RCA TR-70C 2 inch quadruplex video tape recorder (Pt.1)

[jaworskij]

It's HUGE!

[IowaEye]

We were still mastering our ads on a pair of RCA Quads at KTVO in Kirksville, Mo. (Market #199) in 1991. Our chief engineer had a saying: "If it works, and somebody is still using it, it's not obsolete!"

[RCAquadruplex]

@IowaEye

Wow....that's amazing! Keepin' the flame alive, big time, I'd say.

Do you know what happened to those machines after they quit using them?

[Boeing744andRCAquad]

I'd love to see videos of an Ampex AVR-1 up here. They say it's quite an incredible VTR.

[wrtlpfmpf]

You need to get a "Fernseh" Quad. Or a "Mavicord" one from the GDR.

[heroineworshipper]

Modern cell phones may do HD in a lot less space, but they don't have warning lights.

[kc4100]

Sure takes me back too! I worked at CKWS TV in Kingston Ontario Canada and we had 2 TR-60's. Then I moved to Global TV in Toronto and they had about 10 of these TR-70 machines. They were durable as hell as we used to load them on our 18 wheel mobile when it went out on shoots. Thanks for the memories.

[PlaneAndTVtechfan]

Why do some VTR's have trouble dealing with even a minute, like a few seconds' drop in power?

[PlaneAndTVtechfan]

I mean a small drop in power?

[cwguk]

Wow! Takes me back to 1980 when The Moving Picture Company in London had three TR-70B machines in a timecode controlled edit suite. It all seemed so high tech. There cannot be many people left who remember working these beasts.

Now wasn't the RCA 600 a complete contrast of uselessness!

[777jones]

You are a hero. Only watched 90 seconds of this and you're automatically a hero.

[PlaneAndTVtechfan]

I wonder what was done with the TR-70C that was used on the set of "The George Michael Sports Machine". It would be sad if that Quad was trashed.

[shipship]

I love seeing this video. I worked at NBC NY starting in '74 and we had about 20 TR 70's and 6 Ampex 2000's. There were 4 70C's that were part of the first CMX editing system installed at the network along with HS 200 slo-mo disk with a full console. However all the 70's were used for recording and playback, and the 2000's were set aside for machine to machine editing using editec. No question we were happy to see those things go. One inch seemed like a miracle back then.

[analyzingfunny]

Thanks for showing us this. I have a Scully 280.This type was used to record "whole lotta love" and "more than a feeling" I will post a working video of it. Thanks again.

[FelixTheHouseFreak]

I wouldnt know what to do with all those knobs!

[albertusj]

Thank you. Awesome!

[stratocat9999]

WOW! What a monster! I've used 1" machines (still do occasionally), and I have always heard about quads, and I have even seen a few non-operational husks, but I have never seen one in operation, or even powered up. I new they were pretty self contained, but the built in test gear, monitor, and all of the selectable variables...wow! These had to be a chore to learn and use. Thanks for this video!

[crustyhead]

Nice but wait until you see my TR 70B Documentary 111

[RCAquadruplex]

Great.....I'm looking forward to it!

[MIKEPREAMP]

More proof of the demand for vintage gear.

I find more demand for my Ampex 350-2

tube audio recorder than I find for latter- day counterparts, such as the Otari mx-5050B, though it is a good machine.

[Interests2009]

Very nice machine.

Thanks for sharing.

5 stars.

[Keithwelwyn]

Many thanks for showing me round the TR-70 . I used to use them at the BBC until 1985. . Some memories: During a transmission the TR-70 Stop button got stuck in and I had to hold in the play button for the short TX. . TR-70s would occasionally rip apart tapes, especially the Chroma 90s. . Oh yes, during editing, the erase stack would randomly switch on wiping the playback master recording. . Otherwise they were ok . Thanks for the video

[RCAquadruplex]

Ouch....those are some scary memories.

I must say that I've never had any of those things happen to me. If they had, I'd probably have still be having nightmares.... in RCA blue!

I remember that Chroma 90 tape was often problematic even when it was new....it's even more so now some 30+ years later. As for the tape breaking, I'm assuming you had the machines under editor control when that happened?

I never had a 70 under editor control, but I can see them being a little rough on tape that way!

[MrTypetheword]

@Keithwelwyn Hello Keith. I was involved in the testing and acceptance of the BBC machines. The manufacturing plant was in Jersey Channel Islands. We supplied many European television stations with these vtrs. I also worked on the TR60s and 100s. The units came into Jersey built but untested. It took about 6 weeks to go through the complete testing. I was respnosible for the final testing were we took the machines through all the test to ensure they performed to the published specs.

[belston1604]

I used TR70's on hundreds of productions at TVO in Toronto during the 1970's. Great old edit machines. The line-by-line color correction was the best in the business. I think I have partial hearing in my left ear partly because of sitting beside the headwheels of these monsters for so many years. Lots of good TV, though. We had 4 of the RCA monsters with EECO programmers running them.

I appreciate the video post. Nicely documented. Thanks for the memory.

[oviwolf]

Very nice video! You explained things really nice!

[clydesight]

This looks like one SERIOUS machine! I didn't understand most of your video because I don't know VTRs, but it looks like a MEGA tape recorder. I'm glad my VCR doesn't have so many controls, it's about all I can do to set the clock! Fascinating video and you spoke very well on it, thank you very much!

[BadEditPro]

Ok... So I was going to share this video with a friend and I accidentally typed the note I was going to leave for him in the comments field. Feel free to delete it. Great video! :)  JC

[BadEditPro]

Tim,

This is a tape recorder! I have actually played with machines like this. Just a little... I was scared to touch it so I mostly watched the operator. :) JC

[RCAquadruplex]

Yes, I'm surprised as well, although I haven't really looked for them. I suspect there are even more vintage camera collectors than vtr collectors!

As an aside, I have two Marconi MkVII cameras in my collection. I started my production company with these two in 1973.

[747400fan]

I wonder why no vintage TV camera owners have posted videos here. It would be cool to see some RCA, GE, and Marconi broadcast TV cameras here, especially RCA's TK-41, TK-44A, and TK-76. Norelco manufactured TV cameras too, like their PC-70. The BBC videos up here show some nice Marconi cameras, CBS also used Marconis at one time for the Ed Sullivan Show.

[RCAquadruplex]

Actually, since I'm working on these machines out in my "triage" (shop) area , I get my high pressure air from a existing 5 hp shop compressor.

Each machine was originally delivered with a separate small oilless Gast compressor for the high pressure supply. I have several of these, and use them on the machines in my transfer facility.

I've seen Ampex machines retrofitted with a venturi vacuum system to eliminate the internal pump in the machine, but I don't remember seeing it done with an RCA.

[RCAquadruplex]

The vacuum pump was standard on these, as the back side of the motor for it is the main cooling blower for the machine...so it had to be running.

You may be thinking about the high pressure compressor for the headwheel air bearing.  Most facilities with multiple machines had one large air compressor remotely located that fed all the machines high pressure air.

[philkarn]

Ah, so these machines required both high pressure air and vacuum? Where does your machine get its headwheel bearing air? I remember it needed vacuum for the guide that held the tape against the headwheel, but i'd forgotten about the headwheel bearing. I seem to recall the tape guide vacuum being generated from a venturi off a common compressor in the tunnel underneath the tape room. It started and stopped quite regularly.

[philkarn]

Was the internal vacuum pump an option? The TR-70Bs I used at WMPB-TV in the mid 1970s had a big air pump and a venturi in the basement that produced vacuum for seven of these machines. Maybe you'd use an external pump when you had a lot of machines in one place, and internal pumps for single machines?

[VintageTelevision]

How wonderful it is that you are preserving quad VTRs!

[Prestodigital]

I cut my teeth on one of these between 1976 and 1980, almost countless hours of day run assemblies, thousands of line-cut commercials and programs. The way we edited in those days was by either counting down to an assemble edit from studio, or remoting a TR-60 to the director at the switcher. 3..2..1.. push the record button 21 frames before the edit point! NO time code... we didn't have the fancy Editec counter.

What a trip down memory lane...

jPo

Edmonton

[RCAquadruplex]

Been there too! I did a lot of edits on a quad that way.....back when doing an edit was a "exciting" event.  I didn't have time code or editor control on anything until I got my first Type C 1" machines in '81.

I still have my original TR-70A that I bought in 1974 and started my production company with.

Now, it has company....LOL.

[DennisDegan]

Excellent report! I started in TV at a station in 1974 that had 1 TR-70b, a TR-60, and a modified TR-4. I've worked on these machines as well as maintained TCR-100s, and a lot of Ampex VTRs too. It's great to see these 4 machines went to someone who cares about quad enough to get them running again. I look forward to seeing more!

DDD

[TelecineNet]

Continuing:

Do you know when this machine dates to, and was put in service? How much use it had when retired?

Looking forward to Part 2!

T.

[RCAquadruplex]

Thanks....glad you enjoyed it!

Judging from the dates on some of the components and the S/N, I'd say this machine was built in late '72 to early '73. I'm not near the machine right now, and I don't recall the hour meter reading on this particular one. I'll check it in the morning. I don't remember it being particularly low or high though.

The next machine I'm working on in the group, is the primo one...built in mid '74 and showing low hours and very minimal cosmetic wear and tear.

[TelecineNet]

Guy, this is a wonderful tour.

Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

Glad to see the quartet of machines is in a home where they're obviously loved and will be well cared for.

Seeing them in Athens last fall—in that dark corner looking forlorn and unloved—made it hard to walk through the rest of the archive. I kept wanting to go back and poke around them... find out more. Try to find them a home, which was hampered by the U's surplus rules.

(more)

[Audiovideopark]

Great video, Guy. I learned a lot about the RCA Quads. Now I'll have to do one on the 1200.

[mfd70]

Very interesting, I'll look forward to seeing the machine working.

[RCAquadruplex]

Correct....azimuth on those heads is not field adjustable, but I never found them to be noticeably off on test tapes. The manufacturers did a very good job of mechanical alignment..even on the replacement head stacks. I replaced a few back in the day, and never had an issue.

Of course, being mono, with a tape speed of 15ips makes it somewhat less critical as well.

Quad audio was usually fair to decent, but not really a match performance-wise to a good pro audio recorder of that era.

[SpeakerVoiceCoil]

Understood. Thanks for the reply, now I'm off to watch your second video!

[SpeakerVoiceCoil]

Interesting. Amazing to think that quadruplex was basically obselete by the 80s, but a fair few Quad machines are still operational.

Out of curiosity, can you adjust the azimuth of the stationary audio and erase heads? It looks to me like you can't, but I may be wrong.