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  #16  
Old 09-14-2005, 04:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman
I agree. Those old monitors were there at NBC because they still worked and they were "fixed assets" that were paid for 14 years before.
Good point Steve & Swanson. We used the roundie monitors at KTLA well into the 70's. And even when we replaced the roundies with rectangular color monitors , we kept a roundie installed for reference. This,because when we did a tight shot of a subject, person or product, we wanted to be sure it was not cut off at the corners when viewed on a round screen color set. After all, there were still millions of roundie color sets in homes.

-Steve D.
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  #17  
Old 09-14-2005, 09:39 PM
3Guncolor 3Guncolor is offline
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Most places that have been around awhile end up moving older pieces around if they still work to less inportant places. I have some monitors in service that are around 25 years old for checking if something is working or not we even have one with a HD down converter hooked up to it for HD. Sometimes its a matter of pride to see how long the techs can keep a piece working. That can backfire as managment knows they don't need to spend $ on new equipment. On a side note I had a round monitor with a 21FJP22A setup next to a Sony 32" for fun and the pic was almost as good. The monitor I want to fix someday had a 25VCMP22 Cromacolor Zenith Tube in it, that old thing had a killer picture.
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  #18  
Old 09-14-2005, 10:22 PM
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The thing about "moving older pieces around if they still work to less inportant places" is of course quite logical, but at NBC Color City, the big window that showed master control was a very important place. Not only did they judge picture quality there (to a certain extent) but it was on display for anyone who walked by to look in. That included the tours, etc. I mean, in 1974 the first thing you saw at NBC other than the hallways full of people was two really old 21" roundies, heh. That always tickled me. They might have been proud of 'em. Probably were.
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  #19  
Old 10-14-2005, 07:17 PM
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FWIW (and that's not much!) I took the NBC tour at Rocky Center back in the early 70's and recall seeing what I remember to be Curtis Mathes monitors in the control room...not sure if this was their master control room or what, but it had live feed displayed.
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  #20  
Old 10-15-2005, 05:09 AM
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I wonder what had happened to those old beatifoul monitors. I hope they didn't end in the junk yard.
Talking about old things. A reporter from TVR (The Romaninan State Televsion) use an "Sony" Betacam from the '80's!
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  #21  
Old 10-15-2005, 04:58 PM
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Until recently, lots of American TV news used a version of Betacam for their in the field reporting. There are several Beta standards, some for broadcast, others for industry (training tapes etc) and of course the consumer version.
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  #22  
Old 10-15-2005, 06:54 PM
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Yes,that is betacam SX,still in use at CBS NY and
other networks for news gathering.
We are now switching over to a new format
by Sony called XDCAM.It records the video data
to a rewritable disc that is about the same size as
a DVD.The disc usually lives in a cartridge and looks
a little bit like the old JAZ drive cartridge.The laser
in use is the new blue-violet laser.So far it works
very well but the technology is still very new.
Regards,
Swanson
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  #23  
Old 10-19-2005, 06:04 AM
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On the pic put by old_tv_nut a guy "playes" with some buttons. Are those buttons use for adjusting the colors?
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  #24  
Old 10-19-2005, 07:42 PM
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Those are knobs used to adjust the image orthicon operating voltages and magnetic fields. Image orthicons were very finicky, and adjusting them was apparently as much art as science. I have heard it said that NBC Burbank did a much better job of aligning the cameras than NBC New York, and that would seem to be confirmed by the relative quality of existing videos.
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  #25  
Old 10-19-2005, 09:14 PM
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I agree. The stuff from Color City in Burbank always looks better. The NY cameras are always mis-matched looking, picture wise..
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  #26  
Old 10-19-2005, 11:42 PM
colortrakker colortrakker is offline
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Next time you watch an old Saturday Night Live, you'll see the differences. Sometimes they're tremendous. And they were like that into the '80s. I agree Burbank was much more consistent from camera to camera, if not from show to show. Some shows looked a lot sharper than others, unless they lost something in remastering.
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  #27  
Old 09-08-2014, 03:31 PM
J Ballard J Ballard is offline
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Hi all-

The existence of obsolete equipment in service at network plants was explained earlier as not spending any additional money. At NBC, the VP of engineering always asked,"Can we get spare parts? Is it doing the job?' Case closed. For example, NBC continued to operate TP-6 film projectors for those reasons, but also, they could see ENG coming along, requiring less telecine.

NBC had TK-41s in service in 1975 at some O&Os, and ABC had a TK-41 mobile unit available as a backup for "Monday Night Football" into the late 1970s. Generally speaking, the O&Os of the three networks had the oldest equipment of nay TV station in town.

The question about the quality of pictures being different in NY and Burbank can partially be expalined by the 3000 mile gap between Camden/NY and the West Coast.
Burbank was a "can do" shop without the large bureacracy in NY and Camden, especially in later years. They often didn't have the necessary capital, so they built it themselves, as they had a large maintenance staff in Burbank. Audio consoles, terminal equipment, solid state preamps for the TK-26s, solid state TK-41 VFs, were all done in house. Craig Curtis designed a pre-SMPTE time code edit system that was used for many years to edit major programs.

Outside producers loved working at NBC Burbank and it was profitable for the company.
It was a full facility operation with wardrobe and drapery departments, in addition to the standard support services.

Then there was the lighting-Burbank poured on the footcandles, and actually had a manager of lighting. I remember conversing with the "Tonight Show" VO about the new TK-44As that were installed and if there were any reductions in light levels from the TK-41 days. "No, not really." "Where are you running the irises?, I asked." "Oh, about F-11."

F-11!!! Plus the gain in the camera head video amplifiers was reduced to produce a quieter picture too boot! God, the focus knob on the lens was unnecessary at those light levels.

In fairness, the NY Radio City plant was built for radio and may have lacked the power capability and HVAC needed to light to those levels. I have heard many stories over the years.

There were capable people on both coasts, and it was enjoyable working with them. It may have been the best job ever.

Regards,

J. Ballard
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  #28  
Old 09-08-2014, 05:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by old_tv_nut View Post
It appears from this magazine cover that NBC Burbank used consumer sets (RCA of course) - can anyone identify what chassis/model these are, and what CRT?
Since all the photo attachments have been lost after this thread was originally started, I though I'd post the photo old_tv_nut refers to. This from the cover of Radio & Television News Sept. 1955. NBC Burbank control room. RCA Victor 21CT55 consumer model color sets w/21AXP22 picture tubes.

-Steve D.
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Last edited by Steve D.; 03-12-2017 at 09:00 PM.
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  #29  
Old 09-08-2014, 08:56 PM
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Holy nearly 10 year old post batman! Never ceases to amaze me the things that pop back up out here on the interwebs.
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  #30  
Old 09-08-2014, 10:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve D. View Post
Since all the photo attachments have been lost after this thread was originally started, I though I'd post the photo old_tv_nut refers to. This from the cover of Radio & Television News Sept. 1955. NBC Burbank control room. RCA Victor 21CT55 consumer model color sets w/21AXP22 picture tubes.

-Steve D.

Who here woudn't want to just "step into that picture" and load up ALL of that stuff-- and bring it back to today !!

IF ONLY that were possible...
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