BBC Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus - VERA

VERA (Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus) was an early videotape format developed by the BBC beginning in 1952.

In order to record high frequencies, a tape must move rapidly with respect to the recording or playback head. The frequencies used by video signals are so high that the tape/head speed is on the order of several meters per second (tens of feet per second), as opposed to 15 or 30 inches (38 or 75 centimeters) per second used by professional analog audio tape recording. The BBC solved the problem by using 20.5" (52cm) reels of tape that were propelled past the static heads at a speed of 200 inches (5.08 metres, or almost 17 feet) per second (11.4 mi/h or 18.3 km/h).

VERA was capable of recording about 15 minutes of 405-line black-and-white video per reel, and the picture tended to wobble because the synchronizing pulses that keep the picture stable were not recorded accurately enough. Ironically, the only VERA recordings that survive are film telerecordings of the original demonstration.

In order to cope with 625-line PAL or SECAM colour transmissions VERA would likely have required an even faster, and possibly unfeasible, tape speed.

Development began in 1952, but VERA was not perfected until 1958, by which time it had already been rendered obsolete by the Ampex quadruplex video recording system. This used 2" (5 cm)-wide tapes running at a speed of 15 inches (38 cm) per second. The rapid tape-to-head speed was achieved by spinning the heads rapidly on a drum the system used, with variations, on all video tape systems ever since, as well as DAT.

The BBC scrapped VERA and quickly adopted the Ampex system. It has been suggested that the BBC only continued to develop VERA as a bargaining tool, so it would be offered some of the first Ampex machines produced in unstated exchange for abandoning further work on a potential rival.

This film footage is from the Archive Collection held and administered by the Alexandra Palace Television Society.

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Preserving the televisual past for the digital future

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[KarloR27]

Is this in a museum somewhere? I'd love to see this early video recorder!

[aptsarchive]

@KarloR27 Sadly VERA was dismantled and all that remains are a couple of the recording heads, a few of the tape reels and some lengths of the recording tape.

[xandy1959]

and the voice over at the dance show was peter west

[aptsarchive]

Indeed it was! Peter presented Come Dancing, along with a number of other presenters, which ran from 1949 to 1986. Other presenters included; McDonald Hobley, Charles Nove, Terry Wogan, Brian Johnston, Angela Rippon, Michael Aspel, Noel Edmonds, David Jacobs, Judith Chalmers, Pete Murray, and Rosemarie Ford.

[spacehelmetforacow]

@BobWXXI It's been suggested that the BBC really only invented VERA to prod Ampex into giving them Quad machines in return for not using VERA. I doubt they'd really use VERA much had it actually gotten out of prototype stage, since it was...touchy compared to Quad (and that's saying something, considering Quadruplex machines were notoriously high-maintenance.)

[BobWXXI]

Interesting that it took them six years to bring this system on-air. At that time in 1958, RCA and Ampex had installed and brought on line 2" quad systems for use in recording network and local station programming on the 525-line NTSC system--just about every network affiliate in the top 100 markets had several of them in operation. It was also that year, 1958, that RCA installed the first color tape machines at NBC's owned and operated stations across the country.

[PaulWalkerPhoto]

I like the black spoons on the scientists jacket lapels

[KarloR27]

@aptsarchive Thanks oh well that's not fair it didn't seem to have bin a popular design to the media at the time as I have heard of the story of it. I did knew that these early video recorders were the size of pianos especialy VERA.

[aptsarchive]

@sygo7g Not everything that appears in television programmes is accurate!!

[aptsarchive]

Yes the recording heads from a VERA machine are, I believe, at the national media museum, in Bradford, UK. Sadly a VERA machine would have to be built to replay the original tapes - and that certainly isn't going to happen! So what ever is on the tapes we won't get to see it!!