OT? New use for Ampex ACR-225 (wasRe: [Tig] bulbs for the home)

[Steven Bradford]

 The IVC 9000 was a wideband, high quality VTR, used, for example, in
graphic 
houses, such as the former Image West, here in the LA area. 

>From my time at Crest a generation ago, I remember that our MGM clients
talked about those, as some of their masters were done in that format,
and a couple of our colorists had worked at a facility that had those.
The consensus seemed to be that they were the highest quality format in
terms of specs, and good for mastering. These were the standard inhouse
machine at DiscoVision (later Pioneer) for Laserdisc masters for
creating the mother disc. I seem to remember that their machines ended
up at the LA Public School District channel facility, and they were the
last place to use them regularly in the LA area. 

One problem I remember hearing about was that the tape from 3M was
highly variable in quality, and the operator might have to try several
rolls of new tape before testing one that didn't have too much stiction.
The speculation was that the market for the tape was so small that 3M
pushed the qc function off on the few facilities that used it. They
exchanged all the tape for fresh tape. That may just have been griping
though.

Steven Bradford
Dir. School of Film
Collins College
Tempe Arizona