Color differences-NBC NY vs NBC Burbank

[Steve Hoffman]

When I was in school in 1970 I wrote a big story for our newspaper about TV news broadcasting. Big deal but the crux of it was I got to hang out at the news Dept's of KTLA, KTTV, KNXT, KNBC and even KCOP, meeting the anchors, writers and basically hang around the cameras. At NBC I remember well that they still had all the old ROUNDIE monitors everywhere and the old cameras. I couldn't believe it, actually, having seen the Norelco PC-60 cameras at CBS. The NBC cameras looked totally giant. In the NBC, Burbank master control they had a "TO" and "FROM" set of CTC-16s. To the transmitter and from the transmitter. Even there you could clearly see the signal variations and loss from the in-house to the broadcast signal. We got to watch the Tonight Show feed coming in from NYC being taped on the ancient QUAD machine and the quality left a lot to be desired.. It was everything they could do to get those breakup "bars" off the screen. And of course the sound was 5k at best, totally low fi.

Looking back in my mind I find it amazing in the 1970's that they were still using those old 41's for everything, even the local news. They must have had crews aligning those things 24/7.

[Aussie Bloke]

Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman

When I was in school in 1970 I wrote a big story for our newspaper about TV news broadcasting. Big deal but the crux of it was I got to hang out at the news Dept's of KTLA, KTTV, KNXT, KNBC and even KCOP, meeting the anchors, writers and basically hang around the cameras. At NBC I remember well that they still had all the old ROUNDIE monitors everywhere and the old cameras. I couldn't believe it, actually, having seen the Noralco '66 cameras at CBS. The NBC cameras looked totally giant. In the NBC, Burbank master control they had a "TO" and "FROM" set of CTC-16s. To the transmitter and from the transmitter. Even there you could clearly see the signal variations and loss from the in-house to the broadcast signal. We got to watch the Tonight Show feed coming in from NYC being taped on the ancient QUAD machine and the quality left a lot to be desired.. It was everything they could do to get those breakup "bars" off the screen. And of course the sound was 5k at best, totally low fi.

Looking back in my mind I find it amazing in the 1970's that they were still using those old 41's for everything, even the local news. They must have had crews aligning those things 24/7.

Thanks for sharing us your experience with the TV networks. As being fascinated with the first colour TV cameras the TK-41s I'm always digging out information on them over the net and yes those old silver beasts were still used well into the 1970s. I know ABC Wide World Of Sports still used those cameras into the early 70s, examples can be seen in these YouTube clips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4_CIXV4R14 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3TaFUPQim4 , in the 2nd clip the IO halos are evident from the cars reflecting the sunlight at 1:09 . I also recall Steve Dichter telling me in an email that in some stations those cameras were used up to as late as 1977! So I guess whilst the TK-44s were a little more superior to the TK-41s (i.e no halos and sharper picture), the old 41s were still so damn good that a number of stations were happy to hang onto them for a while longer and still use them, just a guess, or maybe they couldn't afford to upgrade. Going off track a little I've seen a photos on this page http://www.eyesofageneration.com/RCA_Cameras_TK60.php of David Calif’s Vanguard Productions at WGBH using B&W TK-60 cameras in 1980 which is crazy lol but at the same time good as they were keeping technological history alive. Anyhow, that's my take on the prolonged use of the TK-41s.