Photos by VT Editor, Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.
Ian took photos of various pieces of kit, for posterity, before Pebble Mill was decommissioned in 2004.
These photos are of different videotape machines, including beta sp, and digibeta. Betacam sp, was a 1/2 inch analog videotape introduced as a format in the early 1980s and took over from U-matic tapes.
The machines were probably in MFA.
Mike Skipper added the following comment:
‘Just managed to have a closer look – the very top machine is indeed a Panasonic AJ-D350 1/2″ digital D3 recorder.
These machines saw heavy use at TV Centre until the 16:9 aspect ratio was settled upon as the standard recording format, at which point Digital Betacam became the preferred recording format. In very simplistic terms, D3 ‘digitised’ PAL signals before putting them to tape, whereas Digital Betacam processes signals in their component form.’
A very rare moment when ed17/1 , ed17/2 and ed17/3 could all be seen in the same bay together.
I initially thought the Panasonic machine in the top photograph was a D3 recorder (it looks VERY similar to one) – but the label on the front suggests that it could be of U-matic format.
Just managed to have a closer look – the very top machine is indeed a Panasonic AJ-D350 1/2″ digital D3 recorder.
These machines saw heavy use at TV Centre until the 16:9 aspect ratio was settled upon as the standard recording format, at which point Digital Betacam became the preferred recording format. In very simplistic terms, D3 ‘digitised’ PAL signals before putting them to tape, whereas Digital Betacam processes signals in their component form.