1″ videotape – What Was Pebble Mill?

Outside Broadcast VT area

Photo by John Burkill, no reproduction without permission.

This photo dates from December 1985. It shows the VT area of an outside broadcast truck, probably CM2. You can see the 1″ machine in the centre of the photo, and probably a U-matic VT machine lower down to the right.

(Thanks to Chris Harris and Peter Poole for adding in information).

Bryan Comley added the following comment on the Pebble Mill Facebook page: ‘This is the VT end of CM2, the VT machines are Ampex VPR2b’s with a shared TBC. The audio tape m/c I think is a Studer.’

1″ VT Machine with John Duckmanton

1″ VT demonstration from pebblemill on Vimeo.

Specially shot video of VT engineer, John Duckmanton, demonstrating how to operate a 1″ VT machine. The tape John uses is a Gardeners’ World, with Geoff Hamilton, from 1984.

Photo by Paul Vanezis

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Keith Brook: ‘Editing on 2″ tape you were lucky to get 10 edits an hour. You cannot imagine how huge the edit rate increased once 1″ tape was introduced. The breakthrough was the ability to shuttle by hand and find your edit point visually.’

1″ Videotape Machine

Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

The photos are of a 1″ Videotape machine, in action.

1″ videotape was introduced in the mid 1970s, and was the broadcasting norm in the 1980s. 1″ machines took up much less space than the earlier Quad machines, and required less maintenance. You could also spool in vision on them, which was a great advantage when trying to locate a particular clip.

The following comments were on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Christopher Hall: ‘It is an Ampex VPR-6, 1″ C Format machine. VPR-2 machines were probably more widely used, and Sony BVH- 3100 machines were the last ones bought. ‘

Mark Davies: ‘Looks like VTF/MFA to me’

Alan Miller: ‘It’s funny to think how much we welcomed the arrival of the first “C” format machines. I seem to remember that we all thoughtt that at last VT could compete with film editing?’

Portable 1″ Videotape Recorder (VPR 20)

Photos by Video Editor, Ian Collins; no reproduction without permission.

Ian took these photos before the sale of equipment when Pebble Mill was cleared prior to being demolished in 2005.

The portable 1″ videotape recorder (probably a VPR-20) was a useful piece of technology, meaning that shots could be recorded on location without a full outside broadcast, and before the advent of portable single cameras.

The VT editors shown in the photo are (left to right) Ian Collins, Steve Neilsen, Brian Watkiss, Ivor Williams, Mike Bloore, John Burkill, John Doidge, Steve May.

Peter Poole added the following information on the Pebble Mill Facebook page: ‘I remember a Clothes Show recording using the Ampex/Nagra VPR5. It was an audition for models in Studio 1. The queues stretched down Pebble Mill road.’

Please add a comment if you remember which programmes used portable 1″ recorders.