[Jeffhs]

Yes, indeed, how times have changed. Read on, if you will:

I was also on the A/V crew in high school, in the early '70s. We had Sony AV and CV series VTRs, and the school's closed-circuit television system was set up on three channels -- 2, 4, and 6 -- using a miniature modulator (mini-mod for short) for each channel. We added a fourth channel, channel 7, which was fed by a Sony AV-series color VTR and gave us our first all-color channel, the year I graduated (1975). I was something of a jack-of-all-trades on that crew: master control operator for the CCTV system (including operating a special-effects generator, which was interesting and fun -- it was interesting seeing all the things that could be done with a raw image from one of our cameras before it ever got to the VTR), camera operator for remote tapings, even as a color announcer for one of our school's football games we were taping on a Saturday afternoon, for rebroadcast over the system the following week. The cameras were small, by commercial TV station standards, but I cannot for the life of me remember what brand they were, although Sony comes to mind as they were designed to work together with our Sony VTRs.


I haven't been back to my high school in Cleveland Heights (an eastern bedroom suburb of Cleveland) since graduation 37 (goin' on 38) years ago (I've moved twice since, so I have absolutely no idea what's going on in that school now or since I graduated), but I bet a lot has changed in the A/V department since then. I imagine they now have flat screen monitors, state-of-the-art video recording and storage, the whole works to bring the system into the 21st century -- unless school funding cuts are forcing them to use outdated '90s or (gasp) '80s technology. I don't think, however, they are still using the same VTRs, mini-mods and cameras they had when I was there in the seventies. Those machines probably wore out years or decades ago.

I could tell you lots of stories of my experiences on the A/V crew, but I don't want to make my post too terribly long. I don't like to brag, but I wound up winning an award at the end of senior year for outstanding work in the A/V department of my high school. Believe me, those are three years I'll never forget -- at least not any time soon!