The Care And Feeding Of The Ampex VR 2000 Quad VTR
As your read this, quad video tape is being transferred to digital formats inside CBS Television City at what they like to call “Jurassic Park”. It’s a 24/7/365 operation and the facility is equipped with just about every type VTR format you can imagine.
In 1964, Ampex introduced the VR 2000 high band videotape recorder, the first ever to be capable of color fidelity required for high quality color broadcasting. Just for fun, here is part one of the three part Ampex training tape on the VR 2000. You can find the rest in YouTube.
[evp_embed_video url=”http://CDN.eyesofageneration.com/Content/Viewseum/Ampexvr2000.mp4″ preload=”none” template=”mediaelement”]
I have this machine….Love it but it is a picky beast.
home sweet home. I remember one time putting two side by side. supply reel on the record machine on the left and take up reel on the playback machine one the right. Instant live with a several second delay! We moved the machines a little closer or further to get the desired seconds of delay. back before we were just appliance operators.
And you have to do all this every day?
Brings back found memories including splicing videotape with a razor blade and Mylar tape!
We got our first VR2000 in about 1966 I think it was, Added to our VR1000.
We had 2 of these. Our chief engineer loved them, and it showed when they were called on to play a tape that simply would not play on our pair of RCA machines.
I worked with Charlie King in video tape at KCST Channel 39 San Diego, he taught me everything I ever learned about the VR-2000, VR-1200 and the HS-100 slo-mo machine from Ampex. I was attending San Diego State majoring in Broadcasting and worked part time at 39 from 1968 to the middle of 1971. Charlie’s nick name for me was “Boot” as in boot camp. I ran tape for 9 months, then when one of our audio guys left, I moved to audio and booth announce. It was an interesting 2 years at channel 39, some great and very memorable people were there then. I think about them and the station often. I remember watching the Moon landing in our client viewing room in 1968 during a Gilligan’s Island segment.
We had 24 of them on the tape floor at CBS NY.
I am glad to have saved this training tape. Ampex was kind to allow me to post it.
Alan Gardner. Th is is exactly how the tape delay was done at the network at CBS NY. The 24 machines were paired in 2’s on the tape floor so all of them could do tape delays.
I went to this facility a few years ago. I started with 2″ in broadcasting. I did maintain some VR-2000’s & even RCA TRT-1B’s in my early days
Many hours on these.
Ah!! The whine of the headwheel….the smell of freon…thats when TV was TV!!
feeding is right!! those things ATE tape!