Tag: Paul Vanezis

Machine Bays

PV016Photo by Paul Vanezis, no reproduction without permission.

This photo is of the machines bays on the right hand side as you walked into the VT area from the main post production corridor at Pebble Mill. The jackfields contained most of the connections between the VT area and the other parts of the building.

The door to Dub 1 is on the left hand side at the back of the shot.

The photo probably dates from the late 1990s.

Thanks to Russell Parker and Stuart Gandy for adding information to this post.

Ray Lee added the following information on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page: ‘As Stuart says this was the VT Bays area just outside Dubbing 1. There were a stack of VHSes and the bottom LH rack I believe was Vision distribution amplifiers, (there is another set at the top of the middle bay). The panel below the monitor was a routing panel, but I can’t remember whether that was just for the VHSes and monitor, or whether it could also select other destinations as well. This was part of the re-engineered VT area when SDI (Serial Digital Interface) had been installed for routing combined sound and vision around the VT Suites. These 3 bays were the analogue vision and sound distribution, when separate non embedded audio and vision were needed. I think the black box top left was a stereo PPM.

 

Soundtech Series A Desk

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Photo by Paul Vanezis, no reproduction without permission.

This photo is of a Soundtech Series A audio desk, circa 1990.

There was one apparently in Studio 9, at the TV end of the Newsroom.

Andy Walters added the following information on the Pebble Mill Facebook group: ‘Studio 9 was in operation until the end of Pebble Mill. I believe those desks were still made until fairly recently by Alice Soundtech. The guy who ran the company was previously an Engineer at Beacon Radio.’

You and Me and Him

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Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

This still is from a Thirty Minute Theatre, called ‘You and Me and Him’, by David Mercer. It features Peter Vaughan, and would have been recorded onto 2″ videotape. It was transmitted on 22 Feb 1973. Barry Hanson was the director, David Rose, the producer, Michael Edwards the production designer, and John Lannin the VT editor.

The play was ordered to be wiped in the 1970’s, as was the case with many programmes on 2″, due to the high cost of tape, but the VT guys changed the number on the tape and put it in the basement. It was re-discovered in 1990 by Paul Vanezis, and put in the BBC Archive where more enlightened minds were happy to ensure its survival.

Thanks to Ben Lamb and Paul Vanezis for identifying the drama, and adding much of the information here.

Look! Hear! Titles grab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

This grab is from the title sequence of the Pebble Mill Midland Region series ‘Look! Hear! – circa 1980. It was a youth orientated show, which combined music, entertainment and fashion items.  It was presented by Toyah Willcox.

Thanks to Paul Vanezis for identifying the still.

Videotape in the 70s (part 3) – Ray Lee


Photo by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission

VT Expansion

Around 1975/6 VTC was created. A pair of AmpexVR1200 were installed into the new area, but because there were only sufficient lines on the Comms router at that time for one more VT they shared a single source and destination route, and one control line. When working with a studio or outside destination, they only saw whichever machine was switched to line, which meant that for programmes like Midlands Today, one machine could be cuing the next item, while one was playing, but normally it would need a brief return to another source so that the machine to line could be switched prior to playing the next item. I had a fairly extended period working in VT after VTC was created, and even did some training of others including Tim Savage. At that time Angela Ripon was the main presenter on “Top Gear” which was frequently edited in VTC.

Soon after that the IVC 9000 Slant track machine was installed in the former Telecine viewing room. More and more programmes were using VT and so any viewing of film material took place either in the viewing theatre run by Stan Treasurer, or in the Telecine cubicles themselves. The IVC 9000 used 2inch wide tape like the Quad machines, but recorded the tracks diagonally across the tape. The tape also ran at half the speed that the Quad machines used, so could accommodate longer continuous recordings.

It was slightly less noisy than the Quad machines and had a much quicker start up mode. (I believe it could be synchronous in 3 seconds instead of 10). This machine was used extensively by Pebble Mill at One, but because there was only ever one machine, it still required a Quad machine to do edits, and also any material that was on slant track format tapes, could only be played on that machine, which rather limited its usefulness. The idea of obtaining a second machine for an edit pair never materialised, as by this stage the Ampex VPR2 machines were starting to be installed in London, and subsequently at Pebble Mill, and these had the advantage of seeing pictures in still frame and shuttle mode, which enormously improved the location of edit points.

Ray Lee

Ray added this additional information on the Pebble Mill Facebook page: ‘VTC was equiped with VR1200s which Paul (Vanezis) is quite correct were older machines (than the VR2000s). Pebble Mill had them 2nd Hand I think ex London when they were just starting to install VPR2’s at TVC as far as I recall.’

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