A Guided Tour Of Televisions First Studio...NBCs 3H, 1939 The things we have learned this past year, and even this week allow us to see this old video with new eyes. The first public broadcast from 3H was June 7, 1936, but closed circuit test productions started from here in late 1935 which is the year it was converted from a radio to a television studio. From 1935 until the 1939 Worlds Fair broadcast, the studio was under the control of RCA at which time control was passed to NBC. In those years, this was mostly an experimental studio and was equipped with 3 dark colored Iconoscope cameras. Around 1938, RCA came up with a modified Iconoscope tube and put them into the silver colored cameras you will see here. These are the A500 models. Before we start, here is some information that will help you get your bearings. This is something I learned while standing in the space that one was Studio 3H (now 3K). Now, you enter the third floor studios from the main hallway, but when this was made, that hallway was mostly for tour groups. Engineers and talent used an interior hallway that was on the backside of the studios to avoid the crowds. So, when you see the control room window, it will be on the back wall and is accessed from the fourth floor. The orchastra seen here will be directly under the visitors observation window, facing away from it but facing the control room window. The tour group window was also on the fourth floor which was accessed from the main hallways used for access today. If it seems confusing, I think seeing the video will clarify that. At the head of this is a one minute RCA ad for their new sound on film projector, but Im cueing this up to the feature start. At 2:00 we are at the RCA Labs in Princeton NJ where tube and camera tests are underway. At 2:57 we see the antenna atop The Empire State Building and just after that, we see the transmitter room a few floors under it. At 3:34 we see the new mobile units leaving 30 Rock and arriving at a horse race track for a live broadcast. This is a great sequence and gives us a good look at these trucks. At 5:27 we finally enter Studio 3H. Watch closely! Notice the camera on the left has its top flipped up and the cameraman is making some internal adjustments. Notice on the right...the camera is rising. These pedestals had an internal electric motor to ped up and down. The cameraman is NBCs first...Albert Protzman who we met here yesterday. At 5:50 we see up top, the visitors observation window on the fourth floor. This is the wall that opens into the main interior hallway that we use now. Notice the smaller window below...this was the client viewing room, but on the other end, under the control room window, there was an identical space. When this became a TV studio, that space was converted to a rear screen projection room. At 6:00 we see the control room window. This is on the fourth floor and accessed by hallways on the back of the studios, against the exterior walls of the building. At 6:14 the cameraman on the left may be NBCs great TD, Heino Ripp. At 6:22 we see NBCs first cameraman, Albert Protzman manning the title card camera. At 6:38, the broadcast starts. If the center camera were to tilt all the way up, we would see the visitors observation window. At 7:02, notice the big tally lights under the camera lens. They are green. Before there were red tally lights, they used the green tally color to denote which camera was on the air. At 7:12 we get a look over the shoulder of the people in the control room looking out on the studio. At 7:24 we go to the control room for a while. QUESTION...does anyone know who the director is here? I have seen him several times in other films but do not know who he is. At the back desk, the director in on this end, closest to us. I think the woman is what was then called the production director who was mostly concerned with the script, runtime, cues and talent...today that would be an assistant director. The man on the far end is what was then called the video engineer and is doing the switching...today we call this the technical director. At the front desk is the video man (closest) who is shading the cameras and on his right is the audio man. Enjoy and please...SHARE! -Bobby Ellerbee youtu.be/JHnamytBGaY?t=1m9s
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:35:46 +0000
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