The GE PE250 Early Color Television Camera

[John Hafer]

Here are some pictures of GE and Harris live and film cameras. Note that the Live cameras went from the PE-250 to the PE-350 and then the Harris PE-450. (Missing in my pictures is the GE-400)

For the film cameras, there was first the GE PE-24, then the PE-240, and then the Harris PE-245. The PE-24 & PE-240 are 4 tube vidicon cameras.

Also note from the 1965 picture, the 3 tube IO GE PE-25 live color camera that was sold against the RCA TK-41.

I have a box of pictures from RCA, Norelco, GE, and Ampex broadcast equipment photos from the 50s' and 60's. These are just a couple of them. Hope these help in this thead discussion.

John

[KentTeffeteller]

John,

Thanks for explaining the history between GE and Gates/Harris. Just hope the Gates Color TV Cameras weren't "Value Engineered". For the uninitiated, Value Engineering was the watchword at Gates Radio Co. in 1958 when Harris purchased them in radio. We went from reliable, solid 1000 watt AM rigs which lasted many years and were easy on tubes (the old BC1F and BC1J) to the BC1T which would run for 10 days at full power on a set of tubes and then didn't make power the rest of the way. This was when many 250 watt AM stations were increasing power to 1 KW. This explains the nickname Quincy Tin Works!

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

Here are some pictures of GE and Harris live and film cameras. Note that the Live cameras went from the PE-250 to the PE-350 and then the Harris PE-450. (Missing in my pictures is the GE-400)

For the film cameras, there was first the GE PE-24, then the PE-240, and then the Harris PE-245. The PE-24 & PE-240 are 4 tube vidicon cameras.

Also note from the 1965 picture, the 3 tube IO GE PE-25 live color camera that was sold against the RCA TK-41.

I have a box of pictures from RCA, Norelco, GE, and Ampex broadcast equipment photos from the 50s' and 60's. These are just a couple of them. Hope these help in this thead discussion.

John

Oh, do they help. I seemed to notice that when the PE-240 and PE-250 came out, it seemed a case of adding "0's" to the end of the numerals, because the predecessor to the PE-250 was the PE-25 3 I/O color camera, and the PE-240's predecessor was, of course, the PE-24.

I read in various places (such as Ed Reitan's early color TV site) that GE had a three-vidicon color film camera prior to the PE-24. Would anyone know what model number this 3-V camera was?

[W.B.]

I'm also curious as to whether one can identify the GE film chain cameras in these pictures, from Dennis Degan, taken in 1978 (the cameras as shown on the right in each one):





All I know is that former CBS technicians who frequent the CBS Retirees website (where these pics are featured) have said the Broadcast Center in New York (where the photos were taken) used "4V" cameras, suggesting they'd possibly be PE-24's. But the top looks a little earlier in make than the model as shown in the 1965 ad.

[John Hafer]

Maybe this will help: (Click on picture to enlarge)

GE PE-240001.jpg

[W.B.]

Hmmm. Seems like the PE-24/PE-240 had two different top designs, from what it looks like. But thanks in any case. (If CBS acquired them in 1966, then they'd be PE-240; if 1965, then they'd be PE-24.)

B.T.W., the PE-245 film chain camera was first introduced by GE in 1971, in that company's last year of owning their broadcast equipment division. Thus, in 1972, Harris inherited both that and the PE-400 studio camera among those product lines.

[John Hafer]

Yeah, I agree in that GE must have had two different top designs for their PE-240 color film camera. I have ads for both their 1st. generation (PE-24) and 2nd. generation (PE-240) and both show the same square edged top. Yet my other ad that I attached in my message above shows the rounded top, similiar to the ones show in the CBS image above, so I really don't know.

One thing though, CBS started regular color broadcasting in the fall of 1965 so they must have already had some of their new color film chains in place by then.

I also checked an old TV-GUIDE dated March 1964 and in the issue, there is an article on color television by David Lachenbruch. He writes that, "...it [CBS] is installing $1,500,000 worth of color equipment in its New York production center, now under construction."

Thus, I am assuming that they installed their new color equipment in the spring of 1964, which would place everything a little earlier than 1965 or 1966. And, I am assuming they are talking about color film and tape equipment and not about colorizing their live studios, which I think came later when they purchased their first Norelco PC-60 (or maybe PC-70) cameras that became available in circa 1965.

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

One thing though, CBS started regular color broadcasting in the fall of 1965 so they must have already had some of their new color film chains in place by then.

I also checked an old TV-GUIDE dated March 1964 and in the issue, there is an article on color television by David Lachenbruch. He writes that, "...it [CBS] is installing $1,500,000 worth of color equipment in its New York production center, now under construction."

Thus, I am assuming that they installed their new color equipment in the spring of 1964, which would place everything a little earlier than 1965 or 1966. And, I am assuming they are talking about color film and tape equipment and not about colorizing their live studios, which I think came later when they purchased their first Norelco PC-60 (or maybe PC-70) cameras that became available in circa 1965.

It's quite possible that some PE-24 class GE film chain cameras had the same round tops as on that PE-240 in the ad you attached, if they started acquiring color equipment in New York in March 1964. (And they'd obviously be referring to the Broadcast Center on 57th Street in that article.) Especially since I've seen references in old Broadcast Engineering issues to PE-24-A's as well as PE-24's. It was also around that time that Ampex first rolled out their high-band VR-2000 quad VTR. And CBS's mentality in terms of buying broadcast equipment, as my understanding, was "anybody but RCA." The PC-60's first came round in 1965, and the PC-70 was introduced in early 1966. So the colorization must've been a long process for CBS.

But also, when initially equipping the Broadcast Center, CBS had transferred RCA TK-26 film chains that had originally been at "Studio 72" on 81st Street and Broadway, to the new studio.