Ampex VPR-2B, TH200 RCA (Sony O&M) and BVH-1000.Golden era to a Broadcast Engineer, I miss it a lot. I also worked with some tube cameras, like RCA TK44, TK760 and telecine TP66 w/ mirror MUX, a lot of memories.

[@SO_DIGITAL]

I've been watching Caroll Burnett shows from 1967. It is remarkable how good Quad could look. Sharp with great color. The tapes from her show held up very well with maybe 2 or 3 visible tape problems during a show.

[@MrTmwilliamson]

We had two of the Ampex VR 1000's at channel 8 in Houston in the mid 1960's. Only one them had the additional modules to record and play in color. We also had four film chains, two color and two black and white. A lot of the programming was still on film in those days.

[@jimdingo]

We had 3 of these 1000s w/1200 guts one of which ran all the days’ commercials. It was usually remoted to master so they could start and stop it. When it was in remote the “stop” and “play” buttons on the machine didn’t work but fast forward and rewind still did. One graveyard shift the master op came in to check an upcoming spot. He hit fast forward with the machine still remoted but when he hit Stop it kept fast forwarding. All he could do was hit rewind to try not to let it run away. I was down the hall when I heard him yelling “help, help!” and came in to see him trapped, going back and forth between FFwd and Rewind, trying not to let the machine run away.

[@kimkelly657]

A VR-1000 with the electronics of a VR-1200. Nice to see this old quad working. Now if someone could get an RCA TRT-1B quad working!

[@rty1955]

Great technology thanks to AMPEX

[@Watcher3223]

RCA = Rugs, Chicken, and Automobiles. For anyone who didn't get the joke, that was in reference to RCA's diversification in the 1970s, acquiring several companies unrelated to RCA's core business in electronics and, through its ownership of NBC, television and radio broadcasting. "Rugs" was in reference to Coronet Carpeting. "Chicken" was in reference to Tyson Foods. "Automobiles" was in reference to Hertz Rent-a-car. RCA had also acquired other companies at the time, such as Random House Publishing and Gibson Greeting Cards.

[@graphos10]

I'm not sure, I've just been a visitor of the Museum. As far as I know, parts are actually available in the Museum's warehouse. They seem to have not only saved the machines you see in the video, but large quantities of parts as well. Regarding the Quad head assys, I clearly remember having seen some 70-80 shipping cases stacked somewhere..... Looks like heads are largely available. Of course, this won't last forever since heads wear off and someday, refurbishing of head assys will be necessary.

[@MrTmwilliamson]

Ampex made mod kits for it's machines later on in the 1980's, but most stations had already gone to one-inch and 3/4 inch machines by then, so these kits never really caught on.

[@graphos10]

@jpvp2 Thanks ! This is a must see, and Paul is an outstanding host !!!

[@thepinto1973]

I have and use an Ampex 1200, 2000 and and AVR2 but I miss the RCA I started with. Hope tou see your place sometime

[@jpvp2]

good on you for putting this up - most interesting

[@graphos10]

@websuspect You named it !! QUADs for in house production and playback of syndicated programs, U-Matic or BVU for ENG, and that's pretty much all what was available for professional use. Some minor broadcasters could have relied on IVC 1" or on a handfull other industrial formats, that's it !! Quad was ruling then !

[@graphos10]

@Boeing744andRCAquad As far as I know, they developped a color-under process to deal with the then limited bandwidth of the VR-1000. AMPEX color quads were direct color recovery. The VR-1000 pictured here is not a RCA modified machine, but a VR-1000 with VR-1200 electronics.

[@MrTmwilliamson]

Ampex did make stereo mod kits, but I have only seen them on AVR 1's and AVR 2's. I don't think they would have worked on the old VR 1000.

[@graphos10]

They fascinate me too !!

[@websuspect]

You guys did a very good job. I have friends with studio tapes from the mid 1970s. What machines would be likely for a major TV studio to use in the 1970s. Umatic tapes? Quads?

[@rty1955]

No one used U-matic for broadcast. It was alk quads

[@AdairComaru]

Golden era to a Broadcast Engineer, I miss it a lot. I also worked with some tube cameras, like RCA TK44, TK760 and telecine TP66 w/ mirror MUX, a lot of memories. Now I must come back to Final Cut, it is also fun but not like this VTRs. Best regards to every body.

[@heehawkdown]

Rugs, Chickens and Autos, A reference to RCA diversification in the early 70's?

[@graphos10]

@Boeing744andRCAquad As soon as stereo became mainstream. AVR-2s were stereo capable, maybe some AVR-1s.

[@gnormhurst]

Back when a tape operator could be proud of the picture quality that came out of his machine, because the quality depended on the skill of the operator. Now, the video just plays off a digital server somewhere.

[@graphos10]

@Boeing744andRCAquad Nope, sorry, not yet. Many parts missing, but I trust Tom Sprague that some day the TRT-2 will be up and running.

[@graphos10]

@Boeing744andRCAquad As far as I know, Helical scan machines were unable for a long period of time to deliver an uninterrupted signal due to the fact that the tape has to enter and leave the heads drum at two different places and this causes a gap in the signal continuity, which was rejected by FCC and broadcasters. This was finally solved on 1"C machines by having another head 'covering' the gap by playing another segment of tape while the playback head was on the gap.

[@rty1955]

You coukd not use helical because of the time base instability. Until the advent of digital tine base correctors, you could not broadcast helical

[@heehawkdown]

@graphos10 I have a bunch of TCR-100 training materials that includes over 200 slides, 6 cassette tapes and several training manuals (not the standard instruction books), was part of an RCA training seminar. Would donate these to this museum, the contact email on the website bounces.

[@graphos10]

Tom, The VR-1000 you see here is not original. It is actually a VR-1000 transport with VR-1200 electronics, hence its color capability. There is another plain-vanilla all-tubes electronics VR-1000B at the museum, but it is still under restoration.

[@filmteknik]

What do you do for parts besides scrounge other machines? Especially the head assemblies. I remember seeing shipping cases at TV stations for sending them off to places like Spin Physics for overhaul.

[@graphos10]

Hi, There may be at least a couple somewhere in a warehouse. Anyway, why not have the tapes sent to MBT for a dub ? Best regards !

[@tehtapemonkey]

Old guys are fun =)

[@websuspect]

Okay I appreciate it. Im embarrased to say. Me and some "friends" were ont he nationally syndicated romper room show in the 1970s. I was told that this particular show was taped and put on 2 hour delay and some of the tapes have surfaced. Now that Im not 5 anymore i can do computer production. If I can find my frineds and one of these machines we can plug it into a computer and retrieve precious archieves. Her channel is jennygla2010 she is the granddaughter of the romper room family.

[@rty1955]

websuspect romper room was taped at Channel-5 in NYC in studio-2 I believe. When I was 5 one of the camera operators put a box behind the camera for me to stand on. I was petrified when the red light went on in the viewfinder.

[@kimkelly657]

Is that TR-70 the A model?

[@zvotaisvfi8678]

Audio guy here but yeah we can still be friends.

[@stephenbeecher7545]

At 7:40 looks like a couple of VR 1200's to the left of that VR 1000. Are the 1200's restored and running?

[@graphos10]

Be my guest, Sir, Videolabguy, Sir !!

[@robfriedrich2822]

Does this machines need some minutes of running, before the picture was good or are they instant like the cartridge machines?

[@laustinspeiss]

Sadly, I’ve used all the machines I could see in that tape room !

[@teutguy1]

Did these machines have the capability to record stereo?

[@rty1955]

Quads were all mono

[@10チャンネルと12チャンネル]

此処は、博物館ですか？館長さんは、唯一の技術者だから当時のマシンを解りますが、この時代のCOLORは、大変高価で大き過ぎ日本に運ぶお金も有りませんでしたね、60年から80年代まで長くオープンテープの時代でした。

[@graphos10]

Nope. None of the two AVR-3s there are in working condition. However, they will be one day !

[@graphos10]

@heehawkdown Who knows !! Only Paul knows the answer, but it may not be very far from your idea !!

[@heehawkdown]

@graphos10 I have a bunch of TCR-100 training materials that includes over 200 slides, 6 audio cassettes and several training manuals (not the standard instruction books) that were part of an RCA training seminar. I would donate this stuff to this museum. the contact email on the website bounces back.

[@Lion_McLionhead]

Who knew these dinosaurs from the 1950's recorded all the way until the age of the female announcer.

[@diamonddave45]

@graphos10 Were any quads modified for stereo?

[@rty1955]

dmine45 no because that would make the tape format incompatible

[@mspysu79]

The Ampex AVR-2 could be ordered with an optional stereo audio headstack and stereo audio electronics, it took the standard quad audio track and basically split it in half with a little bit of a guard band between the two tracks. Ampex ACR-25 quad cart machines with the AVR-2 stereo audio system installed where used when MTV when on the air for playback of all videos, commercials, and segments shorter then 6 minutes, longer form things came from a stereo modified AVR-3.

[@natiopana]

It is the regret that I live in Japan Japan can play 2 inches of VTRs now An apparatus does not exist. 2 inches of many videotapes are idle in the warehouse in the Japanese broadcasting station. I am disappointed.

[@guimbadriver]

yo Quads needs new caps,in my IVC9000 i done a full upgrade in elctrolytic caps the picture now is superb......