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Broadcast Anyone Know What This Is

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Hurty
(@hurty)
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This arrived on my bench this morning from were I used to work. I can only just pick it up. I suppose not many of you will have seen these. All intermittent faults. Display fails and can stop/crash during operation and sometimes does not start at switch on. Don't you just love intermittent faults!

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Posted : 17/01/2025 3:13 pm
Cathovisor
(@cathovisor)
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I'm wondering if it's something to do with evaluating tapes for re-use prior to bulk erasure? In my old BBC days we switched from D3 to DVCam to make PasB tapes for Sport for compliance purposes, and later used recycled tapes as a further cost-saving measure. The tapes used to have a slip in them that reported drop-outs &c.

 
Posted : 17/01/2025 3:25 pm
Hurty
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The unit is an RTI Proline TapeChek. They are used for Tape Cleaning. They can also erase the tape if set to as it has an erase oscillator.. There is a one line camera array that can also look for tape creases and reports them after running the tape. Sky had a few of these then sold two of then only to realise they needed them for tape ingest. They take Betamax tapes, Betacam Tapes HDW Tapes and SRW tapes. All the Sony broadcast cassette tapes. The tapes that were proving to be "sticky" where Betacam SX followed by Betacam Oxide Tapes and I was starting to see Betacam SP tapes giving problems. Problems will only get worse as time goes on. I used one to clean some Betamax tapes of my own and it shifted the surface mould well. I had to get some Betamax/Betacam tapes ovened as they even stuck in the cleaning machine! You cannot win them all. Few more pictures for you here.

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Posted : 17/01/2025 4:49 pm
crustytv
(@crustytv)
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Yikes, Really! 😲 

https://enhancedviewhd.com/product/rti-pro-line-tc4100-betaca-sp-tape-evaluator-refurbished/

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Posted : 21/01/2025 1:32 pm
Hurty
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They do command a price. There is a new Italian sourced machine available but also very expensive. I have to refurbish this one while I'm at it. The rollers that take the tape in and out go hard. There are six of these and they are about £600 by the time you have them in your hands. They have a vacuum pump inside which sucks the paper roller guides so the debris stay on the paper roll and not the tape. There are two glass blade scrappers which the tape is pulled across on the oxide side to remove any loose oxide. A Betamax 750 tape takes about 2 minuets each way. It does a forward pass and then a return pass. There are two large 24 volt direct drive reel motors that drive the tape. No capstans or anything like that, but servo controlled for tension.

 
Posted : 21/01/2025 3:12 pm
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