- - A chronicleof independentsand smallformat, hardware and programming,events and decisionsleading up to the widespread acceptance of portablevideo on broadcasttelevision. CBS investigates portable video. 1937 1958 December. SQN, independently incorporated , NBC television mobile unit. 50,000,000 TV's. though operating out of CBS headquarters , In action in NYC. Consisting of two huge spends almost $100,000 on a portable video, buses. One crammed with a studio and the 8mm and 16mm presentation held at the other housing the transmitter that relayed 1960 Videofreex studio . Mike Dann, head of CBS programs to the Empire State Building for re­ programming rejects the work , predicting that broadcast. Networks ban independent news. NBC-TV explained that its obligation "for ob­ it will be 5 years before "television would be jective , fair and responsible presentation of ready" for that kind of material. CBS ended the news developments and issues " required up confiscating the tapes , later reclaimed by 1947 this change in policy. At this time, Robert Drew Don West , executive producer of the venture , Network news shows add new sf i Im. of Time, Inc. formed a film production group who failed to peddle them elsewhere . Crew in­ From.outside producers to their 15 min. consisting of Ricky Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker , cluded staff at Media Center in Lanesville evening telecasts . CBS uses Telenews, shoot­ T. McCartney-Filgate and Albert Maysle to along with Eric Segal, David Cort , and Da~id­ ing 16mm film, considered less professional produce Primary, a verite style documentary son Gigliotti. Controversial figures appearing than 35 mm, used by Fox Movietone , serving of the Kennedy and Humphrey primaries . The in the tapes included Fred Hampton and Abbie NBC. program was rejected by all three networks, Hoffman . in accordance with their newly developed policies . Instead , the Drew group temporarily video art. 1948 became an ABC-TV news documentary unit Produced by Fred Barzyk at WGBH-TV's New producing films to be telecast under the series Televis ion Workshop . Titled "The Medium is 16,500 TV's. title Close-up . the Medium " . It included works by Tambelli, Kaprow, Paik. Seawright. and Piene. 1951 1962 First network news documentary Broadcasting uses satellites. 1970 First telecas t of Edward R. Murrow 's See It Telstar inaugurates satellite relays of TV pro­ All About TV airs show a ou video. Now series telecasts simultaneous live views grams . November. The program, which was in its of the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines . Commen­ second season , featured George Stoney of tary mixed with film. the Alternate Media Center at New York Uni­ versity , discussing what video is, showing a 1963 portapak , and excerpts of tapes from New 1953 Starring Oswald and Ruby. York and elsewhere , shot off monitors in the December 2. National NBC television audi­ studio . Some dozen programs featuring video ence sees first live murder , of Lee Harvey have been aired during the five seasons since Oswald by Jack Ruby. then . It's produced at WNYC-TV, New York . Synthesizer developed. 1964 By Shuya Abe and Nam June Paik to be First instant replays. used on broadcast TV at WGBH, Boston . New dimension to sports reporting . Portable video for consumer service 1971 July. American Airlines uses Sony playback WNEW-TV airs ½" tape. system for showing tapes of movies. 12-minute optical-transfer ½" B&W video seg­ Sarnoff demonstrates videotape. ment on WNEW-TV 's Midday Live talkshow, RCA magnetic tape for recording B&W, and by Downtown Communi~y TV, New York City . color television pictures . 1965 Show also aired piece on Global Village. TV news uses satellite relay. 1956 January. Winston Churchill's funeral from CBS uses½''. Release of pre-1948 film features. London. A videotape report of Eldridge Cleaver in Af­ rica on the Cronkite evening news. Brings decline in local (live) television produc­ Network news shifts to color. tion . 1957 1967 CBS and NBC use Ampex videotape Center for Experiments in TV. Established by the Rockefeller Foundation For the first time, to record the Eisenhower at KQED, San Francisco . inauguration. 1969 Half inch for sale. First½", B&W, portapaks put on the market by Sony. - NBC rejects Mayday tapes. KSD, St. Louis buys Akai. NBC News and WRC-TV , the NBC owned­ First station to use the Akai portable color and-operated station in Washington supply system for news production . half-inch videotape to Mayday Video Collective for first-rejection rights on tape shot at demon­ PBS airs first ½'' show. strations that tied up traffic throughout the city . Feb. 24. First hour-length½" videotape pro­ The Mayday Video Collective, comprised of gram airs nationally over PBS. The Lord of the dozens of video people from throughout the Universe, a documentary of the 1973 Houston country, ~hewed raw tape to WRC every day Astrodome gathering of the followers of 1 6- during the week of demonstrations, but the year-old Guru Maharaj Ji. Funded by Stern station declined to use any of it. An hour-long Foundation and CPB. Crew of 24 in five porta­ edit was shown to the staff of First Tuesday, pak teams, produce a 60-min. B&W (with color NBC's now-defunct magazine, and the staff segment) prog,-am. wanted to buy it. The idea was killed by Exec The Experimenta, TV Lab. Producer Reuben Frank who said, after one At WNET-13 , NY public TV station . First grant Video visionaries. look : "That stuff will never appear on NBC." by Rockefeller Foundation to Lab of First national videoart showcast series. Pro­ It didn't. $150 ,000 . duced by Barzyk at WGBH . TVTV broadcasts the Nixon show. Independent series in Rochester. First " electronically broadcast" half-inch video : February 28. Portable Channel begins airing two ½-hour , ½-inch docs, The World's Largest of locally produced , 1/:/' , B&W, documentaries TV Studio and Four More Years, portapak on public TV station WXXI in Rochester , N.Y. coverage of the convention produced by This documentary / magazine format series , TVTV, aired by KQED-TV , PBS affiliate in titled Homemade TV is broadcast by optical S.F. A 90-minute five Group W (Westing­ transfer (shooting off the monitor) of the ½ '' house) stations in Bait., S.F., Boston , Phil., tape . Twenty-seven have aired thus far. and Pittsburgh . It was dubbed to quad and run through a TBC . The show had been partially WTTW, PTV Chicago airs TVTV. financed by NY cable TV and cablecast in April. TVTV airs Ad/and , a 60 min.½" B&W August -September of 1972 . (with color) documentary on the television ad­ vertising industry . DXC-1600 on market. 1973 September. Sony begins sales of the color Portable TV on the moon. Behind The Lines uses ½''. portable camera (price $7 ,000) . Soon after July 21. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin April. TVTV produces a 12 min. segment on begins sales of VO-3800, accompanying Aldrin step down on the lunar surface with ½" titled The Rolling Stone on the PBS na­ portable ¾'' color cassette recorder. television cameras in hand . Bi gest show in tional feed . broadcast history involves 1,000 personnel and minimum of $11 million. WETA-TV's 1st independent video. April. Housing in Anacostia - a WET A pro­ Attica ½'' broadcast. duction on a local neighborhood's housing eptember 21. Segment of ½ " , B& W, video­ problems featured a live studio audience and tape shot by state troopers at the Attica prison taped vignettes produced by Project Account­ massacre is broadcast on evening news. ability in cooperation with Washington Com­ munity Video Center on½ " B&W tape . Network uses portable video. October. First use in a field news operation, First Time Base Corrector. in coverage of the Lt. Calley trial, a news crew May. Put on the market by CVS. used the CBS-developed minicam coupled to the Ampex 3000 2" deck. They recorded the Coos Country TV½" on KCBY report, edited it on 2" tape and fed it directly August. Tapes from the Grange Hall. Through to the network for the evening news cast. July, 1975, Steve Christiansen and Bill Brad­ Changing channels: ½" in Minn. bury, with federal funding for land use planning, October. A bi-weekly , Alternative magazine put the people of Coos Bay, Oregon on TV, show produced on ½" video systems by Uni­ and win a Broadcasting Public Services Award .1972 versity Community Video, Minneapolis, Minn . of the Year. Both are now part of the ENG team Still airing weekly over KCT A-public TV station. Video and Nixon to China. at all video KVAL, Eugene, Oregon. February 14-28. More than 1 00 broadcast newspeople and technicians cover Nixon's "Fifty Wonderful Years" on KQED. China trip, using Sony ¾ inch and other port­ September. A half-hour documentary shot on able color systems. half-inch by Optic Nerve in San Francisco was "image-buffed" (shot off monitor) by the public Sony U-Matic. TV station. The program was an ironic view of March. Video cassette system becomes the 50th Miss California pageant. It caused standard format. a few problems with the union, which was be­ ginning contract negotiations at the time of First all helical station. airing. March. Station CITY in Toronto, Canada. Used B&W Sony Portapak for news coverage and Video: the new wave. IVC 960's for editing. Resident engineer Produced by Barzyk at WGBH, a one-hour developed the TK 1-EA5 editing system. narrated composite of½" documentary and video art. The world's smallest TV station. March 19. Videofreex form Lanesville Media Bus. Still broadcasting out of an attic trans­ mitter live and on ½" tape to an estimated 1974 audience of 70 households in its upstate N.Y. Cronkite news adds ENG.