Sony BVE 9100 Keyboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

VT editor Ian Collins took a number of photographs of outdated kit when BBC Pebble Mill was cleared, prior to being demolished in 2005.

This is the keyboard of a Sony BVE 9100 edit controller, used in linear tape editing.

It would have been used in one of the VT suites.

Ray Lee adds the following information about what the edit controller did:

‘The edit controller allows you to select ‘in’ and ‘out’ points during a VT edit, controls the ‘play in’ and ‘record’ machines, executes the edit and stores the edit points for if you need to go back again. It is a lot more involved than that, (like most things) but a more detailed explanation would probably be confusing. The edit controller could control several players at once, as well as audio sources, digital video effects machines, and the recorder, so it was possible to do quite complex edits including fades from one source to another, as a single pass, once you had identified the timecode points at which you wanted these things to happen.

Videotape in the ’70s (part 1) – Ray Lee

Ampex VR2000 Quad machine in VTB, photo by John Burkill (1976)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Photo copyright John Burkill, no reproduction without permission – the photo must have been taken after lunch – well during VT’s standard liquid lunch!)

The Videotape area adjoined Telecine, so I got to know the VT staff, and something of the operation even before I had chance to actually work in the area. In 1974 there were just 2 VT machines, Ampex VR2000 2 inch. These were known as Quad machines as the recordings were made using 4 rotary heads across the width of the tape, quadruplex recording. VTA was optimised as a play in machine, and VTB as an edit machine. Both were capable of being used as stand alone recorders or players with the studios, and could be used for simple assemble editing, but more usually one was used as a master recorder and the other as a backup at that time, as there was no way of knowing until playing back, that the recording had been successful. There was no off tape monitoring, and a head-clog at the start could render the whole recording useless.

At that time John Lannin, and Tony Rayner were the senior editors, with Ian Collins, John Burkill, and Steve Critchlow making up the remaining VT team. What many people working in TV today fail to realise is that VT machines then needed careful alignment for every tape, and that they required a ten second run up in order to lock up fully synchronously. (Occasionally even 10 seconds was not long enough!). Although cut editing of tapes had been occasionally done in Black and White days, it was not accurate enough (normally) for colour recordings.

There were exceptions. I believe there was a unique recording that had somehow had tape damage that caused the tape to snap, (the transverse rotary heads were not unlike a circular saw if there was a nick in the tape) and John Burkill performed a cut edit to join the tape back together. This involved applying Edivue, a suspension of fine iron particles in solvent, to the tape to develop the tracks and the edit pulse, on each side of the damaged area. Then using a travelling microscope to locate the correct point and place it precisely in the edit block, cut the tape either side of the damage, and finally splice together using splicing tape. Normally a cut edit like this would not play without some glitching, but on this occasion it played almost as well as a standard electronic edit. Subsequently some months later I also had to repair a tape in this manner, and achieved a similar result!

VT was a noisy area. The rotary heads ran at 15,000RPM, and there being 4 heads on the drum a new head entered the tape past the edge 1000 times a second. Added to that the rotary heads were run on air bearings, which was supplied with compressed air, and created a vacuum for the vacuum guide to hold the 2 inch wide tape in a circular arc. The machines did have their own air compressor which could be used (adding even more noise), but generally used compressed air from a central compressor housed away from the area. The same compressor fed airlines to the Telecine cubicles to allow for blowing dust out of the film Gate. So what with whirring heads, hissing air and other general mechanical noise, the monitor loudspeaker was generally quite loud in order to hear the sound.

The VT machines needed careful looking after to get the best out of them, and tended to drift as they warmed up. So the normal course of action for the switch on man was to switch on the machines, check that the basic systems were working, then go and have a coffee while the machines warmed up. There was always a 1/2 hour line-up period scheduled before each booking, to allow time to make the fine adjustments required for the tape. In an edit session using several different source tapes, line up could take up quite a lot of the time. If the tapes came from the same recording session, a quick 2 to 5 minute adjustment may be all that was required, but where there were tapes from several different source machines, (often the case for Pebble Mill at One), 10 – 15 minutes or longer could be required if there was a particularly awkward tape.

Finding the required place on the tape could take a while also, as there were no pictures in shuttle. Tapes were logged on a card that was kept with the tape. The machines had a counter which was calibrated in minutes and seconds, and was surprisingly accurate considering it was a friction drive. On loading the tape, one had to remember to zero the counter, otherwise the times would not correspond to what was written on the card, or worse you could end up logging the incorrect times on the card for a new recording. Tapes were re-used quite a lot, as the tape was expensive, and in order to ensure a clean tape  they were put into a bulk eraser (nicknamed the fish fryer on account of its height shape and the perforated roll lid.) It took about 20seconds to erase the tape, so you had to be certain that you had the right tape, and that it really was ok to wipe it, before pushing the button.

Some compilation tapes were reused without first erasing them, which could sometimes cause confusion when remnants of a previous recording were left in between two logged items.

Ray Lee

CMCR 9 – Outside Broadcast Truck

CMCR 9 OB Truck

CMCR 9 Vision Control

CMCR 9 Sound Control

CMCR 9 Production Area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Ray Lee, no reproduction without permission.

Ray Lee took the photos of the OB truck, CMCR 9 at the Onslow Park Steam Rally recently.

The old CMCR 9 has just been repainted by its present owner Steve Harris and exhibited as a vintage vehicle.

Despite its 40 years, it is looking in remarkably good shape. The CCUs are EMI and not the original, as it was converted for EMI cameras when it became North 3.  A lot of time and effort has gone into getting it to this stage, it will no doubt bring back memories for a lot of Pebble Mill folk.

The OB truck left BBC Pebble Mill in 1979, and went to Manchester.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Alan Miller: ‘I never worked on this one as I worked in Scotland at the time but it certainly brings back memories of another age.’

Telecine – Ray Lee (part 5)

Jim Gregory in TK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I worked in TK for around a year and a half before moving to VT for a brief attachment. I had further subsequent spells in TK, later in my career, including one period where I refurbished every board in the machines, as by that stage some components, mainly the trimmers, were completely worn out. The maintenance budget took a big hit that year, but the machine reliability improved no end.

In the early days TK had regular bookings for ‘Pebble Mill at One’, ‘Midlands Today’, ‘Farming’ (The predecessor of Countryfile), ‘Asian Programme’ inserts, Studio A inserts for various network dramas, and from time to time film inserts to ‘Nationwide’ and other London News items.

I remember one day in I think the summer of 1975, Jim Gregory and I viewing a film trailer for what was expected to be a big series of films. There was an item in a programme about George Lucas, and his vision for the films, the trailer was from “Star Wars” (although I’m not sure it was known as such at the time). It did eventually become a whole series of films, but after the initial “Star Wars” was released in 1977 there was a long period of uncertainty, regarding the rest.

Jim Gregory and Paul Richards pretty much were TK, for most of the time I worked at Pebble Mill. Graham Winter went on to lecture at Wood Norton, and everyone else moved round various places. I remember the time with affection, and was quite sad to see the old Cintel TK’s finally removed to make way for new equipment, something I was involved in as a member of Post Production Maintenance in the 90’s.

R. G. Lee

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Keith Brook: ‘This is a rare shot indeed. Jim Gregory out of his chair!!’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Fascinating stories of TK. I was at Evesham with Jim in the 60s. I remember in a previous job in regional TK in Southampton waiting to send a commag news story to AP for the new BBC 2 News and after a very long wait eventually getting through to VT there who were going to tape it and the operator said something like ‘Hang on there’s a lot of noise ouside in the corridor, I’ll just shut the door’, we sent the package up OK and when he came back on to say all was OK he told us that TVC and all TV had crashed due to the major power failure in London which eventually led to the abandonment ofhe opening of BBC 2 that night!’

PAs Leaving Party & Rum Punch 1998

PAs Leaving Party 17 Dec 1998

PAs at Rum Punch 1998

VT at Rum Punch 1998

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

The photos were taken at the Leaving Party for the Pebble Mill Production Assistants, as they took redundancy in 1998, and at Rum Punch which took place a couple of days later.

The first photo includes: Andy Rutter, Paul Scholes, John Cooke, Jim Cleland.

Second photo includes: Anne Varley, Jane Mclean, Sylvia Lloyd, Sue Williams, Linda Flavell. (In the background: Dave James & Geoff Moore)

The third photos includes left to right: Ray Lee, Dave Rhodes, Mark Ray, Gurpi Saini (kneeling), James Allen, Nigel Evans, Mark Davies, Ian Collins, Keith Brown, Robin Szemeti, Adam Harvey.

Thanks to Dave Bushell, Paul Vanezis, Mark Ray, Ray Lee, Stuart Gandy and Jane Mclean for identifying those in the photos.