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Originally Posted by ohnoyoda
OMG Ed! That was just incredible!
Thank you for a magnificent effort to bring this to all of us.
Can you give us some idea of how involved it was to get the old Ampex machine up and running and to make the mods to color? How long did this project take? Where was the equipment located? Etc.
Please tell us the rest of the story.
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Hi Bob,
The entire restoration of the Astaire Specials took some three calendar years.
It is surreal to see color video from the 1950's that looks so live (unlike film kinescope recordings). The Emmy award we received was for "Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development; 1988-1989 Emmy Awards".
We used a late 1970's era Ampex AVR-1 for playback of these precious tapes. The AVR-1 is the last and the greatest performing two-inch vtr. It was then operational at KTLA, Hollywood and is still fully operational today in CBS Jurassic Park at CBS Television City.
I designed modifications to allow the AVR-1 to play the RCA Labs Color Format. I was able to get original schematics of the RCA Labs design from one of its original engineers, modeled it using computer circuit analysis software, and then designed and implemented the modifications for the KTLA AVR-1.
The Library of Congress contacted us as they had heard of our underway Astaire Restoration. We did play their two-inch of the Eisenhower Dedication. The LOC Eisenhower tape had been greatly damaged because of their many attempts to play it (the recordings are gibberish when the Low-Band Standard is used).
So I searched down and found the second two-inch copy at the Eisenhower Library. Dan Einstein arranged its transfer to UCLA. The tape was virgin and apparently never been played.
Transfers were made by Don Kent to the digital D-2 format (the Sony digital vtr machines were so new, they came directly from the floor of the NAB Convention). Post editing was done at AME, Hollywood (the first digital edit!). The resulting digital masters are deposited at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
The final edited D2 recordings are many steps above what you saw - we wanted to preserve it just as we saw it coming off the two-inch machine. The color resolution of Eisenhower's ruddish face is amazing. But the color from the Burbank TK-41's for "An Evening with Fred Astaire" is even better.
The three Astaire specials were restored and preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. They have never been available on DVD and face many seemingly unsurmountable rights issues.
Thanks for your interest and appreciated comments.
Ed Reitan