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<DIV>I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Bill Carpenter to our
group. Bill had a long career with Ampex, and he is the person who
correctly observed that the modules we have been discussing were not for the
VPR-7900. As an aside to that thread on the oldvtrs list, we got into a
discussion about the TBC-790 and the AVR-2. The post that I have copied
below had so much interesting information in it, that I asked him if I could
copy it here. He agreed and has also joined our group, so we can look
forward to more first-hand knowledge from Bill. Welcome!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Here is a portion of what Bill had to say ................</DIV>
<DIV>-------</DIV>
<DIV>I moved on to the AVR-2 project inn the summer of 1972, during a move where
I exchanged jobs with the product manager who was responsible for everything in
the Quad product line except the AVR-1 & ACR-25.<BR><BR>He replaced me on
the early helical products, for many reasons, mostly a personality problem with
the director of the broadcast product management group.<BR><BR>So, I moved from
a very bad condition, into a great new world of broadcast TV, which was<BR>a
great new world which would be a big learning experiencefor me.<BR><BR>I had
design engineering experience on the helical products, and I knew quite a bit
about Quads, but had never designed anything for them or even operated
one.<BR><BR>So, I had the VR-1200B, VR-1200C, VR-3000, & the ADR-150 (quad
high=speed contact duplicator) + quad upgrade stuff like Vel comps, and such,
and a new project in engineering called Nova,(<SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: italic">code name</SPAN>) which became the AVR-2 (in early
1974, like Feb/Mar) which was planned to replace the 1200 product
line.<BR><BR>So we were selling about 50-70 quads, per quarter and that was my
major day to day effort. I discussed every domestic sale with the salesman, and
authorized every discount.<BR><BR>The Nova project was coming along quite well,
the Project engineering manager left Ampex one month after I was on the project,
to start the Catholic TV Network in Chicago. So it was goodbye to Charlie Crum
and hello Glen Rose, who also designed the editor on the Nova.<BR><BR>There was
very much concern in Rwc, related to what IVC was working on? <BR><BR>They had
Barry Guislinger, who taught me about video design in 1965, in Elk Grove, and
could design anything in the video recording field. He personally created the
IVC-9000<BR><BR>The concern was that they may have been building a quad "like"
product with a base price of $35K.<BR><BR>So since the Nova project was in very
good shape, and Maurice Lemoine was still fussing with the DTBC, but it worked
well anytime it needed, so I authorized the prototype console to be finished and
a full set of final trim to be produced.<BR><BR>The product was a tall console,
with sides made out of a thick material like flakeboard and was black and gray.
The sides were covered with a edge banding and were probably 10" wide from the
top of the top plate to the bottom of the monitor bridge which was about 20"
above the top plate.<BR><BR>I had it photographed and designed a one page
brochure, and called it the VR-1400, and then we packed it and all the spares I
could steal and had it crated. It marked as a "VPR-7953" and "Hold for Customs
Clearance" stickers on all sides, and the name of the International Product
Co-Ordinator and his phone number and it shipped on a seperate truck to the
Bethesda Tape Warehouse.<BR><BR>If IVC had shown a low cost quad competitor, or
RCA had showed a reaction product on the opening day of NAB 73, then I would
have spent all Sunday, setting up the special sales meeting at 8pm, and then we
would have moved the machine to a reserved spot on the show floor and Monday
would have been one crazy day. <BR><BR>The machine had the full DTBC, and every
other feature of the AVR-2, except the unique console, usable with or without
the monitor bridge and the three box concept. <BR><BR>A by-product of this
design, completed in August of 1973, was that the machine could be air shipped
or shpped by common carrier anywhere in the world. This was a first for any quad
(VR-3000 excepted) and proved very valuable in the future.<BR><BR>So, in
summary, we never introduced a VR-1400, and we never introduced a quad product
with the "mini-buffer", which was the engineering name, for what became the
TBC-790 product.<BR><BR>But, poor RCA introduced the TR-600 at NAB 74 , which
was aimed at the rumored $35K price point for IVC's product and even turned good
RCA "meatball" lovers against them.<BR><BR>I could demo against them anywhere
and have no doubt about winning.<BR><BR>We even thought that a southern
broadcaster was going to force RCA, to finance a AVR-2 to keep him
happy.<BR><BR>The RCA salesman came in a saw a demo AVR-2 running in his tape
room and he almost died. <BR><BR>The CE demoed the machine, and the RCA salesman
dropped the price on three TR-600's, and told the CE " If you need a machine
that will <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">play any tape, any time,</SPAN> buy
the damn AVR-2, but buy three TR-600's from me , because they are much
cheaper"<BR><BR>So, that's a few stories of me and my Quad education, and the
great AVR-2<BR>---------------<BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>