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Post by Rob K on Jul 18, 2014 16:01:46 GMT
Hi all
I was interested to read on here recently about D2 videotape being used in the 90s and the technical problems that developed - I didn't even know it had ever been used to transmit programmes! I thought BBC and ITV went from 1" to D3 in the early part of the decade. Please could anyone who has a moment post some more info? E.g. when exactly was it used, what programmes are still shown made on that medium, when was it superseded, new dubs made etc.? While I'm most interested in programmes themselves, this is fascinating stuff!
Many thanks
Rob
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Jul 18, 2014 19:02:39 GMT
Back in 1993/4 I was tasked with transferring and doing some remedial technical correction work on a new childrens drama that Central TV had purchased from I think Network 10 in New Zealand. The series was called 'Deepwater Haven'. The NZ broadcaster had completed the show on D3, but Central were broadcasting from D2 which is a PAL composite digital format. Because it had a parallel digital interface I was able in the main to make digital clones of the episodes for the Central TV broadcasts, although some editions had to be transferred PAL via an Ampex mixer to remove a luminance issue at the bottom of the frame caused by a firmware issue on the D3 machines used to make the original recordings. Central made the booking at Pebble Mill because they had no D3 capability.
Paul
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Post by peterleslie on Jul 19, 2014 13:21:09 GMT
Hi all I thought BBC and ITV went from 1" to D3 in the early part of the decade The BBC and Thames went to D3 from 1". The post 1992 francise ITV companies generally went for D2 .. Granada, LWT, Yorkshire, Central and Anglia amongst them |
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Post by David King on Jul 19, 2014 15:30:48 GMT
This might be a bit off-topic but gives and example of the timeline of formats used.
ITV, as a whole, didn't adopt D2. Each company had it's own policy on formats and in some cases allegiance to manufacturers. For example, in the south of England, Southern bought Ampex 2" Quad machines but then went to Sony for 1 inch. This situation was inherited by TVS. They stayed with Sony through BVH1100, BVH2000 and BVH3100. The only exception was that they bought three more (They inherited two from Southern) ACRs from Ampex at the start of their franchise to service their dual region. Moving on, TVS used Sony Hi-Band U-matic for ENG news gathering, then went to Sony BetaCam and eventually Sony BetaCamSP. By the time stereo broadcasting came in companies, such as TVS, were forced to review and renew their formats for spot (promotions and commercials etc.) events. Ampex ACRs and the like wouldn't cope with stereo and so companies like TVS were forced to buy such things as the Sony LMS (Library Management System). This could hold quite a few transports, with some units holding 1000 cassettes and came in a BetaCamSP or D2 version. Having these formats in the machine meant it could be used for programme transmission as well as spot events in a semi-autommated mode but not all companies put programmes into them. At TVS, the two BetaCamSP LMSs were only used for spot events By the end of its franchise TVS used 1inch and stand-alone BetaCamSP for programme transmission with LMS for spot events. Meridian inherited this arrangements but moved more towards BetaCamSP for programme delivery until Sony Digital BetaCam took over in the mid 1990s. Spot events moved to an ingested file based system in Tektronix Profiles. So, getting back to D2, it may have been the Sony LMS that sparked their take over from 1 inch in some ITV companies for programmes and from ACR/TCR for spot events.
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Post by markboulton on Jul 19, 2014 16:02:34 GMT
Indeed, short answer was Central and LNN (Carlton/LWT) used D2 LMSs for all TX.
Granada used BetaSP LMS, for all spot, regional and locally timeshifted programmes, with I believe programmes for network coming off either 1" or D3.
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Post by keithmchugh on Jul 20, 2014 12:18:11 GMT
Tyne Tees went from 1 inch to D3.
Anglia were one of the few companies that went for Panasonic's MII format rather than Sony's BetacamSP. I think Thames also opted for MII.
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Post by Tim Disney on Jul 20, 2014 14:02:24 GMT
Thank goodness for the arrival of Sony Digital Betacam in the late 90s to stop the insanity!  |
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Post by Peter Bradford on Aug 8, 2014 16:49:09 GMT
Indeed, short answer was Central and LNN (Carlton/LWT) used D2 LMSs for all TX. Granada used BetaSP LMS, for all spot, regional and locally timeshifted programmes, with I believe programmes for network coming off either 1" or D3. I can't speak for Central, but I was very close to the LNN operation at the time. Whilst the two Sony LMS systems they had were fitted with D2 decks it was not the usual method of transmission apart from spot programming. Indeed apart from the decks within the LMS machines, there were very few D2's around the London TV centre. LWT only bought a few machines to facilitate the initial transfer of their Quad archive as it was considered to be the best choice at the time. D2 was never ever used as a studio acquisition format. At LWT quad gave way to 1" which gave way to BetaSP and thence Digibeta. HDcam etc is used infrequently now as most of the studio acquired material is directly ingested into servers. There may have been a single D3 machine for playback compatibility purposes only and used on rare outings. Somewhere along the line everyone seems to have forgotten about Sony's Betacart! LWT's archive, on D2, has ended up at Yorkshire where there are very few working machines to replay material, and no ability to fix faulty machines as there is no local expertise and an increasingly small mountain of industry spares. |
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Post by Mark Tinkler on Aug 9, 2014 15:27:05 GMT
My first producing credit at LWT was DENIS NORDEN'S TRAILER CINEMA in 1992, and I still have a D2 of material. It's standard converted material from the US and I seem to remember VT suggesting the material went to D2 as the quality would have been better than BETA SP which would have been the only alternative at the time - certainly my other dump tapes for that show, as well as the inserts and the show itself were on Beta SP...
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Post by Peter Bradford on Aug 10, 2014 20:49:17 GMT
My first producing credit at LWT was DENIS NORDEN'S TRAILER CINEMA in 1992, and I still have a D2 of material. It's standard converted material from the US and I seem to remember VT suggesting the material went to D2 as the quality would have been better than BETA SP which would have been the only alternative at the time - certainly my other dump tapes for that show, as well as the inserts and the show itself were on Beta SP... LWT was still working in the analogue domain well into the 90's. LNN had made significant steps towards working in 'digital' but were, to all intents and purposes, a digital island and their studio and TX outputs were all analogue. D2 will make a perfect digital 'clone' of an analogue colour signal, hence LWT's initial decision to transfer their programme archive to it. Beta SP was Sony's first successful attempt to make a professional cassette machine for the broadcast market, or at least one that was generally accepted as broadcast quality. I'd get that D2 tape transferred asap if I were you and you think you may need it in the future, otherwise you may become hostage to fortune! SP machines spend most of their time as ornamental door stops these days. |
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Post by Mark Tinkler on Aug 15, 2014 17:48:55 GMT
"SP machines spend most of their time as ornamental door stops these days."
Apart from the one plugged into my Mac you mean! Slowly transferring my SPs to file formats... Not been easy to find a D2 machine for some years...
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