Business screen magazine (1946)

video tape: past, present & future... continued larged and devices such as aperture correction and highlight equahzers were designed to enhance the picture being displayed. Improved film emulsions came on the market. In those days, tape-to-film transfer requests came mainly from foreign markets and smaller TV outlets. Different technical television standards in the foreign markets iiecessitated the transfer to film; in the domestic market, smaller film-oriented television stations, with minimal or no tape handling gear, also required film. Today, even though the black and white video tape to film transfer process is basically the same as the kinescope process, the results cannot be compared with the early days. "Saying a kine is still a kine is like saying Modern master control console for black & white tape to film transfers. (Acme Film & Videotape Laboratories photo). a pre-WWII radial-engine airplane is the same as a modern 707 jet Ijecause they both depend on wings to stay in the air," Sawelson is fond of saying. Competition brought improvement He feels competition caused the vast improvement in black and white tape to film transfers between 1959-1964. "Everyone in the industry was working within the same perimeter and dealing with the same elements, but using different approaches. Each firm had to continually improve its equipment and methods to compete." Everything seemed to be coming up roses for the industry, for its firms and their clients. Roses, that is. in glorious black and white. It wasn't that the industry hadn't prepared for color. Even so, it was a shock when it came. Suddenly the nation turned around and overnight, found color on its doorstep. Most of the original problems encountered in the early experiences with black and white transfers returned, giving engineers and producers nightmares and haunting them in their efforts to achieve good color film transfers. Again, they found they needed corrective playback devices like color drop out compensators, head velocity compensators, auto chroma, and so on. But there were none. Not for color videotape. Add to these equipment problems the attempts to achieve good color balance and suitable color emulsions for recording televised pictures, and the black and white film transfer process seemed like kindergarten in comparison. Sawelson says that his firm approached the problem of color registration and balance with the Triniscope process. After two and one half years ("of learning what not to do"), Up-to-date kinescope operation, with recording unit in center, at CBS-TV studios In Hollywood. The network used this TV recording set-up in the early 1950's. (Reprinted by permission of the Regents of the University of California.) it was abandoned, eventually to be replac with a method of electronic separation th led to the Acme-Chroma process of col film transfers. Ten years ago, when Acme installed vide tape machines to generate film work, tl' entire industry hardly fathomed the d;' that tape transfers would gain a wide follo\ ing. But since then, the industry has adopte tape, especially in post production, whe it can be more workable and less expensii than film. Today, film to tape transfers are provii successful in the TV program syndicatic; field. Film prints are often replaced with videotape dub made from a 35mm color con posite print. Tape insures each station wii the kind of quality expected on a networl because tape equipment and set up procedui is nearly the same, playback does not vary, j This is in direct contrast to 16mm cole prints that, in fact, still circulate among telt vision stations. Playback quality often varie' dependent on the physical condition of eac individual print, quality of the station's cole film chain, and skill of the video enginee riding the controls. Transferring a new 35mm color composit print to video tape and syndicating the serie with tape dubs rather than with film print actually costs less than making 16mm cole prints. "A videotape dub will give approxi mately 40 plays. The life expectancy of 16mm color film print is between 10 an 15 plays," Sawelson said. The volume of film to tape transfers tha pass through videotape laboratories eac, week testifies to the truth in his words. Ap proximately 50 per cent of all television sta tion programming operations involve the us of videotape recordings and playback. While all videotape laboratories are cap able of transferring film to tape, houses off ering tape to film transfers can be countei on one hand and are located almost exclu sively in Los Angeles and New York City Yet, some film personnel feel that the writinf is on the wall (perhaps we should say screen' for the motion picture industry, just as i was for the television industry. Current ust of electronic viewfinders on motion pictun cameras for instant playback is just the firs step towards an eventual tape takeover, thej say. Impossible to forecast Sawelson, however, feels it is impossible to forecast what can happen in the comint 10 years. "We've already seen a 180 degree turn around, starting with tape to film transfers and reversing to film to tape transfers. Now both are in practice as accepted procedures. Perhaps the methods which we consider 'magic' today will be non-existent in the future, replaced by laser beam recording and other 'science fiction" predictions. Nothing's impossible. "When something works, it works in many ways," Sawelson said, referring to the filmvideotape combination. "Future uses of film and videotape are as limitless as the ascending arc of the state of the art." I 22 BUSINESS SCREEN