ALEXANDRIA, VA.—Recently I reported about the Museum of Broadcast Technology (MBT) in Woonsocket, R.I. that specializes in displaying broadcasting “big iron”—early VTRs and cameras replete with scores of glowing vacuum tubes and supersized AC power cords. One of their biggest attractions is what may be the last surviving first-generation videotape recorder of its kind that still works. I learned the museum had high hopes of transporting this great granddad VTR to this year’s NAB Show, as 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of the VTR’s debut at that show (it was the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters, or NARTB, back then). At the time the unveiling was swathed in secrecy, with no one outside of Ampex and some top CBS engineering executives aware of what was about to take place at a CBS affiliates engineering meeting held concurrently with the Chicago show.

This Ampex Mark IV was the star of the 1956 NARTB Show. Here Phil Gundy, Ampex vice president, (far left) looks on as VTR design team members, (L-R) Shelby Henderson, Alex Maxey, Fred Pfost, Ray Dolby, Charlie Ginsburg and Charlie Anderson admire their creation. (PHOTO CRDIT: Fred Pfost)

The rollout of this new television time-shifting technology took the CBS group by storm and the enthusiasm was infectious, spreading to virtually everyone there at the Conrad Hilton Hotel which hosted the NARTB that year. (RCA had planned to make a big splash with some new color TV products, but their exhibit really didn’t get much foot traffic, as almost everyone was hovering over Ampex’s newest electronic wonder.)

SOME DISAPPOINTING NEWS

Let us now fast-forward 60 years and return to the story about sending this rare example of American technology and know-how to Las Vegas this month. I got word from one of the Museum’s co-founders, Paul Beck, a few days ago that, unfortunately, it’s not going to happen.

Paul Beck

“We received a number of donations, but there wasn’t enough to cover the anticipated expenses,” said Beck.

(As I mentioned in my original story, the MBT folks had initially been hoping for a funding grant to provide the estimated $25,000 to transport the heavy, bulky, and fragile machine to the NAB Show, but the grant didn’t materialize. I suggested in my story that readers who would like to see the VR-1000B make the trip to Las Vegas should donate as generously as they were able. Several readers did, but as observed by Beck, the amount raised wasn’t sufficient to “pay the freight.”)

BACKUP PLAN

While Beck and the MBT’s other co-founder, Tom Sprague, had been hopeful that their sexagenarian VTR’s ticket to Las Vegas would get punched, they are ready with a “backup of sorts” so visitors to their exhibit space will at least get some exposure to what video recording technology was once like.

“We will be bringing our two Ampex VR-3000s (backpack-sized 2-inch quadruplex machines) and we’ll be playing back some footage recorded on a portable machine from a schooner back in the mid-70s,” said Beck. “We’ll also be bringing along three operational RCA TKP-45 and a TKP-46 ‘minicams’ from the same period to show our visitors what portable color cameras looked like 40 years ago.” (Beck noted that the video on the demonstration tape they’ll be playing was captured with a TKP-45.)

“Also, there’ll be a high-def recording showing our VR-1000B in action,” said Beck. “This will be shown on a big screen to demonstrate the operation of the Ampex machine.”

While this will give show-goers a taste of what NARTB attendees witnessed 60 years ago, both Beck and Sprague admit that there’s nothing like the real thing and they’re disappointed that their machine won’t be making the trip to Vegas. 

However, not all may be lost!

In my follow-up communication with Beck, he pointed out quite correctly that while the Ampex recorder did make its first appearance 60 years ago, what the NARTB crowd saw was basically an engineering prototype, the company’s “Mark IV.” (A slightly earlier version, the Mark III, remained behind at the Ampex Redwood City, Calif. plant where one of the design team members, Ray Dolby, hosted a press conference to show off the new technology to local newspaper and wire service reporters at the same time the curtain was being raised in Chicago.)

Anyway, Beck’s point was that the machine shown in Chicago 60 years ago was not the VTR that ultimately rolled off the Ampex production line. The VR-1000 didn’t happen until the following year.

(When I interviewed Ray Dolby back in 2006 in connection with my TV Technology story about the VTR’s 1956 launch, he remarked that with the successful showing of video recording and its acceptance at the Chicago NARTB, as soon as the show ended, the team’s next project was to figure out how to set up a production line for assembling the recorders in large quantities. [After all, some 75 or so sales orders had been written at the show and these had to be filled ASAP!] Dolby said that the team spent several months developing assembly line production techniques and it was not until 1957 that the first VR-1000s began to ship.)

SHOOTING FOR ANOTHER IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARY

“Next year’s NAB Show will mark 60 years since the VR-1000 was first shown,” said Beck. “Taking our machine to the 2017 NAB Show is probably more appropriate. And this gives us a year to raise funds and work out a detailed plan for getting the recorder to Las Vegas.

“We’re still very excited about the possibility of showing the machine and the extra 12 months will give us more time to plan the ‘hows’ of crating the machine and getting it out of our museum building and transported to Las Vegas safely,” he continued. “It will clearly have to go with some sort of ‘white glove’ service. The additional year will give us more time to work out the details.”

Tom Sprague

Beck and Sprague have estimated that it will require upwards of $25,000 to safely transport the Ampex recorder to and from Las Vegas. They remind those interested in making donations for the 2017 effort that the MBT is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and that donations made may be tax deductible. And just as in the original fund raiser, if the amount raised is insufficient to cover shipping and handling costs for the VR-1000, they will either apply donations received to cover other museum expenses or refund them depending on the donor’s wishes. If you’d like to help in this effort, please contact Tom Sprague at maindesk@wmbt.org.

Let’s see if we can’t make this plan a reality at next year’s NAB Show. Please donate as generously as you can!

WHERE IS THAT ‘OLDEST’ QUAD MACHINE?

I mentioned in my previous article that the first production VTR went to CBS, which had been in on the “surprise” NARTB unveiling. I also speculated that the whereabouts of that machine, if it still existed at all, was unknown. I decided to see if one of the real VTR history experts—Peter Hammar—might know what happened to serial number “0001.”

Pete Hammar

Hammar was the founder and curator of the Ampex Museum of Magnetic Recording and in this position was able to pull together a lot of the company’s history.

He stated that Ampex did deliver a few videotape recorders in 1956. However, these were the model VRX-1000, a sort of “go-between” that bridged the gap between the Mark IV demonstrated in Chicago and the VR-1000 that premiered in 1957. According to Hammar, 16 of these intermediate machines were manufactured.

“The VRX-1000 was the pre-production model for the VR-1000,” said Hammar. “These were hand-wired, and the first three machines were kept at the factory to serve as test ‘mules.’”

Hammar noted that some very necessary modifications to the Mark IV were made in the VRX-1000s, including a reduction in the depth of the machine. “The overall form factor was the same, but at 38-inches deep, the Mark IV couldn’t fit through most doorways.” he said, explaining that early on, the team had planned to include all of the support electronics in the base of the VTR, hence the 38-inch depth. He added that the first three “mule” machines had been disposed of long ago.

So what about the next VRX-1000 produced—serial number four?

Ampex VTR development team leader Charlie Ginburg poses with one of the 16 VXR-1000 machines assembled. (PHOTO CRDIT: Fred Pfost)

Hammar said it went to CBS’s Hollywood “Television City” facility where it was pressed into service to time-shift New York programming three hours for airing on the West Coast.

I’d remarked in my March story that whereabouts of this CBS machine was unknown—probably long since MIA—and asked Hammar if he could shed a little light on what became of this very early and historic VTR.

“Yes, I can,” he said. “This VRX-1000—serial number four—was in the Ampex Museum until the early 1990s. Then it went into storage in a San Carlos [Calif.] warehouse. Later it was sent to the Ampex facility in Colorado Springs, and finally went to Stanford University where it’s still in storage.”

Mystery solved!

And while it’s good to know that this important relic is still around, Hammar is unsure as to whether the machine is complete any more or could even be displayed, so it looks as if the Museum of Broadcast Technology still has the claim to the earliest complete and operable Ampex quadruplex VTR.

I’ll see you at the Museum of Broadcast Technology’s booth!

ARLINGTON, VA.—During my first year with TV TechnologyI had the pleasure of writing a story commemorating the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the videotape recorder at what is now the NAB Show. It’s hard to believe that we’ve traveled around the sun another 10 times since I was interviewing members of the Ampex team that created the machine and scrounging up photographs to go with the story. Time moves way too fast when you’re having fun.

MBT Museum co-founder Tom Sprague puts the six-decade Ampex VTR through its paces.

THE VR-1000 LIVES ON!
I had some more VTR-related fun a few weeks ago in traveling to Woonsocket, R.I. and spending an afternoon at the Museum of Broadcast Technology there. In case you’re not familiar with this organization, it has to be the world’s largest repository and display space exclusively devoted to professional broadcast equipment. There are scores of TV cameras, some dating back to the 1940s; a tube-type sync generator filling a full rack, and videotape machines—many, many tape machines.

One of the crown jewels of this assemblage of broadcast heavy metal is an Ampex VR-1000, the company’s first production VTR. It went into production just months after a prototype was unveiled to a stunned audience comprised of CBS TV-affiliate station engineers. To fully appreciate my usage of the adjective “stunned,” you would have had to have been there. (I wasn’t, being only nine years old at the time, but in speaking with some of those who were it was truly an historical occasion, with applause, whistling, back slapping, climbing on chairs, and the like which lasted for upwards of 10 minutes.) Several companies and organizations had been working on developing a videotape recorder, but Ampex was the first to arrive in that new world, instantly stopping all other R&D work and moving television into a totally new direction.

No, the VR-1000 in Woonsocket is not serial number 00001 or even a machine close to that seminal unit. The first machine shipped went to CBS, and after nearly 60 years its whereabouts is unknown, if it exists at all. However, the MBT machine (it’s a VR-1000B) is one of the very, very few surviving 1000’s that is still completely operational, having been restored to functionality by a lot of TLC from Museum volunteers. It still has all of its vacuum tube signal and servo circuitry intact (two racks full) and as an added “plum,” has been equipped with time base correction and chroma stabilizing units, allowing it to play back recordings in color (something that the original machine couldn’t do.)

TAKING THE VTR TO LAS VEGAS FOR A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
In speaking with Museum volunteer Jay Ballard, I learned that some planning had taken place last year for transporting this VR-1000B to the April 2016 NAB Show as a special treat for showgoers—many of whom have never seen a VTR that uses two-inch-wide tape, requires two separate 30-Amp power feeds, includes a vacuum pump and is driven by scores of glowing vacuum tubes. Unfortunately, the plan was derailed when a funding grant request fell through.

In digging a little deeper, I spoke with one of the Museum’s founders, Tom Sprague—someone who may be familiar to NAB Show attendees, as he and the other founder, Paul Beck, have brought working examples of yesteryear broadcast technology to the show for the past several years; none as large or impressive as a VR-1000B, though. Sprague told me that the heavy, bulky and somewhat fragile machine would have to be moved by a group that specializes in transport of electronic gear; something that doesn’t come cheap.

“If the machine were to go to NAB, it would have to have special handling—something like the ‘air ride’ vans you see on the highway,” said Sprague. “The equipment racks are seven feet tall. Just getting it out of the Museum’s front door would require special handling.”

Due to the fragility and physical size of the great-grandad recorder, special handling would also be needed at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Paul Beck “It could not be hand carried,” said Sprague. “It would have to he handled by union personnel there,” said Sprague, noting that while the LVCC freight handlers do a wonderful job in getting gear in and out of the halls, they are expensive. Also, as the machine requires 60-Amp electrical service, this would add to the expense.

Nevertheless, if the money could be made available for the move and setup, Sprague and Beck would be willing to let the machine make the 2,700-mile road trip, and have volunteered to head to Vegas early to make sure that it’s operational by show time.

Asked if he had any estimate of how much funding would take to make the VR-1000 available for all to see (and hear) at the NAB Show, Sprague wasn’t hesitant in naming a figure.

“All in all, we estimate that it would cost $25,000. This is more than the entire annual operating budget of the Museum.”

So, what to do?

A fallback plan is to produce a video that shows the machine in operation in its Woonsocket location.

“It would be a short tour of the machine, highlighting the new ‘advanced’ features of the ‘B’ version and would include video output taken directly from the machine’s proc amp,” said Sprague.

Jubilation over the introduction of the world’s first VTR at the 1956 Chicago NARTB (National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters) Show

However, looking at a recording of this dinosaur VTR just doesn’t have the impact of seeing and hearing such a device operate “in person.” (Actually, there are some quad machine videos posted on YouTube, including one from the MBT.) If you’ve never been up close to a quad, you really haven’t experienced what it’s like to hear the head assembly spin up to some 14,400 RPM (that’s 240 revolutions per second), hear the tape guide “shoe” snap into place after the head revs up, and then hear the heads literally biting into the moving tape.

The only way to really experience this is to stand beside such a machine as the “play” switch is punched and then watch for the video to appear on the monitor (it takes around 10 seconds; no “instant” pictures 60 years ago). And it seems only fitting and proper that such a machine should grace the NAB Show floor on this important anniversary.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED
Yes, upwards of $25,000 is not exactly pocket change for most of us, but when you consider what the big broadcast equipment manufacturers spend for floor space and shipping of their exhibits, this sum begins to move down towards the noise level. And what if there were multiple donors? Ten entities pledging $2,500 each would do the trick, or 25 commitments of just $1,000.

I have to ask too, if it can’t happen this time, what are the chances of getting an operational “model T” VTR to the 2026 or 2031 NAB Shows (70thor 75th anniversaries)? Not too likely, as the small cadre of engineers who can keep these things running is getting quite long in tooth, and replacement parts (such as head assemblies) are becoming more and more difficult to obtain.

This really has to happen this year if it’s going to happen at all!

The Museum is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and donations are tax-deductible. If you’d like to help send this working example of 60-year-old broadcast technology to Las Vegas, now is the time to do it. Please donate as generously as you can. Let’s see if we can’t give show attendees something to talk about for a long time. You can contact Tom Sprague at maindesk@wmbt.org.

At any rate, we’ll see you at the MBT booth in Central Hall!