Long-distance time base correction!
by Dave Buckley
Up to 1984, Television Training Department (TVT) was based at Woodstock
Grove (WG), a building at the end of a cul-de-sac of the same name, just off
the pointed end of Shepherds Bush Green and alongside Kensington House.
TVT had a small television studio which went colour in 1975. At the same
time, the department's video tape format was standardised on low-band Sony
U-matic format (SUM), a robust ¾ inch tape cassette system.
WG video tape area consisted of two SUM machines which could be remotely
controlled from the technical position in the production gallery. During
training programmes, one machine would record the studio output while the
other would play-in inserts via a time base corrector to ensure synchronous
working into the vision mixer.
There was a problem though - when TVT ran regional courses (e.g. at
Plymouth), two spare SUM machines would go with the technical staff plus the
time base corrector from the VT area.
This meant that, if the WG studio was required for training programmes
during the time the regional course was taking place, then VT inserts would
have to be taken non-sync on the vision mixer.
However, sometime in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s an item appeared in a
Weekly Information Sheet to the effect that three transcoders had been
installed in the Standards Convertor Area. These normally converted between
PAL and SECAM or vice-versa, but there was a comment that, if set to PAL to
PAL, the unit would act as a Field Store Synchroniser (FSS). It was this
that made me sit up and ring Lines Bookings!
This produced the information that, of the three units, one was
permanently booked to News (now there’s a surprise); the second to
International Control Room, while the third was bookable.
As the WG studio had two reversible vision circuits (plus associated
music and control lines) to TC, what if the raw output from the replay SUM
was sent up one vision circuit, into the FSS and the output sent back on the
other video circuit, and the studio genlocked, synchronous VT replay would
be possible, albeit with the signal travelling at least two miles, if not
more!
And this is exactly what happened on quite a number of occasions when TVT
undertook regional courses and the VT time base corrector had been taken
away. And the fact that the WG studio was genlocked, made it effectively a
TC studio running on 6A pulses!
There was one stipulation from Lines Bookings - if an urgent call came in
for the FSS during our booking, then TVT would get about 10 minutes warning
before the facility was taken away. In fact, in all the times TVT booked the
FSS, this happened once!
For more information on the Woodstock Grove Training Studio and
associated areas, see
BBC
Engineering No. 110 (July 1978), pages 5 to 10.
Dave Buckley, Television Training Department, 1969 - 1993 (and then
freelance until 2003)
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