Shibaden Players given to UK Secondary Schools

[LanceM]

I found an interresting item listed on the net stating this:

Croydon bought one late in 1970, shortly before Audio-visual Education Centre (AVEC) announced that it was supplying one Shibaden video recorder free to every secondary school.

Even though the Shibaden players were used in the late 1970's, is there any chance that some of these institutions still posess some of the reel to reel video footage ?

This is interresting to say the least. Let me know what you guys think about this.

Lance.

[Richard Moore]

Speaking as someone who works in such an institution i'm afraid that i would find it very unlikely.

Schools are not very good at keeping things - if it's obsolete or they just need the room them it's skipped! Any tapes would have been thought of as rubbish by now.

If any had survived 35 Years it would be a miracle!

Richard

[LanceM]

Is there any way to contact the AVEC to see what schools specifically they gave Shibaden players to ? It might be a long shot, but at least it is a shot.

Lance.

[Clive Shaw]

richardm said:

Schools are not very good at keeping things - if it's obsolete or they just need the room them it's skipped! Any tapes would have been thought of as rubbish by now.

I would say exactly the opposite. Getting rid of old equipment costs time and money. In my old School there was a reluctance to throw things out as no one really knew who the equipment belonged to. Disposing of items via the local education authority involved filling in reams of paper and cost which the school could not be bothered with when they had gigantic cellars where old equipment could just 'disappear'.

I rescued a load of RM 380Z computers from my old school which had been hidden in the cellars for 20 years. They were a little reluctant to give them away has they all had brass plates on the front of them saying that they had been 'Donated by the Halifax Building Society' in 1980, they didn't know if it was theirs to give away.

So I really do expect that many schools may still have old tapes and machines buried in their cellars, the school is probablly quite unlikely to know that they are still there (or even know what they are for)

As a side, the University of Glamorgan had a Shibaden Recorder and tapes hidden in a corner at the bottom of a stairwell which was not touched from all the time I was there from 90-94. If I had known what it was then, I would have grabbed it.

[Richard Moore]

I suppose it depends on how old the school buildings are - Most secondary's i fear won't have cellars for things to hide in, (unless it's a victorian building and i don't think there are many of them left are there?) More modern schools are drastically short of storage space!

I can see hardware surviving in some cases but i doubt any tapes have - I have come across many a reel to reel tape machine in schools (all knackered!) but not a single reel of tape!

I'm not saying don't look (Never leave a stone unturned when looking for these things!)- but you might have to arrange to go and dig about personally because schools would probably have no idea if they have anything or not, or what to look for!

By the way have you contacted the University of Glamorgan to see if they still have them?

Richard

[Clive Shaw]

richardm said:

By the way have you contacted the University of Glamorgan to see if they still have them?

Nope, but I really should. Last time I drove back the building had been refurbished, otherwise I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't still there today.

[Deleted]

richardm said:

Schools are not very good at keeping things - if it's obsolete or they just need the room them it's skipped! Any tapes would have been thought of as rubbish by now.

Indeed. My school had a cupboard full of Betamax tapes. Sadly, they were all skipped in 1999.

[Simon Winters]

Unless a member of staff specifically kept tapes or machines, it is virtually impossible that they would have been kept. IT/media equipment in schools lasts for a very short time these days, with all the new technology.

Also, any teacher who plays a tv programme older than a year or two would be greeted by non stop laughter by any class these days. I know, I've tried it.

[LanceM]

I would think that some schools would forget that the players existed as well. Or a teacher might have kept some of the reel to reel material for home viewing, a slim chance. Clive: I would try to contact the school in Glamorgan to see if you could arrange a visit to search for the player / tapes. Now that would be an interresting venture. Some schools might have recorded such historical items from TV such as the Apollo 11 landing, or some bits of TV that were historical ( heres hoping for some historical who episodes ). Keep us updated.

Lance.

[williamM]

A letter campaign of all the Schools, colleges and Universities in your area may result in something, some authorities are better than others at house keeping, Universities are probably your best bet.
Just ask if you can have permission to look round and explain why in as much detail as possible.

[Barry Hodge]

Both my media colleges - back in the mid 90s anyway - had a wide variety of obsolete formats, both tapes and their players : I remember that we watched much of our course via betamax or u-matic tapings of original transmissions. My only off-hand memories though are of the Das Boot miniseries, Shock of the New and early C4.
It's a shame that, back then, I didn't have the wherewithall to delve into the treasures...

[Bobby Clark (synthpopalooza)]

Is it possible that colleges and universities in other countries where Doctor Who was shown (specifically Australia and New Zealand) might also have some U-matic or Shibaden tapes in their stores as well? If so, I might try looking into this myself, I have a few kiwi contacts that can have a look.

[John S Miller]

richardm said:

I suppose it depends on how old the school buildings are - Most secondary's i fear won't have cellars for things to hide in, (unless it's a victorian building and i don't think there are many of them left are there?) More modern schools are drastically short of storage space!

I can see hardware surviving in some cases but i doubt any tapes have - I have come across many a reel to reel tape machine in schools (all knackered!) but not a single reel of tape!

I'm not saying don't look (Never leave a stone unturned when looking for these things!)- but you might have to arrange to go and dig about personally because schools would probably have no idea if they have anything or not, or what to look for!

By the way have you contacted the University of Glamorgan to see if they still have them?

Richard

I actually researched my primary school archive a year ago. The school showed me everyting that could be found. It was a Victorian building as you mention Richard.

The school stored a large proportion of its archive in the cellar, but there was serious flood damage during storms probably in the 1987 - early 90s period. Most of the items were irretrievable, material dating from the 1930s to 1957 being quoted as the main period lost. Upstairs was a smaller cupboard, which held the records of entry from the years 1930 up to the 70s. A selection of class and staff and event photos survived, a small number of photos from the 30s donated later.

I recalled my class was taped obviously in a shibaden format; identifying the date as April 1968 from record books. This confirmed my memory the BBC filmed it, but records stated; 'tape to archive'. Presumably the school archive. There were also a number of school journies filmed in the mid 1960s. A long term member of staff recalled to me that 'a room full of stuff was cleared out when it was refurbished with computers'. This was likely to be late 80s again. She seemed to remember some tape and film reels being cleared onto a skip. This isn't to say there might be a shelf elsewhere univestigated. Apparently somebody was allowed to take the projector, and this may haver included the films.

I recall a local church school selling a shibaden obviously ex GLC with a number of labelled tapes at a jumble sale, sometime between1986 and 1990. It was too bulky to carry, when I studied the indexes there were no apparent schools items or T.V. listed; presumably these had been rewiped over the years.

Goldsmiths college had some cans from Thames T.V., but not the shows inside (a 1968 'Today' insert; Spirogyra).

I was told Goldsmiths had either passed on a lot of students film work to other students to test editing skills on or junked them.

Another local school I went to a jumble at in the 1980s had their own archive of Betamax tapes including off air editions of 'Watch' indexed, probably dating from memory back to 1980 - 82 (but would include repeats from earlier dates being run. These were on shelves in the school building, but there was a fire at the school a couple of years later, necessitating rebuilding the whole school! I assume it depleted their tape archive ?

This gives an idea on the main topic anyway, the instances I've known of held obsolete video machines and tapes.

[Neil Lambess]

Ive been saying for years that schools are a good place to check....

my old school HAD 16mm ex NZBC film prints of THE AVENGERS and a
VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, that are still in the private possession of a Teacher there

and they had an old reel to reel video recoder from 1971......(cant remember what it was called though, having said that the tapes were continuiosly reused..as i was a student who did a lot of AV work for the school I my self took it home one weekend to tape the star wars holiday special (if only I had known !)

Keep looking guys.....

[Mark Brown]

neillambess said:

I my self took it home one weekend to tape the star wars holiday special (if only I had known !)

.....

yeah, you could have taped the other side.