Well, I guess they have to call it something. It's just neat to hear the name they had chosen for it when they first brought it to market.

This is some sort of sales / demo video for the product.

KTTV - Television Tape - Early TV effects demo - YouTube

Andrew

Some more correct info:

"The show’s title relates to those two competing manufacturers – Ampex, which first brought video recording technology to market, had registered the term “video tape”, and RCA was left without a way to describe its own tape products; thus, “television tape” became the RCA moniker for pictures etched on iron oxide."

Read all about it at https://web.archive.org/web/20150523142735/http://www.televisiontape.tv/Story.html

Andrew

They should have called it "TV Film".

Whatever they called it, the term "tape" seems like it will never die. Hard to watch a news program where somebody doesn't say they've "got it on tape". ;-)

On a similar note, I've given up on my refusal to use the word "filming" when shooting video. I held out as long as I could, but I've had to capitulate and start using it in some circumstances. They've broken me.

That’s correct Andrew. In 1962 at NBN Channel 3 in Newcastle just north of Sydney, we had the first RCA Television Tape recorder outside all the metropolitan TV stations in Australia. It was part of a complete RCA television station package bought by owners of NBN. Everything, from the mics to the transmitter.

And as the U.S. was now mainly in colour, RCA had to find older TV techs to come out and install our black and white gear. From Sydney I was the first audio guy there and trained the locals some of whom 62yrs later I still talk with.

Here’s our RCA recorder, to get a program to air, it had a 10-1 countdown leader, during which you faded the station program to black, press the switch to lock the RCA to the station sync, then fade up the RCA program. We always held our breath but it never failed.

Exciting times in Newcastle I was 19, the parties with the Ncle hospital nurses were great, I nearly got engaged. Cheers.

Whatever they called it, the term "tape" seems like it will never die. Hard to watch a news program where somebody doesn't say they've "got it on tape". ;-)

We jokingly used to call it rusty "Magnetic Sellotape".

Chris Young

When i was teaching in college (16-18) i made a throw away comment about video tape being sellotape covered in rust, and one student said could we see if that really works. We spent an hour with iron oxide powder and a reel of sellotape. We carefully put it into an old vhs cassette. Press record and did ten seconds. Rewound and had a recognisable picture for about 5 seconds, until the heads wore away, but it worked!

Wow! Someone actually tried the idea. Well done. 👋👌😆

Chris Young

Well it worked for a few seconds and wrote off the machine (which was old, in fairness) - as an educational experience, all the people will remember it. In honesty, I was sceptical it would work. The difficulty was making a sort of production line - pulling off a couple of feet, dusting it with the oxide powder, smoothing it out, then with an artist brush removing the surplus, then spooling onto the hub, repeat and repeat. Oddly. once all the adhesive was covered, sellotape behaves just like thick ordinary tape!

Surely you became the stuff of legend after that one!

Andrew

😁👍

Chris Young

At NBN Channel 3 in Newcastle, here’s the graphic we telecast all day on Sunday the 4th March 1962. At 6pm our 30min opening program was on our RCA Television Tape recorder and it worked great. The following Monday at 12noon we went live for the first time, but RCA never sent any Cannon connectors on our studio mic cables. So using matches with the heads shaved off, we jammed the 3 mic cable leads into the studio wall connectors. We eventually got some from RCA after finding out in the US, they didn’t know what our earth lead was, so they were leaving it to us to wire them up .. but no one told me. Live television, it’s just the biggest adrenalin rush, there’s nothing like it eh guys.

Exactly fifty years later the current management held an anniversary party and invited everyone who ever worked at the station. There must have been 2500 in the big hall, they came from all over the world combining it with a holiday and everyone got a souvenir Champagne glass …

Surely you became the stuff of legend after that one!

Andrew
Ha! I did far more legend-ish things. Like safety. Putting a volunteer is a harness, hanging them from the roof steelwork, taking the ladder away and then getting the group to rescue them, WITH the county fire and rescue officer in the room. Mentioning, once dangling, that 15 minutes is the time before serious injury can set in galvanises the rest into action. Probably a good thing i stopped teaching really, but many of those 18 year olds have had great careers through, i hope, being prepared.

I even got mentioned in the UK education watchdog government report for having an excellent approach to learning during a session involving lowering an occupied coffin into the ground. Thats another story.

Do. Tell.

Andrew

Well it involved cutting a hole in a stage floor, hinging it and dropping the coffin into the hole - with a student inside. The idea came from one of the students, as in "could we ......?" I thought about it, decided this idea was better than mine and scrapped the entire perfectly planned lesson plan (which of course was perfect for the inspection) So we did the work totally on spec - with jig saws, bolts, hinges, ropes and 'safety' features to ensure the closed floor could be walked on - and just before the end of the session, we lowered the coffin, with occupant - safely. The inspector cleared off, with his report, and only then did I reveal the fatal flaw in the process that I had spotted, but the others, including the inspector had not.

The coffin was lowered into the hole with straps, which were pulled out. We had a 4 foot deep hole into a totally sealed off area, with a student in a coffin, and no practical way to get her out. The lid could not hinge open enough to squeeze through because of the obstructions. In the end, we managed to dangle 4 ropes with hooks to 'lassoo' the handles on the side. It took fifteen minutes to rescue her - and I got a bollocking from the principal for taking the chance - despite getting top marks. I won't mention the night I and 4 students got locked on the roof of a 220 ft grain silo and had to spend the night there. I really should not have been trusted to be a teacher!

Speaking of things you can do when teaching.

I had some ratbag kids who would keep on making noise during the lesson, or something like that. It was quite a while ago now. So in the period immediately prior to lunch I rewarded them (might have been four or five kids) with a five minute detention.

All they had to do was to collectively remain totally silent for five minutes.

You guessed it. Every time one of them would make a noise to test the system, the timer would reset to zero. Let's just say that as the end of lunch time was approaching they were ready to kill each other. They got there, and only just in the nick of time. Not sure if the students even got to eat.

Andrew

PS. The best thing was that if there were any complaints from the parents, we'd simply say "hey, it was only a 5 minute detention". :-)