- Tez
dustersA lint free cloth used for cleaning the guides and heads of VT machine heads before the advent of Kimwipes - especially in RCA brushes!
- Benzine - in voluminous quantities. Where was Health & Safety?
- ColcleneA fluid used for cleaning the guides and heads of VT machines
- KimwipesTissues used for cleaning the guides and heads of VT machines
- White
powderA deposit left on the heads and guides of VT machines as a result of the lubricant in the tape binder (French Chalk) coming out of the binder
- DropoutA picture disturbance caused by magnetic-particles being eroded from the tape surface
- Head ClogsOxide from the tape clogging the video head causing bands of white noise on the picture
- Drum ClogsOxide sticking to the actual drum of the video head in between the video heads - could be removed by a fingernail on the head!
- High BandImproved recording standard for 625 line quad machines. Initial implimentation somewhat beyond the capabilities of the machines
- RCA TR22sRCA's all transistorised quad VT machine
- Head
banding - and the cure - a thump between the spools
- VR1000
head amps falling out
- 60'
takeup spools on 90 'programmes
- The
glass spool
- Heating
Cornish pasties on the VR1000 power supplies (KT88s?)
- Kicking
the 3 cam timer in the back of the VR1000 to make the vacuum guide
come in
- Removing
audio clicks on quad tapes with a hand demagger
- Carding
out (silent audio outs with judicious insertion of a slip of card
between the tape and the audio stack)
- Inadvertently
carding out the video!!!
- Pushing
the **!! tin elephant and caption scanner from channel to channel
and area to area
- "Who's
pinched my Studer?"
- "You'd
better cut away from me Presentation - the machine's on fire!"
- Transmitting
The Queen with main vision and reserve sound (out of sync)
- The
fountain overflowing and flooding the machines
- The
dead rat in the airconditioning for weeks and weeks
- The
one time you had a trouble free session on the EECO system
- Alan
Hart's wife's lunchboxes
- "VT
on the phone!"
- "A
disturbance of some magnitude........."
- John
Mee playing Scott Joplin on the piano in the LG scene dock
- Sawtooth
and tone
- Ted
Ball dropping a metal waste bin from the 4th floor to the basement
down the South Hall stair well (after a visit to the Club)
- Patrick
Moore in "The Sky at Night" introducing some moon photos,
"And the pictures by Sam Andrew, of course."
- Coming
in very early on Sunday morning to run "Make your self at home" ,
a Birmingham VT production , always an anxious transmission
with the zing of splicing tape past the guide. Particularly worrisome
when the recording report was signed "Satis R"
or occasionally "Suggest use of AMTEC "
- Drying
my wet trousers over the VR1000 Power amps after a wet motor bike
ride in
- Trying
to find the Capstan servo error needle on VT5 when mains locked.
- Tuning
the 5X drum servo ringing circuit when mains locked
- Trying
to find the edit pulse with the TEK 547 and A delayed by B, VT5
again
- The
Capstan tracking switch on 04 InterSync VT4, what did it do?
- Spending
all day trying to achieve a synchronous insert into TOTP
- Pete Francis "What's the situation with credits for this programme?"
Big-budget drama producer- "How do you mean?"
Pete"Well, do you want a proper job or do you just want it slashed together?"
- Bob Smith covering for new sports PAs by blaming their video disc shortcomings on stepping errors.
- Richard Cox remembering the whole BBC Telephone directory by heart.
- Billy Smart's Christmas Circus reviews (what happened to Corky ??)
- Pentel pens and chinagraph pencil
- John Nash (on the then new VR2000) switching off the machine's power on Tx, thinking it was a light switch
- Tape servicing - still can't believe we spent all day reviewing black level and tone - or were supposed to anyhow
- In
the early 60s, before the inner ring in the basement became cluttered
with tapes and trolleys, holding penny bowling competitions seeing
who could complete the circle with the minimum number of throws
- EMT splicers. Ron Bowman and Barry Stevens had a race to make a playable splice on Smiths (Ron)
and EMT (Barry). Barry thinks his time was 29secs and Rons was slightly longer, but he admits his memory
may not be 100% right! But he does say, "Anyway the EMT was a marvellous machine, you could do match frame
edits (25 years before NLEs!)
and still see your pentel marks under the blade. For pictures click here
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- Setting
up the PEC symmetry on a VR1000
- Valve
testing
- TX'ing
at 6pm just as the mains frequency dropped
- "Hot
Line" tape delay between VTs 5&6 and 7&8
- Hexaplexers,
Multiplexers & Jeff Goddard
- Unplugging
in the Control Room - especially when on air!
- Duplex
changeovers
- Countdowns
on the cue track
- Razor
blades in RCA machines
- Benzene
and John Spencer's pipe
- The
grand piano in the Control Room on Christmas Day
- Measuring
the tips on a VR2000 head - the quick way
- MOTD & Roy Norton
- "I'm
worried about my titles!"
- Tape
polishing
- Cleaning
double-enders
- Reviewing
black level and tone
- Mis-lacing
the TR4 at Lime Grove
- Gordy
sending coded messages home via the microphonic valve in the centre
of the processor on the VR1000
- Panel
beating on a TR90 after Gordy had rolled it in the corridor
- Making
sure that you got the only truly accurate Smith's splicer for your
edit
- The
increasingly creative inter-shift April Fool jokes
- Shift
outings, at home and abroad
- The
15 minute passes of Telstar
- Nationwide
off-air hospitality at LG (and Panorama)
- A
certain HTel Rec's rage on seeing Mickey Mouse hands on the Control
Room clock
- Retractable
erase stacks on the VR1000
- Partial
erase
- Shibaden
- John
Ellis and the DFA
- "Phone
call for Ed Wooden!"
- Ian
Low's razor blade jig for slicing 2" tape for home audio recorders
- John
Spencer recording a trail at Lime Grove on a quad tape that after
30 seconds disintegrated into 8 x .25" strips
- Wee
Ron Sangster going from LG to Radio Rentals' window in Shepherds Bush
to monitor an upcoming trail on air driven by John Spencer because
he knew the dropout was going to be spectacular (possibly connected
with above!)
- "First
call for tea!"
- Party
Political Broadcasts
- Dickie Walker's maintenance-by-boot
- Coffee
down a VR1000 spooling knob!
- Transmitting
a 405 programme from VT 5 with 625 modules still in place
- CAR
on the phone "Holme Moss are complaining about your output!"
(possibly connected with above!)
- Brian
Cowgill on talkback every Saturday
- Ian Low with a TR90 in the bays recording Brian Cowgill on talkback
- The
videprinter
- Porno on the EBU circuits at Xmas (and selecting the most reliable rx machine/synchroniser combination to record it)
- The club on TOTP nights
- Nationwide VT inserts in the wrong order, usually during Bob Wellings interviews eg Susan Hampshire (how could we forget!) and the West Norwood Red Indian Society)
- Perks - Everyone else had share options and health insurance but we got free copies of the Radio Times
- Car park tickets
- Trying to find the Ferrograph to record Pick of the Pops off the Light Programme on Sunday afternoons.
- Painting Football Focus stories on 2" tape late on Friday nights (especially memorable for sports PA's who had to be back in at 0800 Saturday morning), and those who forget to paint everything (Niall!).
- Recording
the time signal in VTs 5 + 6 for Trails so the sound man in Pres A
could sync in order to relay sound.
- An allegedly knickerless Patsy Richards making it to the loo and back between overs during England v West Indies test match, 1976
- Clearing drum clogs with thumb nails
- Some splendid vt chap hanging Jonathan Martin on a coat hook - Charlie Michie (2)
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