The Oldest Surviving Color Videotape…May 22, 1958
The Oldest Surviving Color Videotape…May 22, 1958
This is the dedication of NBC’s new studios for WRC Radio and TV, it’s owned and operated station in Washington DC. President Eisenhower is on hand for the occasion as are David and Robert Sarnoff and many distinguished guests.
NBC’s David Brinkley narrates much of the opening minutes which gives us a good look at Studio A, while Eisenhower gets a tour of the engineering facilities. As you’ll see, mostly from 4:28 – 6:00 and again from 9:30 – 10:30, there are black and white cameras in the studio alongside two new RCA TK41s. Their four black and white cameras are in use mostly to cover the arrival and dignitaries, but when the speakers start, their job is done and the TK41s take over.
At 14:50, Robert Sarnoff pushes a big button to make the switch from b/w to color, which is when the color burst is added to the signal. This rare Quad tape restoration to D-2 digital tape was done by Ed Reitan, Don Kent, Dan Einstein in July of 2006.
For the behind the scenes story on the restoration and some interesting photos, go to this link…
http://www.quadvideotapegroup.com/EiesnhowerQuadRestoration.htm
Enjoy and share!
:President Eisenhower should have pressed the button.
By the way, those color cameras may be their old TK40s. WRC could broadcast local color by around ’53 or ’54.
I never get tired of watching this.
I am glad somebody uploaded that special in DVD quality to VEOH, I first came across it in 2009 and on download saw it was in good quality DVD MPEG which was fantastic! A year earlier I actually emailed NBC or NBC news asking if I could purchase a DVD copy of that special and the response was obviously no due to copyright restrictions. I take my hat off to the user on VEOH who uploaded this great historical video!!! 😀