Ampex ACR 25

This is a 23 yo machine I documented in 1998.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• Ampex
• Acr
• 25
• inch
• Videotape

[dcwarner]

We would assemble break reels for the local/high commercial times of the day to use the acr for spot production. A 1 frame editor was much better than trying to hit a re-edit with a manual reel to reel. We set a que point for these sort of edits on the acr.

[dcwarner]

Not Quincy. This was state of the art in 1975, we had 3 ampex 2000bs before getting the acr 25. At that time, national commercials were moving from film to videotape, so this reduced the need to edit single spots to make a spot reel, a 4 video break was tough to load with 3 machines, and you didn’t perform a full setup of that 4th spot with only 3 machines to work with.

[dcwarner]

Not Quincy. This was state of the art in 1975, we had 3 ampex 2000bs before getting the acr 25. At that time, national commercials were moving from film to videotape, so this reduced the need to edit single spots to make a spot reel, a 4 video break was tough to load with 3 machines, and you didn’t perform a full setup of that 3rd spot with only 3 machines to work with.

[dcwarner]

The blowers and air compressers were in another room making the machines quiet. The white slips on the transport door were for reloads into the other on air machine, as I was making a break tape. I got lots of overtime being called in to fix these things. Claws, PS and MDA amp transisters were most common. The interconnect book was 'fun' to read!

[Philm35]

The ACR-25 at our station was called "FRED". Stood for F*CKING RIDICULOUS ELECTRONIC DEVICE".

[JULIAN8845]

AMPEX HAD A TURKEY IN THE AUDIO WORLD CALLED MODEL 400

THIS LOOKS LIKE THE VIDEO VERSION>I THINK IT WOULD BE EASY TO REPAIR A

QUAD MACHINE THAN THIS UNIT>THEY MUST HAVE HAD GOOD SALES MEN TO SHIFT THAT.?

[dnhgry]

OMG...I spent hours loading one of these beasts in the mid-70's. You had to remember to keep up with it...pull out spots that ran and replacing them with new cartridges . We had one guy who pushed the white tabs away that let you know both transports were loaded...he put a new cartridge in each side of a loaded transport. You should have heard the racket when the loaded ones tried to eject. I thought the damn thing was going to explode. The machine was down for days for repairs...LOL.

[DirectorKC]

This wasn't in Quincy Illinois was it?  I operated one in Quincy in 1998 when I worked at KHQA-TV. When we stopped using it they said it was the last operationg one and it got sent to a museum.

[johnnypeabrain]

i operated the 3rd ACR-25 sold at the NAB in 1973-4 at WFTV-9 Orlando and then went on to WHAS-11 Louisville and showed them where to kick it hard when it screwed up - have had many nightmares since about forgetting to get it loaded & programmed before the next break.

[rubinoangelo]

I loved this one!

We went live on air with those!

I remember well this "clic-clic" noise in the middle of a commercial break, translated .. " hei operator..you forgotten to load the rest of the break" ;-(

[thehebrewnational]

Good god what a blast from the past. That machine was a beast. From the compressor blowing fluid in the tape compartment to lovely carousel overload. Who could ever forget that sickning "THUMP" when it would go into test mode for no reason. Love it!!!!