A Gallery of 16mm Film Reels

[This article will be constantly updated with new reel pictures as I get them]

I always thought 16mm film was really fun as a kid.  Educational films on short
reels or big movies and other things on huge reels, it was always cool to play with 
the technology and some of the film reels had "personalities" of their own.  Perhaps
a bit of art in these old-school things.  As I do 16mm film transfers, I am taking pictures
of these various patterns from 16mm reels! 

Consumer 16mm film often came on 

these small 50 foot metal reels.

 But sometimes the came

on a relatively cheap cardboard reel!

We are talking about film shot in 

the 30's, 40's and 50's, etc.

 

Here is an 800 foot Elmo 

"Self Threading" take-up reel

The pattern implies those radiation warning signs. :-)

A fairly simple plastic 

"hub-and-spoke" reel - 400 feet.

1200 foot Yellow plastic reel.

These often came in different colors.

 

1600 foot "exclamation point"

(as I call it) reel.

800 foot "exclamation point" reel.

 

1600 foot "six-spoke" reel.

Six holes to grab for reel loading.

1600 foot "eight spoke reel".

Why the small holes on the edge of the spokes

on both the 6 and 8 spoke version?

 

I'm not sure what to call this.

It's a 1200 foot reel with these 4 circles

on the inside.  Maybe we'll

call this the "handcuff" reel.

  

Here are 2 400 foot plastic reels

another variation of hub-and-spoke, as

well as a variation of the larger "exclamation mark" reel.

Here are a couple of metal 400 foot reels.

More reels to come!  Hope you enjoyed the flashback...last update 4/2011

Grass Valley: Planet Killer, great routers too

  This article is NOT a big revelation about the fact that the lever pushed in "Star Wars" destroyed a planet.   Everybody knows that.  But since we were discussing the Grass Valley 1600 4S master control switcher in the previous article, I thought it would be useful to revisit the Grass Valley production switcher called the 1600 3G.

So KPBS, San Diego had one of these switchers and eventually it became quite clear when watching Star Wars that they had the exact same model.  So one night my friend Frank and I took my 8mm camera, lined it up just right, vaguely reproduced the lighting and which buttons on M/E2 (mix/effects 2) were lit in the Star Wars shot.

The Control of a Master, or Master Control

I spent a lot of time working on, over and around master control switchers.  Generally a television broadcast facility will have one of these, in which all the available signals to put on the air go through.
Whether automated or operated manually, they are the last line before the signal goes to transmission.  Here are a few I have played with.  I do mean play with as they can be fun...when operated correctly!
Your control panel operated the switcher, which was really a set of electronics in a nearby rack.

Me and the Utah Scientific MC-500 master control switcher panel at KPBS, San Diego

So let's start with Utah Scientific.  Many stations in the 80's had these models.  Above, I am manually operating the stereo version.  The picture depicted below is the one that adds "Secondary Audio Program" capability for a total of three audio channels.  This device had a couple of degress of automation capability.  A simple event stacker to automatically select your sources, or more sophisticated total automated control.  I operated one manually, mostly.  The big red buttons at the bottom got the given source; studio feed, satellite feed, videotape machine, etc.  It gave us capability to roll a machine and take it to air with one button push.  You never forget your first!

Of course there are SEVERAL manufacturers of these things, but the next several I got my hands on were all Grass Valley (Group) devices.  Let's start with UNCTV's GVG 1600 4s

On the face of it, it does not look as sophisticated, but the truth is that people RARELY hit the "Big Red" TAKE button.  This device was the switcher AND automation system.  Manual control was possible.  It controlled all machines and had a Graphical User Interface for programming.  We typed in times and events, and it just ran them; provided you had the times correct.  There was this crazily wildly smart fellow at UNCTV in the engineering department that helped develop some of this with Grass Valley Group to make this system happen.  Despite the seemingly old control panel.

Now at one point UNCTV had to retire their 1600 4S master control switcher, but they had a new one waiting in the wings.....

This is the Grass Valley Group Master-21 system.   Though slicker looking, it DID NOT have it's own degree of automation.  Sure you could switch sources and control machines manually, but in the end it was a "dumber" device than the 1600 4S.  You can see similar audio-only sources in yellow like the Utah Scientific had in the upper-left.  Lots of sources you could get from your house router; hence those windows above some of the buttons.

In this case, I did not just operate this; I helped configure it to work with a Louth (now Harris) automation system.  Nowadays any station has a big external computer system to operate every device needed to make automated switching happen.  This differs from the 1600 4S; as it WAS the automation system.  In today's world of multiple channels, external automation systems control perhaps several of these switchers (pick your make and model).  Everything here is analog television.  But of course digital is coming.....

Here are large AND small control panels for the Digital grass Valley group M-2100 switching system (NOT to be confused with the Master-21 above.  Brilliant).  Now we have digital switchers, even for HDTV and these control panels can control several (often up to 8) separate master control switchers.
The electronics in the racks are a lot smaller than the analog days.  This system had control of 5 SD and 1 HD switcher in this case.  Of course you can't manually operate all of them at once; that is what the automation is for.  But you can select which switcher you want the control panel to look at, and all the source names would show up in the little windows above the busses, or rows of buttons.

The days of watching the clock, waiting for a satellite feed to show up on time, or "pre-rolling" a machine (making it roll a few seconds before going to air so that the picture locked up correctly) are long over now.  Automation takes control, and you only manually intervene if something goes wrong or you just want to make a small change.

....but the automation has to be programmed correctly!  So we still have somebody watching that watcher.  But they are watching 5,6,7,8,9,10, who knows how many channels go by!

A "powerpoint" on LP record production

I think I generated this before 1977.  We'll let the tutorial speak for itself.

Most important blank boxes from GVG

If you have had any audio or most video dubbed with us, the signals went through these very drab-looking beige boxes.

But don't be fooled; these are our routing switchers, which feed signals to and from my various VCRs and other sources to be recorded or monitored.

The beauty of the revolution in Digital Television makes a lot of equipment "obsolete".  No obsolescence here.  This relatively old (by a couple of decades) system is solid equipment
by Grass Valley Group.  They were a big manufacturer of broadcast TV equipment.

There are frames for Stereo Audio and 2 Video frames.  One video frames routes digital audio over coaxial cable INCLUDING Dolby Digital signals in 5.1 surround - or 3/2/LFE, and 2/0 stereo and uncompressed PCM (more on how this happens later).   Everything analog video and audio runs through this system as well for what the GVG 20-Ten was designed for.

But what is NOT obsolete; an ability to control it with a computer app.  Above, right is a screen-shot of a program I wrote to control it (control happens over ethernet to RS-232 adapter, plugged into the GVG "Serial Interface") allowing external computer control.  I can control the router wirelessly with this application on a wireless-enabled PC.   The last program that did THAT was probably in DOS!

Surround Sound, BEFORE Dolby

In the 70's, well before all this Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound or even it's predecessor, Dolby Surround that came out in the late 80's and 90's, we had stereo.  And it was good.  Quadraphonic was an interesting experiment for the 70's, but required re-buying all the stereo components to be Quad compatible.

Some devised a solution; a very crude yet strangely effective solution and it looked like this:

 There is the single zip cord on the bottom of the diagram, tied to the positive speaker posts.
This is how we made surround, with a single speaker in the back of the room. 

Many amps/receivers had two pairs of speaker outputs (for what I am describing, they needed to be isolated from each other) and a switch often labeled "A", "B", and "A+B" to play two pairs of speakers at once.  Maybe one pair was in the living room and the other pair on the porch.

In this case, the "B" pair is the surround speaker.  You turn the speaker selector to "A+B" and you get....surround sound from ANY stereo source.  Any sound not common (in perfect mono and in phase) to the left and right channels plays out the surround  (sometimes FM noise and tape-head azimuth problems resulting in phase errors on the stereo program).  But for a quick-and-dirty means, this was great.  Often the vocal track would disappear here (unless mixed in mid-60's "Beatles-type stereo)
leaving the rest of the music on it's own.  Nothing was MIXED for surround.  It just worked in various ways on various soundtracks.  And it was COOL.  A view to the future, when Quadrophonic was reborn in a sense as......5.1 Surround sound!

Two Events, Same Room

    

In December 2009, I was commissioned by the Grissoms to shoot an HD wedding.  Of course this was around Christmas time, as illustrated by the picture above, left.  It was a lovely ceremony and any piece of HD video benefits by LOTS of lovely Christmas lights.

This is at the Grand Marquise Ballroom in Garner, NC.

Later, in May of this year, I was commissioned to do the Jilani reception.  This was a reception event only as the wedding happened months ago.  This event was as big as a wedding with food, speeches, prayers and performances.  This time in the Islamic faith.  Other than the room being the same, and having catered food as all these events do it was very different, and also very pretty.

As always when I do a wedding-type event for a client the idea is to get the event at the time it happens and then make it as memorable when editing it all together.  The result is something everybody will remember, and that is the fulfilling part for me; even when someday the grandkids will pull out that old Blu-ray of the grandparents' wedding!

Did we REALLY need tapes that small?

MicroMV, MiniDV and 8mm/Digital 8 videocassettes

I get a lot of various consumer tape formats to dub off for people,
and I get a lot of MiniDV type tapes and even MORE 8mm/Digital 8 tapes
from camcorders....

...but in 2001 or so, after it was small enough with MiniDV  (the tape cassette pictured in the middle above) Sony had to get smaller with MicroMV cassettes.  For techies, they record 12 Mbits of MPEG SD video and MPEG compressed audio at 384 Kbits.  The format's data is a lot more similar to HDV than DV or anything else; HDV is a form of MPEG as is what is on MicroMV.  MiniDV is DV compressed data.

OK but other than all that tech stuff...did we really need a tape that small?  The camera that these worked with is very cute but in the end what was the point?  This format was pretty much done by 2007.  You can't buy new MicroMV tapes anymore.

So the lesson is: Not every obsolete videotape format is OLD like VHS!
...and did we REALLY need tapes that small???

Those little records you had as a kid

Of course this only applies to a certain set of people to have had these things (records, that is).
But as kids we generally had some small dinky plastic record-player (NOT the same as a turntable, but it is) and we got all sorts of little records to play on them.  Children's stories music or in my case
the soundtrack to "Clockwork Orange" in addition to "Frog and Toad are Friends" or whatever!

A Disneyland 7" record on Technics SL-1200 MK2 Turntable

The General Electric Wildcat record player.  Mine was black.

I get a kick out of when I get these small records from client to be digitized.  As a rule, they are generally torn up as the balance of the tonearms
and condition of the needle was not a big scientific thing (especially with a penny taped on top to prevent skipping!) 

Then you put these little records on a professional device and it is just so much fun!  But even the most high-tech turntable in the world is dealing with this bizarre, yet charming technology (by today's standards)!

Now, back to my MP3s..... :-)

"My first Sony"

This is the Sony STR-6036 stereo FM/AM receiver (with SOLID STATE TECHNOLOGY!!)

This is the receiver that powered music all over the house as I was growing up via KLH Model Seventeen speakers.  Not very fancy.  It came out around 1972ish.  Phono, Aux, Tape input/loop.  That was all......

But it was my first Sony!  Everybody knows how big Sony is, and not just in consumer electronics, but broadcast TV.  It was not my last, as I have all sorts of Sony devices today!

You never forget your first, though......

Big tape and BIG machines to play them

In the good old days of analog videotape, starting in 1976 we had one-inch videotape "type-c"
This was the broadcast standard and here in this picture is depicted older model Sony 1" Machines from KPBS, San Diego.

These are Sony BVH-1100 model machines. Some similar machines were made under the RCA label. The took up an entire 19" wide rack, as depicted here. These particular machines took reels up to 90 minutes long. In the mid 80's there were "smaller models" that came out, including the BVH-2000 and BHV 3000/3100 series. These still took up a lot of rack space. They played 2 hour reels. The BVH-2180 played 3 hour reels. The tape cost $$$$$, as did the machines. Big $$$$.

To edit a show that anybody makes on a laptop in "broadcast quality" in 2010, you needed a room of these and switchers and audio mixers and.....well you get the idea.

I do not think I need to go through how computer technology has made this format wildly obsolete given the size of the machines and storage of videotape. But the WAS the STATE of the ART. If you put a Dolby (A or SR) box around it's audio ins and outs, you had really clean audio! KPBS did have this technology which helped make for clean audio playbacks in a lot of cases from these machines above their specs.

Circle Limit Digital has preserved 1" Type-C videotape for the 80's band 3 Hits as well as
Caption Perfect (http://www.captionperfect.com/). The machine we use is "smaller" but it was the state of the art....and it's Dolby SR/A capable.

But it's obsolete! And high tech at the same time. What can we preserve for you?

More on 8-track..and audio cart!

Left---an 8-track tape (facing "up"). On the right, an 'audio cart' for radio/TV stations, etc... facing down.

Carts (in stereo) had 3 tracks...left, right and cue. The cue track made the cart stop, or re-cue. 8-tracks are spliced with a magnetic strip that made the player change 'tracks'.

What are the 8 tracks? 4 stereo pairs. You play one of the 4, then move the heads down to the next pair as the tapes does another full pass.

Long and short 'audio carts' were available, some only 30 seconds. Most 8-tracks of course contained much more audio 'information' (a whole 35 minute album!)

8-Track LIVES ON!

This is my Grandfather Fred D. Parker's 8-track Player. It is a portable General Electric device that was around when I was 8 (I am 41 now).

(8-track tapes are VERY similar to "audio carts" or endless loop cartridges used for announcements, commercials and music in radio and TV stations before all this digital technology made tape obsolete in many places).

It could be powered via wall plug, 4 "D" batteries or car adapter. It has "external speaker outputs" which come in handy.
The speakers separate for maximum stereo effect.

Why is this special? Well 2 people have come to me this year, 2010 with old 8-track tapes to preserve/transfer onto CD. One set was old religious music that could be found nowhere else, and one more for a different client was a home-recorded (like the cassette decks!) 8-track with the voice of long-grown up children. Anything like that is a joy to help anybody hear again. The bottom line:
It still works! Thanks Grandfather. These transfers sounded unbelievable, for this wildly outdated technology.

What can Circle Limit Digital preserve for you??