RCA TCR-100 Videotape Cartridge System, Sales Reel
On July 12, 2016
- TV History
July 1970…The RCA TCR 100 Video Cart System Debuted
Some loved it, some hated it, but this was a real innovation, and came a full 2 years before the Ampex ACR 25. Thanks to Barry Mitchell for the reminder. -Bobby Ellerbee
Here’s one in broadcast operation. This beast was in use until 1990. Amazing thing. Funny that I dabbled in local TV during the late 80s and early 90s while in hight school but never once saw or heard of these incredible machines. I saw and used plenty of obsolete gear, including Ampex quad decks, film and slide chains, etc., but not this. Not sure how spots were getting on the air in the El Paso market by then…
http://youtu.be/_YhuUVzg8Dg
Still have one of those old red carts laying around the house for show & tell from KTXL-40. They were being phased out in the early 90’s.
Best comment from school- The RCA engineers went to dinner with their counterparts from Ampex one NAB back in the 70s. All agreed that if they could mate a smooth-as-silk RCA transport/servo system with the Ampex’s amazing time base correction they would be able to playback toilet paper!
We got an ACR-25 at KVVU in Las Vegas in 1978, the demo from that year’s NAB. Prior to that we ran a 1″ dub reel for commercial playback that was created by dubbing spots off of 2″ reels.
We had one of these at Channel 26 in Houston when I went to work there in 1976. We got a second one when Metromedia bought the station in 1979.
I was one of the few operators who could remove a jammed cartridge with no damage to the cart and all my fingers still attached to my hands.
I always remembering listening to the carts changed or knowing if a certain sound did not go the next spot probably was not going to air….also you could not run :10 sec spots back to back…
I worked several years at a station in the early 1980s with one of these. It broke down so much during live newscasts that the engineers started making commercial reels on 2″ and 1″ to run the spots.
The TCR-100 Cart. They were made in :10, :20, :30, 1Min. & 3Min. durations. It used a foil marker attached to the video tape for beginning of tape for threading up in the machine. There was also 2 audio tones used. First tone was for Electronic Program Identification System (EPIS) and a second tone was to mark 1st video of the spot for playback. The TCR had 22 bins in its magazine to load the carts in. The machine could not play back to back :10 Sec spots. There had to be at least 12-13 Sec. to allow for the machine to thread up the tape & cue. These carts were not interchangeable with the Ampex version cart machine ACR-25. But all 2″ Quad tapes would play on all 2″ Quad machines if the video tape was un-spooled !
It is a digital world but in the days when video and audio required electromechanical harmony with electronics it was a beautiful thing. . The sound…the smell…and the beauty of pictures and sound recorded in the past now entertaining or educating people was beautiful…but that is me. I have furnished my share of analog gear that uses tape and appreciate it.
At short-lived WSWB in Orlando, we had a TR-70 plus a TCR siamesed to a TR-60. Lesson learned: If you try to record a program on the ’60 when the TCR is activated, you will lose servo lock and your recording will be ruined. Later in life, at WPGH in Pittsburgh, we also had a TCR. Just one, but engineering kept it going quite well. ONE engineer, and only one, (name was Merv) dubbed spots to cart, for uniform programming of start and stop cues. Our station breaks were flawless and clean. Now I see some networks where one or two seconds of a commercial starts, then is covered by the intended spot. Similar sloppiness at end of event. Shanking my head, people just don’t try anymore.
KTLA rolled news clips from one of two ACRs. One of them could edit the clips although not frame accurate. Some operators could still make it work when it went into “test” or failure mode.
The one I worked with had EPIS so one day I entered Load me Kenny and the MC operator who would leave me one cart and leave looked at me and remarked “How did it know my name”.
We had 5 ACR 25 at CBS NY. 2 for network. air and stby. 2 for local air and stby and 1 for commercial transfers. Work horses! Maintenance could totally rebuild one on a day.
NBC New York. The library spacer wooden blocks never played too well!
NBC News EJ tried a similar player for News stories on M2 cassettes. It was called Odetics. I remember listening to the loud CLUNK when Odetics dropped a cassette while loading!
Had one at Ch 6 Paducah KY. Held my breath everytime I hit the play button in a newscast. Tape ops always created a reel tape of each break with spots back to back just in case it failed or jammed. Which was often.
Spent many hours loading, unloading, and babysitting the TCR-100. And also laying out the carts from the Tape Library. I wish I had a cart as a souvenir of the 2″ tape days.
Tape? What’s that 😛 Actually, I came into the industry at the miniDV / DVCAM / BetaSP and HDCAM stage, so a few years before true tapeless file based workflows really kicked off. Finally, this is something that makes me feel young instead of old!
I own one of the carts. Wish I knew what was on it.
The TCR-100 was horribly noisy and not too reliable. The ACR-25 was a lot more expensive but it was amazing in terms of pre-roll time and the random-access programmability. One of ours at WTVT was nearly perfect other day; the other was problematic. But they were workhorses.
Had the Ampex 25 at WNYT in Albany. If I remember correctly, the RCA had to be loaded sequentially, the Ampex was random access. As your other readers attested, both were mechanical monsters.
AAACCCKKK! Horrible memories! As missed spot reports approached eye level on my desk, I took the sales manager into the control room to watch as this monstrosity bungled break after break. You had to manuever the log to be sure the :15s were played FIRST, because the darn thing couldn’t cue them up and play them if they were elsewhere. And the physical jams! For years I kept one of those red 2″ cassettes on my desk with scratches and pits in it. I finally tossed it due to bad karma.
Depending on your point of view I never worked with the mechanical marvel the TCR 100 but I did operate and maintain its Ampex competitor the ACR 25. The CBS/W News Bureau used it to insert news stories. When everything worked properly, it was amazing to watch and also to listen to. I can still recall its unique sounds as the tape carousel whirled around to the selected cartridge and then used a combination of mechanics and pneumatics to extract the 2″ quad tape and thread it for playback. But, it was a bit hard on the tape itself and if there was the slightest weakness or deformity already in the tape, the result would often be a completely destroyed tape. More than once, I had to “explain” that the ACR had EATEN another tape. Being an IBEW Union Shop, we had a running joke that’s what happened when we missed our meal period. Good Memories!