| Another decade, another format. Two inch had lasted as the major format from 1958 until 1980, when one inch C format helical scan arrived in the shape of the VPR2. Once described as "a format in search of a tape", one inch gave slow motion and still frames as well as greatly improved speed of handling. Originally given five years to be 'phased in', it swept the board, replacing the majority of two inch within six months, although cut editing on two inch continued until 1982. The 1980s were the decade of the great edit suite expansion with Digital Video Effects devices like the Quantel 5000 and ADOs finding their way into the suites. Offline edit suites multiplied and were set up outside the environs of the basement. Breakfast television with its associated overnight working caused the departure of several of the original members of the Department, but far greater changes would begin to affect staff by the end of the decade. The foreign excursions grew with editors travelling to the Soviet Union, the United States, Korea, Australia, Mexico and even Scotland to service the ever increasing work of Sports Department. |
| The menu below will take you to various aspects of Television Recording, 1980s style |
| The development of Television Centre | ||
| How the Basement videotape area grew | ||
| Sport was a major user of VT from day one | ||
| VT Soccer team in the early 1980s | ||
| A look at the VT machines of the 1980s | ||
| Offline came a long way in the 1980s | ||
| TK at Lime Grove & TC by Bill Tucker | ||
| Photographs of cubicles | ||
| Photographs of people in VT | ||
| Slow motion in the 1980s | ||
| Newspaper story about Christmas in VT | ||
| 15th Anniversary book | ||
| Mobile VT in the 1980s | ||
| Replay from any camera at the British Grand Prix | ||