1 inch type B videotape - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

1 inch type B VTR (designated Type B by SMPTE

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE , founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in...

) is a reel-to-reel analog recording

Analog recording

Analog recording is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which among many possibilities include audio frequency, analog audio and analog video information for later playback.Analog recording methods store signals as a continual wave in or on the media...

video tape format developed by the Bosch Fernseh

Fernseh

The Fernseh AG television company was registered in Berlin on July 3, 1929 by John Logie Baird, Robert Bosch and other partners with an initial capital of 100,000 Reichsmark....

division of Bosch

Robert Bosch GmbH

Robert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...

in Germany in 1976. The magnetic tape

Magnetic tape

Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...

format became the broadcasting standard in continental Europe, but adoption was limited in the United States and United Kingdom, where the Type C videotape VTR was met with greater success.

The tape speed allowed 96 minutes on a large reel (later 120 minutes), and used 2 record/playback (R/P) heads on the drum rotating at 9000 RPM with a 190 degree wrap around a very small head drum, recording 52 video lines per head segment. Video is recorded on an FM signal with a bandwidth of 5.5 MHz. Three longitudinal audio tracks are recorded on the tape as well: two audio and one Linear timecode

Linear timecode

Linear Timecode is an encoding of SMPTE timecode data in an audio signal, as defined in SMPTE 12M specification. The audio signal is commonly recorded on a VTR track or other storage media. The bits are encoded using the biphase mark code, also known as "FM": a zero bit has a single transition...

(LTC) track.

The format required an optional, and costly, digital framestore in addition to the normal analog timebase corrector to do any "trick-play" operations such as slow motion/variable-speed playback, frame step play, and visible shuttle functions. This was because, unlike 1 inch type C

1 inch type C videotape

1 inch Type C is a professional reel-to-reel analog recording helical scan videotape format co-developed and introduced by Ampex and Sony in 1976...

which recorded one field per helical scan

Helical scan

Helical scan is a method of recording high bandwidth signals onto magnetic tape. It is used in reel-to-reel video tape recorders, video cassette recorders, digital audio tape recorders, and some computer tape drives....

track on the tape, Type B segmented each field to 5 or 6 tracks per field according to whether it was a 525 (NTSC

NTSC

NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...

) or 625 (PAL

PAL

PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...

) line machine.

The picture quality was excellent, and standard R/P machines, digital frame store machines, reel-to-reel portables, random access cart machines (for playback of short-form video material such as television commercials), and portable cart versions were marketed.

Arvin/Echo Science, a U.S. company, made a units like a BCN 1 for the U.S. military (1970s), for a short time. Echo models were: Pilot 1, Echo 460, Pilot 260.http://www.labguysworld.com/PrecisionEcho-521.htm

BCN-20-VTR-CLOSEUP.jpg

Models introduced

BCN40 (1976, record unit with no TBC
Timebase correction
Time base correction is a technique to reduce or eliminate errors caused by mechanical instability present in analog recordings on mechanical media. Without time base correction, a signal from a videotape recorder or videocassette recorder cannot be mixed with other, more time stable devices...

playback)
BCN50 (1976, recorder with TBC playback)
BCN20 (1976, portable with no TBC playback)
BCWQ ("L" Unit for BCN20/21, added TBC playback to the portable units)
Effects control option for digital framestore, for freeze frame, quad spilt and mirror effects (early digital Special effect
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....

s).
BNC51 (recorder with TBC playback, optional Slow motion
Slow motion
Slow motion is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger....

and visible shuttle)
BCN5 (26½ pound, portable cart recorder)
BCN100 (random access cart machine, up to 16 hours rec/playback)
BCN52 (recorder with Digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...

TBC playback, with slow motion & visible shuttle)
BCN21 (lightweight reel to reel portable with no TBC playback, first Composite material
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...

VTR)
BCN53 (recorder with Digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...

TBC playback, with slow motion & visible shuttle)

RCA

RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

also sold the BCN50 as an HR-400.

Special BCN units

Ruxton Video in Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....

(1970–1980s) used modified BCNs for 24 Frame
Film frame
In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a film frame or video frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture...

playback to TVs used on movie studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...

sets. Thus the TVs had no flicker
Flicker (screen)
Flicker is a visible fading between cycles displayed on video displays, especially the refresh interval on cathode ray tube based computer screens. Flicker occurs on CRTs when they are driven at a low refresh rate, allowing the brightness to drop for time intervals sufficiently long to be noticed...

when seen on film, due to the film-compatible frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...

.

Image Transform in Universal City
Universal City, California
Universal City is a community in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, that encompasses the 415 acre property of Universal Studios...

used specially modified BCNs to record 24-frame video also, but for their "Image Vision" system. The BCN would record and play back 24-frame video at 10 MHz bandwidth, with twice the standard 525-line NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...

resolution. To record this the headwheel and capstan ran at twice normal speed. Modified 24 frame/s 10 MHz Bosch Fernseh KCK-40 professional video camera
Professional video camera
A professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...

s were used on the set. This was a custom pre-HDTV video system. This recording could be recorded as film out on a modified 3M Electron Beam Recorder (EBR) for film. Image Transform had modified other gear for this process. At its peak, this system was used to make "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a 1982 concert film in which the Monty Python team perform many of their greatest sketches at the Hollywood Bowl. The show also included filmed inserts which were mostly taken from two Monty Python specials, Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus, which had been...

" in 1982. This was the first major use of early electronic cinema technology (using wideband high-resolution analog video technology, predating IT
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

-based DI (digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...

) post production for film nowadays) using a film recorder for Film out.

Bell and Howell (later Rank Video Services) used special BCNs for mass VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

duplication. These specially-modified BCN VTRs could play back movies at two times the normal speed. In addition, the sync signals were also output at two times speed as well. For proper playback, the headwheel and capstan also ran at twice normal speed. Specially modified VHS recorders
Videocassette recorder
The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...

could record this video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

. In doing this, the duplication plant
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

could output twice the product than normal videocassette duplicating systems.

Bell and Howell's Data Tape division in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

modified BCNs to record high speed data for instrumentation
Instrumentation
Instrumentation is defined as the art and science of measurement and control of process variables within a production, or manufacturing area....

purposes. These instrumentation recordings were mostly used by US government agencies, such as for NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

on the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

. This unit could record data from up to 800 sensors.

Because of the small scanner, BCNs could record even at high g-forces
G-force
The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...

. They could also record at low temperatures, down to -40 °C (-40 °F). This was done at the Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid (1980)
1980 Winter Olympics
The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, was a multi-sport event which was celebrated from 13 February through 24 February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932...

and in Sarajevo (1984)
1984 Winter Olympics
The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated from 8–19 February 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Other candidate cities were Sapporo, Japan; and Gothenburg, Sweden...

.

Some users modified BCNs to fit 2-hour reels of tape on the BCN, so complete 2-hour movies could fit on one reel of tape. Bosch later made this a factory option, and was designated as BCN LP.

Bosch also offered SLP BCN, a "long-play" variant of the format. It moved the tape at half speed so that up to 4 hours could be recorded on reel. This was mostly used for time zone
Time zone
A time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...

tape delay by television networks.

One of the first Digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...

SDTV VTRs was a non-production prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...

BCN deck that could record and play back early type of CCIR 601
CCIR 601
ITU-R Recommendation BT.601, more commonly known by the abbreviations Rec. 601 or BT.601 is a standard published in 1982 by International Telecommunication Union - Radiocommunications sector for encoding interlaced analog video signals in digital video form...

digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...

signals. These two units paved the way for the later SMPTE D1 VTR
D1 (Sony)
D-1 is an SMPTE digital recording video standard, introduced in 1986 through efforts by SMPTE engineering committees. It started as a Sony and Bosch - BTS product and was the first major professional digital video format.- Format :...

standard.

The BCH 1000 is an analog HDTV
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

VTR that records and playbacks HD-MAC
HD-MAC
HD-MAC was a proposed broadcast television systems standard by the European Commission in 1986 . It was an early attempt by the EEC to provide High-definition television in Europe. It was a complex mix of analogue signal , multiplexed with digital sound...

at 50 frames per second, each at a resolution of 2048×1152. The BCH 1000 was used in the 1992 Summer Olympics
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...

Games in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

and 1992 Winter Olympics
1992 Winter Olympics
The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 8 to 23 February 1992 in Albertville, France. They were the last Winter Olympics to be held the same year as the Summer Olympics, and the first where the Winter Paralympics...

in Albertville
Albertville
Albertville is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.The town is best known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics.-Geography:...

.

Some BCN users

ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

in in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

,Germany
TV2 in Framersheim, Germany
ORF-Austrian Broadcasting Corporation
ORF (broadcaster)
Österreichischer Rundfunk, ORF, is the Austrian national public service broadcaster.Funded from a combination of a television licence fees and revenue from limited on-air advertising, ORF is the dominant player in the Austrian broadcast media...

- Vienna, Austria
Ruxton - Burbank, Ca
Image Transform - Universal City, Ca
Bell and Howell, (Rank Video Services) - Oak Brook, Illinois
Oak Brook, Illinois
Oak Brook is a village in DuPage and Cook Counties, in Illinois. The population was 8,702 at the 2000 census. A suburb of Chicago, it is the headquarters of McDonald's and Lions Clubs International.-History:...
Editel - Hollywood, Ca
Premore (see Solo Cup Company
Solo Cup Company
Solo Cup Company is a manufacturer of consumer packaging products: disposable beverage cups, disposable plates and bowls. Solo Cup Company is located in Lake Forest, Illinois, and in 2006 had sales of $2.4 billion.-History:...

) - Culver City, Ca
Complete Post - Hollywood, Ca
DC Video - current user - Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/amia-l/2000/02/msg00227.html
Astin Mooore, LA Ca see John Astin
John Astin
John Allen Astin is an American actor who has appeared in numerous films and television shows, and is best known for the role of Gomez Addams on The Addams Family, and other similarly eccentric comedic characters.-Early years:...
Modern Video Film - Hollywood, Ca
KTBN-TV - Costa Mesa, Ca
WHFT-TV
WHFT-TV
WHFT-TV is a Christian television station serving the greater Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. Broadcasting on digital channel 46, the station is owned and operated by the Trinity Broadcasting Network...

- Pembroke Park, FL
Pembroke Park, Florida
Pembroke Park is a town in Broward County, Florida, United States. The town took its name from its location along Pembroke Road. As of the 2010 census, the population was 6,102. It is part of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010 census. Close to half...
Starfax - Burbank, Ca
Hallmark Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....

- Crown Center
Crown Center
Crown Center is a commercial complex and neighborhood located near Downtown Kansas City, Missouri located between Gillham Road and Grand Boulevard to the east and west, and between Pershing Boulevard and Union Hill to the north and south. The shopping center is anchored by Halls, a department store...

Kansas City, MO
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
4MC - Burbank, CA
National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

- Bethesda, MD
VDI - Hollywood, Ca
AME - Hollywood, Ca
ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

-TV at MCF http://www.loc.gov/film/tvabcchilson.pdf
Video Tape Company - Burbank, Ca
The Video Tape Company - North Hollywood, Ca
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

- Newberry Park, Ca
Merlin - Palo Alto, Ca
Video Business - New York, NY
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University , based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States, is an interdenominational, Charismatic Christian, comprehensive university with an enrollment of about 3,790 students from 49 U.S. states along with a significant number of international students from 70 countries...

- Tulsa, OK
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
Cinema Video Processors - Chicago, IL
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
KCPT
KCPT
KCPT virtual channel 19 is a Public television station in Kansas City, Missouri serving the greater Kansas City metropolitan area as a Public Broadcasting Service member station....

- Kansas City MO
KTBW-TV
KTBW-TV
KTBW-TV is a religious television station in Seattle, Washington, broadcasting locally on digital channel 14 as an affiliate of TBN. KTBW originally signed on the air with the call letters, KQFB on March 30, 1984. As KQFB, the station was originally locally owned by Family Broadcasting based in...

Tacoma, WA
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
Measurement Analysis - Torrance Ca
Laser Pacific - Hollywood, Ca
Audio Plus Video - LA, Ca and Northvale, NY
KPAZ-TV
KPAZ-TV
KPAZ-TV is a Trinity Broadcasting Network-owned and operated television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 20 from South Mountain in Phoenix...

- Phoenix, AZ
WTVY - Dothan, Alabama
KTBO-TV
KTBO-TV
KTBO-TV is a religious television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on digital channel 15 as an affiliate of TBN. Founded March 6, 1981, the station is owned by Trinity Broadcasting Network...

- Oklahoma, OK
Dash Motorcars - Santa Cruz, Ca
Cossey Studios - Santa Cruz, Ca
Video Pack - NY, NY
Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....

- Burbank, Ca and Tulsa OK
Spin Physics - San Diego, ca
Aquarius Theater - Hollywood, Ca
The Videography Studios - West Los Angeles, CA
Vidtronics - Hollywod, ca
Glendale Studios (Outpost Video) - Glendale, Ca
WJYL-CA
WJYL-CA
WJYL-CA is a Class A station that serves the Louisville, Kentucky market with Christian programming from the Trinity Broadcasting Network. It formerly broadcast on channel 5 as WVHF-CA. The station is licensed to Clarksville, Indiana and is owned by Dominion Media, an arm of Celebration Harvest...

- Louisville, KY
Bell and Howell Data Tape - Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

Eesti Televisioon

Eesti Televisioon is the national public television station of Estonia. It made its first broadcast on 19 July 1955.The bulk of ETV's funding comes from government grant-in-aid, around 15% of which is in turn funded by the fees paid by Estonian commercial broadcasters in return for their...

External links and Ref

BCN Pictures
BCN Patent
24frame BCN
1980 Moscow Summer Olympics
The history of television, 1942 to 2000 By Albert Abramson http://books.google.com/books?id=JMTnTBmt7F0C&pg=PA304&lpg=PA304
live-production.tv, Brief Review of HDTV in Europe

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Models introduced

Special BCN units

Some BCN users

See also

External links and Ref