Sin Of Sins! The Whole Story!
Sin Of Sins! The Whole Story!
For NBC to own any camera other than an RCA…well… that was just unthinkable! How could the child of it’s own parent company do such a thing? Simply put, it was out of necessity.
Early in their history, RCA had become quite successful with their victrolas, radios, tvs and networks and had become a large, cumbersome corporation. Although pioneers, Ampex ‘scooped’ them in the 50s with video tape and in the mid 60s, Norelco was ready to scoop them again in cameras.
RCA had stopped making TK41s in 1964 in preparation of the TK42, but snag after snag gummed up the works. NBC sports executives wanted new cameras for their expanding coverage needs, but the TK42 was not looking good… figuratively and literally. Unknown to most at RCA, some engineers like their Lou Bazin were already working on a TK44 and had found Plumbicon tubes and optics were available to them at Amperex, the Phillips tube maker in the US. But, that was still to long to wait.
The order came down from above to find new cameras and the job fell to Fred Hemelfarb. Fred had come to NBC from RCA with the first TK40s and was NBC’s camera guru and the go-between that made dozens of improvements on the RCA color lines of telecine, cameras and videotape.
Norelco sent 2 cameras for Fred to test and inspect. His was the job of customizing the Norelco cameras to NBC specs. With this done, Norelco was given the order for 35 cameras. The first 6 arrived just in time for the 1967 World Series and were put to the test. Norelco and NBC executives watched the first game in a private trailer on two RCA home receivers. After the game, Fred came up from the truck and everyone was quite happy…especially with the left field shots. That’s when Fred told them there were actually 7 cameras on the game. The left field camera was an RCA TK41. Further modifications were made. Now you know.
Speaking of Philips, they’re in the news today as they exit the consumer electronics industry. http://fellca.st/Wz1iOa
The official RCA Labs history blames video discs, and about 10 years of betting on the wrong technology when investing in R&D. The last big TV technology R&D project done at Sarnoff was NTSC high definition television, BTW.
1967 World Series – Boston Red Sox vs St. Louis Cardinals. The birth of “Red Sox Nation.”
Yeah? Well how’s that affect my “out time”?
That’s Robert Johnson, seated, with Rob Middleton behind the camera, at Rice Stadium in Houston. Both Robert and Rob were members of KPRC-TV’s production crew which NBC had contracted for this game. Around 1967.
So, I guess the quality of the TK41 was superior of the Norelco`s?
RCA got too big and couldn’t compete. Hence that’s why RCA imploded, but it started well before the 80s, as we all know. Having NBC buy Norelcos was the beginning of the end.
Who’d ever think that the N in NBC would stand for Norelco?
Yes, now I know! I never understanded NBC`s Norelco cameras – a real mistery for me.