I Wonder How This Worked Out?
Below, we see an RCA TK30 owned by CBS being mounted in a Bell helicopter. I don’t know what they are shooting, but if the helicopter goes up more than a couple of hundred feet, there will be big problems for all. Notice this is a cabled camera and not a microwave wireless unit. Hopefully this was after 1956 when video tape became available. Can you imagine doing this for a live shot?
A Funny Story… This shot of a TK11 is from WTVT in Tampa, but listen to the story that the cameraman posted along with this old photo of him. “It was my first day on camera and I was nervous. Very nervous, and alone with only the newsman and me in the studio on a […]
How’s This For RARE? ‘Tonight’ Show, Debut Ad Thanks to Maureen Caney, here is a print ad that ran Sunday, September 26, 1954 announcing the debut of ‘Tonight’ With Steve Allen, the next night. The first guests to ever appear on ‘Tonight’ were Martha Raye and The Inkspots. On September 27th of this year, ‘Tonight’ […]
Covering College Football…ABC Sports, October 4, 1975 This is the best ever look at how 60 men brought 30 million viewers these great games every Saturday. “Second’s To Play” is presented in it’s original 30 minute format. This is the most extensive look you’ll ever get of how ABC Sports crews covered the games in […]
An Updated Report On My Night At SNL…May 3, 2014 I’m re-posting my report from the next morning with some updates and added comments. New: I originally only mentioned this is passing, but I was fortunate enough to spend six hours in 8H on Friday afternoon watching rehearsals. I had come directly from a two […]
They need a microwave unit…. 😉
That’s extraordinary. Hopefully there was a quick-release connector at the other end:)
Quick release: I’d guess they either left off the threaded rings on the multi-wire connector (so it’d pull apart), or they had a guy with an axe.
KTLA did this in the summer of 1953 Santa Monica pier. Source: News at Ten by Stan Chambers.
Man that just screams, “this will not end well.”
Somewhere I have seen footage of these tests with a cabled camera. Image satbilization of course didn’t exist yet. describing the image as “jerky” is an understatement. We used a ’47 like this one for traffic reports at my last station group (radio) between the camera, operator and pilot that craft was just about at limit.
Looks like a pretty heavy payload.
I would love to see video or kinescope footage of this chopper cam in action!
I think this was golf coverage. It looks like they just went up whenever they wanted a wide live shot of the course. Go up a certain altitude with the cable dangling, get the shot, and then come down. Simple.
Note the cable laid out beneath the chopper. This was going to be live.