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<font face="Tahoma">Great historical perspective, Ted.<br>
Thanks<br>
<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/6/13 11:09 PM, Ted Langdell wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:44B66F2E-A3C1-4307-ABE4-ECE225163465@quadvideotapegroup.com"
type="cite">
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<div>Following up on David Crosthwait's latest post about the EOT
for NBC Burbank's Videotape Central... It played a significant
role in the development of television videotape applications
beyond time zone delay (TZD).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So, we offer for you a look at a few <b>Tidbits about Burbank
Videotape Central</b> and some questions they raised as I was
compiling this.</div>
<div><b><br>
</b></div>
<div><b>Automated TZD Recording and Playback:</b></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0
40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">In a 1959 document called
"Automatic Control of Video Tape Equipment at NBC Burbank,"
NBC's Robert Byloff outlined the technology and how the
equipment was used.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0
40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The Burbank system delayed the Eastern Time network feed
for all other time zones, so that</div>
<div>programs were seen with—at most—only a one hour difference
from the Eastern time zone. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>IE: An 8 p.m. ET program would be replayed for Central and
Mountain zones one hour after it fed from New York, and then
replayed at 8 p.m. Burbank time for the West Coast. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The system used eight Ampex Quads modified by RCA to record
and play color, and four prototype RCA Color recorders.
Because color programs occurred at random and increasing times
in the network schedule, Byloff said that colorizing all
machines was done to ensure flexibility as more color programs
were transmitted.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>Recordings were made of the Eastern time zone
transmissions coming down the network line into Burbank. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div>Since rewinding and cuing a one-hour reel couldn't be done
in the (usually two-minute) terminal break leading into the
top of the hour, Time Zone Delay recordings were done in
half-hour blocks so that crossover would happen during station
breaks and be un-seen by viewers.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Here's an example: </div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0
40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div>Hour 1's first half-hour would be recorded on VTR 1,
which would rewind after recording and wait until the top of
the hour, then play the show back for the Central time
zone. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Hour 1's second half-hour would be recorded on VTR 2,
which would rewind and be ready to play the second half-hour
an hour after its recording started.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Both machines would then rewind and cue in order to play
Hour 1 beginning two hours later for the Pacific time zone.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Each machine rewinds when finished, and is ready to
record again, catching the first and second half-hours of
Hour 4.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Here' a grid:</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<div><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0
40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div>Each machine had input routing so that the incoming network
regular and backup lines, all NBC Burbank studios, and test
signals.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Each machine's output routing could feed playback to any
Burbank studio for production, and four different "delay"
feeds: One-hour delay for the Midwest, three-hour delay for
the West Coast, a two-hour delay for special purposes and a
four-hour delay "for future playback to the Pacific
Northwest," which didn't observe Daylight time.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>A QC room in the back of the VTR area enabled monitoring of
each machine in color and monochrome, and "control of output
switching is provided there to permit switching between A and
B copy tapes."</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Since the staggered recording/playback plan outlined above
doesn't provide for simultaneous main and backup record and
play, perhaps there were workflows that enabled that on
occasion?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>In addition to the automated "DB Sequence" control outlined
above, the Burbank control system enabled preset operation at
the machine. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>An operator could arrange for a clock-time selection of
input and output routing, record or play operation, start time
and duration. After the specified duration, the machine would
rewind to the beginning of the recording and stop.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div><i>What's not outlined in the copy of the document I have
(unknown number of missing pages) is how the system
determined the beginning of the recording. </i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div>A guess would be a cue tone automatically put on the cue
track at specific locations in order to tell the machine to
enter "Stop" so it didn't overshoot the head of tape and
unthread... and then enter "Play" to find a cue tone marking
the beginning of the recording.</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The system also allowed for manual control and input and
output selection at the machine, delegation from the machine
of studio control... Stop, Play, Record, etc.,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>Audio and Video AGC amplifiers were used between the
input routing switcher handling feeds to the VTRs and each
VTR's input. </div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>The video AGC amps were developed by NBC and separated
luminance and chroma components. Sync was stripped, "the
baseline cleaned up and the signal controlled to a
particular level," Byloff advised. "In the chrominance
channel, the burst is measured and by this means the
chrominance is held to a predetermined level." Sync was
reshaped and delayed, then added back to the signal before
exiting the AGC amp.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><b>Burbank Adds Ten TRT-1AC's:</b></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>In the April, 1961 "RCA Broadcast News" issue about "Color
Television Progress," NBC Burbank recording engineer Russel A.
Nies reports on what was a then recently completed installation
of ten new RCA TRT-1AC color VTR's.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0
40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div>The ten new machines were arranged in five cubicles.
Transports and some of the racks involved faced each other,
while the color monitors for QC were at the end of the
cubicle.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
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<br>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0
40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>The same "Color Television Progress" issue notes the
quick playback in Burbank of the Nov. 10, 1960 "Tennessee
Ernie Ford Show," the fourth time the show had been done on
location.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The show wrapped shooting at Edwards Air Force Base at
1:30 p.m. Pacific time, with a 150 mile drive to Burbank.
The tape arrived around 5:20 p.m., and was playing back to
the network at 6 p.m. from Burbank for 9 p.m. Eastern time
zone viewing. No indication of whether there was a backup
tape or just one.</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<b>Burbank Pioneered Videotape Editing Methods:</b>
<div><b><br>
</b>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div>In the article about the ten new TRT-1AC machines, Nies
outlined how a large portion of Burbank's tape operations
involved pre-recording shows for later release. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Editing from a number of different reels required
consistent and stable signal parameters, since recording
sessions could span days, weeks or months, and involve
different recorders, heads and tape stock.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Nies says the number of splices in an edited production
might range "from 25 or 30 to as many as 200," and the
material could come from a dozen different reels of tape.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>NBC's Burbank facility became the "go to" place for
production and editing when folks there developed a method
of editing videotape picture and sound separately. It was
first used on <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2011-February/003966.html">"An
Evening with Fred Astaire</a>, a 1958 special Fred Astaire
produced and starred in that was recorded and aired on NBC.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
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<div>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div style="font-size: 12px; "><b>Reel from "An Evening with
Fred Astaire"during restoration process in 1988. (Screen
capture from KTLA News video)</b></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Called "Editor's Sync Guide" (or ESG), the process used
16mm kinescopes of the video and magnetic film transfers of
the audio. Long-time editor Art Schneider A.C.E said the
word of mouth from Astaire "literally opened up the flood
gates to producers and directors who wanted their shows
edited at NBC. "</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Schneider described how it worked in this webpage first
posted on the late engineer/edit system designer Jack
Calaway's "Museum of Early Video Editing Equipment and
Techniques," preserved after his passing by the UK videotape
website, VT Oldboys:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.vtoldboys.com/editingmuseum/esg.htm">http://www.vtoldboys.com/editingmuseum/esg.htm</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The Quad tape was physically spliced to conform to the
film edit. (Would be good to know more about some of the
audio sweetening process used.)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Conforming the tape required the use of a special
reel-holding set up. It allowed the videotape editors who
conformed the tape to roll through the reels much like film
while hearing the audio from the ESG and show. When
splicing, they had to account for the physical offset
between the sound head stack and video head.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The ESG system was used to create many shows in the late
1950's to the early 1970s. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It enabled Schneider to win two Primetime Emmys: One was
shared with Craig Curtis in 1966 for <span
class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px;
-webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; ">Individual
Achievements in Electronic Production - Video Tape
Editing—they</span> cut the 1965 Julie Andrews special.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Schneider second Primetime Emmy was solo in 1968 for <span
class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, sans-serif; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing:
2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; ">Outstanding
Individual Achievement in Electronic Production. The
program: </span> The pilot of "Rowan and Martin's
Laugh-In," which aired as a special on September 9, 1967. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>"Laugh-In" took the number of cuts per hour from perhaps
80 to something like 400. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>In 2009, Schneider commented about ESG to QuadList member
John Buck in connection with John's book about videotape
editing, "Timeline." </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>John shared Art's comments in a Feb., 2010 post to the
QuadList:</div>
<div style="font-size: 13px; "><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-February/002208.html">http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-February/002208.html</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The show became a mid-season entry on January 22, 1968
using the ESG system for editing, and ran 141 episodes
through March 12, 1973.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Others who worked at NBC at the time recalled the process
to QuadList member/former NBC Editor David Crosthwait in
this January, 2010 posting:</div>
<div style="font-size: 13px; "><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-January/001931.html">http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-January/001931.html</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<b>Burbank Adds Timecode Editing:</b><br>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div><br>
</div>
<div>By the late 1960's, time code based editing was making
its way into video editing. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>At NBC Burbank, the RCA TRT-1AC's, RCA Labs heterodyne
color, and Low Band recording had been replaced by RCA TR-70
series machines with High Band Color. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>As outlined in the June, 1971 issue of "RCA Broadcast
News," NBC looked into the new technology in 1967, and
implemented a special edit room in Burbank with two VTRs.
Completed in the summer of 1968, the room successfully
edited a season of several prime time programs.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
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<div>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div style="font-size: 11px; "><b>NBC Burbank Supervisor of
Videotape Operations John Fishette mounts tape on an RCA
TR-70 (RCA Broadcast News)</b></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The experience led to ordering more time code editing
gear, and incorporating more complete audio and video
switching. An Ampex Slo-mo disc was also incorporated.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>First used for the fall 1969 season, the second room was
averaging more than 12 hours a day of use cutting the Andy
Williams and Don Knots shows, along with various specials. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>A third room was built for the fall, 1970 season, using
the new RCA Time Code Editor developed by RCA engineers in
Camden, New Jersey with experiences of the Burbank engineers
and operators.</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
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<br>
<div>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div style="font-size: 12px; "><b>RCA Time Code Editor with
programmer and nixie tube time code display. (RCA Photo)</b></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Its first work was the Dean Martin and Red Skelton shows.
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<b>Editing the Dean Martin Show with the RCA Time Code Editor:</b><br>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div>As a standard operating procedure, "Time of Day" time
code was fed to the cue track all machines in the Burbank
plant, allowing operators—and editors who often are the
record engineers on shows like Dean Martin— to easily log
takes as they were recorded, using clock time.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>On the Martin show, two reels were generated during the
Saturday evening sessions: A live-switched reel and an ISO
of a single camera usually used for close ups.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
During the Monday/Tuesday edit sessions, shows were assembled
on one-hour reels previously recorded with time code, video
black and control track. A 15Hz frame pulse was added to the
control track to help make color framing more accurate during
editing, since the TR-70's didn't have a color framing
detector.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The editor operated the record VTR on which the show was
assembled, along with the switcher. His assistant ran the
playback VTR, its programmer and the slo-mo disc recorder
when used.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If dissolves to other reels were needed a third VTR and
assistant were assigned.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Contact closures at specified time codes rolled different
video or audio equipment.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Credit rolls for the "Dean Martin" show used A and B
reels built up checkerboard style using the slo-mo disc to
pull stills from the show. A third playback VTR was used to
roll the credits for keying over the A-B roll pictures. The
theme song was laid down from an audio deck during the
playback to the edited master. The use of time code
significantly sped up the process for building the credits.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Audio sweetening was done after the master reel was
assembled. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Mono audio and time code were transferred from the edited
master to two tracks of a four-track audio recorder equipped
with a capstan servo and sync track. The time code from the
four-track audio recorder was fed back to the RCA Time Code
Editor so its synchronizing feature would lock the VTR to
the audio deck TC.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sweetening added audience reaction and applause to smooth
out transitions, along with equalization to match
segment-to-segment sound and additional music. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The results were mixed during re-recording to the mono
audio track on the edited master.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0
0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div>QuadList member and former NBC Editor David Crosthwait
described working in one of the newer rooms in this January,
2010 message:</div>
<div style="font-size: 13px; "><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-January/001917.html">http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/2010-January/001917.html</a></div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So, there's a little bit of NBC Burbank Quad-related
history. And now you know what I was editing all day :) </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>Ted</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space;
-webkit-line-break: after-white-space; font-size: 14px; ">
<div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font
style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal
Helvetica; " face="Helvetica" size="3">Ted Langdell</font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font
style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal
Helvetica; " face="Helvetica" size="3">Secretary</font></div>
<div><font style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal
Helvetica; " face="Helvetica" size="3"><br>
</font></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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