1-inch Type B Helical Scan or SMPTE B is a

reel-to-reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

analog recording Analog recording is a category of techniques used for the recording of analog signals. This enables later playback of the recorded analog audio. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and phonograph. La ...

video tape format developed by the Bosch Fernseh division of Bosch in Germany in 1976. The format uses

magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic ...

and became the broadcasting standard in continental Europe, but adoption was limited in the United States and United Kingdom, where the Type C videotape format met with greater success.

Details

The tape speed allowed 96 minutes on a large reel (later 120 minutes), and used 2 record/playback (R/P) heads on the drum rotating at 9,000 RPM with a 190-degree wrap around a very small head drum, recording 52 video lines per head segment. A single video frame or field was recorded across 6 tracks in the tape. The format only allowed for play, rewind and fast forward. Video is recorded on an FM signal with a bandwidth of 5.5 MHz. Three longitudinal audio tracks are recorded on the tape as well: two audio and one

Linear timecode Linear (or Longitudinal) Timecode (LTC) is an encoding of SMPTE timecode data in an audio signal, as defined in SMPTE 12M specification. The audio signal is commonly recorded on a VTR track or other storage media. The bits are encoded using the b ...

(LTC) track. BCN 50 VTRs were used at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. The format required an optional, and costly, digital framestore in addition to the normal analog timebase corrector to do any "trick-play" operations, such as slow motion/variable-speed playback, frame step play, and visible shuttle functions. This was because, unlike 1-inch type C which recorded one field per

helical scan Helical scan is a method of recording high-frequency signals on magnetic tape, used in open-reel video tape recorders, video cassette recorders, digital audio tape recorders, and some computer tape drives. With this technique, magnetic tape he ...

track on the tape, Type B segmented each field to 5 or 6 tracks per field according to whether it was a 525- (

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

) or 625- (

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

) line machine. The picture quality was excellent, and standard R/P machines, digital frame store machines, reel-to-reel portables, random access cart machines (for playback of short-form video material such as

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

s), and portable cart versions were marketed. Echo Science Corporation, a United States company, made units like a BCN 1 for the U.S. military for a short time in the 1970s. Echo Science models were Pilot 1, Echo 460, Pilot 260. Bcn-scanner-head

Models introduced

*BCR (BCR-40, BCR-50 and BCR-60) was a pre BCN VTR, made jointly with

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

, the large scanner made it not useful. *BCN-40 (1976, record unit with no TBC playback) *BCN-50 (1976, recorder with TBC playback) *BCN-20 (1976, one hour, portable with no TBC playback) *BCWQ ("L" Unit for BCN20/21, added TBC playback to the portable units) *Effects control option for digital framestore, for freeze frame, quad split and mirror effects (early digital

Special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...

s). *BNC-51 (recorder with TBC playback, optional

Slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slow-mo or slo-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...

and visible shuttle) *BCN-5 (26 pound, portable cart recorder, 40 min) *BCN-100 (random access 32 multicassette machine, up to 16 hours rec/playback-20 min per tape) Each unit had 3 tape desks with a 21 sec load time each cart. For on air playback and 3 deck editing system *BCN-52 (recorder with

Digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

TBC playback, with slow motion & visible shuttle) *BCN-21 (lightweight reel to reel portable with no TBC playback, first

Composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

VTR) *BCN-53 (recorder with

TBC playback, with slow motion & visible shuttle) *HR-400:

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

also sold the BCN-50 as an HR-400.

Special BCN units

*Ruxton Video in

Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...

(1970–1980s) used modified BCNs for 24 Frame playback to TVs used on movie studio sets. Thus the TVs had no flicker when seen on film, due to the film-compatible

frame rate Frame rate, most commonly expressed in frame/s, or FPS, is typically the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (Film frame, frames) are captured or displayed. This definition applies to film and video cameras, computer animation, and moti ...

. In 1981, Bill Hogan of Ruxton Ltd received an

Academy Award for Technical Achievement The Technical Achievement Award is one of three Scientific and Technical Awards given from time to time by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (The other two awards are the Scientific and Engineering Award and the Academy Award of M ...

for his 24frame TV work. *Image Transform in Universal City, co-founded by Ken Holland, in 1970, used specially modified BCNs to record 24-frame video also, but for their "Image Vision" system. The BCN would record and play back 24-frame video at 10 MHz bandwidth, with 655-line resolution. To record this the headwheel and capstan ran at twice normal speed. Modified 24 frame/s 10 MHz Bosch Fernseh KCK-40 professional video cameras were used on the set. This was a custom pre-

HDTV High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

video system. This Image Vision recording could then be recorded to

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

on a modified 3M Electron Beam

film recorder A film recorder is a graphical output device for transferring images to photographic film from a digital data, digital source. In a typical film recorder, an image is passed from a host computer to a mechanism to expose film through a variety o ...

(EBR). Image Transform had modified other gear for this process. The system was used to record " Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl" in 1982. This was the first major use of early electronic cinema technology (using wideband high-resolution analog video technology, predating IT-based DI (

digital intermediate Digital intermediate (DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. Definition and overview A digital intermediate often replaces or a ...

) post production for film nowadays) using a film recorder for Film out. Electronovision was also a pre-process like Image Vision. Merlin Engineering also worked on the BCN's wide bandwidth, 10 MHz, BCN modification. * Bell and Howell (later Rank Video Services) used special BCNs for mass VHS duplication. These specially-modified BCN VTRs could play back movies at two times the normal speed. In addition, the sync signals were also at two times speed as well. For proper playback, the headwheel and capstan also ran at twice normal speed. Specially modified VHS recorders could record this

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

. In doing this, the duplication

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

could output twice the product than normal videocassette duplicating systems. * Bell and Howell's Data Tape division in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

modified BCNs to record high speed

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

for

instrumentation Instrumentation is a collective term for measuring instruments, used for indicating, measuring, and recording physical quantities. It is also a field of study about the art and science about making measurement instruments, involving the related ...

purposes. These instrumentation recordings were mostly used by US government agencies, such as for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

. This unit could record data from up to 800 sensors. *Because of the small scanner, BCNs could record even at high ''g''-forces. Hand picked BCN20 VTRs could record at low

temperatures Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making up a subst ...

, down to -40 °C (-40 °F). This was done at the Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid (1980) and in Sarajevo (1984). * Some users modified BCNs to fit 2-hour reels of tape on the BCN, so complete 2-hour movies could fit on one reel of tape. Bosch later made this a factory option, and was designated as BCN LP. * Bosch also offered SLP BCN, a "long-play" variant of the format. It moved the tape at 1/3 speed so that up to 6 hours could be recorded one reel. The unit has a special head wheel with azimuth head. This was mostly used for

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...

tape delay by television networks. With a head wheel change and a switch the unit could be returned to normal play. * Between 1977 and 1980 the UK Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) experimented with a B format machine as part of their researches into digital video broadcasting standards. In April 1980 a machine was exhibited at a meeting of the EBU Technical Committee in London as part of a complete digital studio system based on a proposed video standard based on YUV 12.4.4. The machine is described in a paper in the IBA Technical Review of March 1982 which can be found here by scrolling down to the item IBA_TechnicalReviews1-24"" * One of the first

SDTV Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...

VTRs was a non-production

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

BCN deck that could record and play back early type of

CCIR 601 ITU-R Recommendation BT.601, more commonly known by the abbreviations Rec. 601 or BT.601 (or its former name CCIR 601), is a standard originally issued in 1982 by the Comité consultatif international pour la radio, CCIR (an organizati ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

signals. These three Bosch VTRs paved the way for the later

SMPTE The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded by Charles Francis Jenkins in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and e ...

D1 VTR standard. In 1985 and 1986 in a

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

experimental digital studio in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, an experimental all-digital television center was made, it used the two all digital BCN units. * The BCH 1000 is an analog high-definition television VTR that records and playbacks

HD-MAC HD-MAC (High Definition Multiplexed Analogue Components) was a broadcast television systems, broadcast television standard proposed by the European Commission in 1986, as part of Eureka (organisation), Eureka 95 project. It belongs to the Multiplex ...

at 50 frames per second, each at a resolution of 2048×1152. The BCH 1000 was used in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

1992 Winter Olympics The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile '92''), were a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and aroun ...

Albertville Albertville (; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is best k ...

. It used 8 video heads to handle the increased bandwidth requirements of HD-MAC, due to its high resolution. Image:BOSCH 1 ZOLL B BCN 51.jpg, BCN 51 VTR File:BCN 52 type B VTR.jpg , BCN 52 VTR File:BNC HDTV VTR-type B deck.jpg , Broadcast Television Systems Inc. (BTS) BCH-1000 HDTV

B VTR File:BCN 20 VTR L unit playback.jpg, BCN 20 VTR with "L unit" playback with TBC. Image:BCN-20-VTR.jpg, BCN 20 VTR hand held VTR recorder.

Specifications

* 1 Inch open reel to reel analog video system. * Video scanner rotation 9600 rpm, 150 rps. * 52 horizontal lines per head. * Video FM signal at a bandwidth of 5,5 MHz * Three analog audio tracks: 2 audio tracks and 1 linear timecode track, 0.8mm wide - 30 mils * One analog control track 0.4mm wide - 15 mils, built into video scanner head. * Magnetic tape coating on the outside of the videotape reel. * Studio reel 96 minutes, later 120 minutes * Portable reel 60 minutes * Cart reel 20 minutes (BCN5 - BCN100) * Video scanner wrap 190 deg. * Video scanner dia. 50.3mm, 2 inches * Video track length 3.1 inches, 80mm * Video track gap 40 um, 1.5 mils * Tape speed 24 cm/sec - 9.5 ips. * Video head write speed: 24m /sec - 950 ips * Video track angle 14.3 deg. * Video track width 160 um - 6.3 mils * Two video record/play heads at 180 deg. (rotary transformer) * Two video erase head for insert edits at 180 deg. (rotary transformer) BCNN Specs
/ref>

Some BCN users

* ABC-TV at MC

* AME – Hollywood, California * Aquarius Theater –Hollywood, California * Astin Moore – Los Angeles, California; see John Astin * ATC – Buenos Aires, Argentina * Audio Plus Video – Los Angeles, California and Northvale, New York * Australian Film & Television School – Sydney (now Australian Film, Television & Radio School) * Bell and Howell, (Rank Video Services) –

Oak Brook, Illinois Oak Brook is a village (Illinois), village in DuPage County, Illinois, with a very small portion in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County. The population was 8,163 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A suburb of Chicago, it contains th ...

* Bell and Howell Data Tape –

* Cinema Video Processors –

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

* Channel 7 – Bangkok, Thailand * Complete Post – Hollywood, California * Cossey Studios – Santa Cruz, California * Dash Motorcars – Santa Cruz, California
DC Video
nbsp;– current user –

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...

– Delhi, India * Editel – Hollywood, California * Eesti Televisioon * Glendale Studios (Outpost Video) – Glendale, California * Image Transform – Universal City, California * KCPT – Kansas City, Missouri * KPAZ-TV – Phoenix, Arizona * KTBN-TV – Costa Mesa, California * KTBO-TV – Oklahoma, Oklahoma * KTBW-TV –

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

* Laser Pacific – Hollywood, California * Leon Russell – Burbank, California and Tulsa, Oklahoma * 4MC – Burbank, California * Measurement Analysis – Torrance, California * Merlin – Palo Alto, California * Modern Video Film – Hollywood, California *

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

– Bethesda, Maryland *

Oral Roberts University Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a Private university, private Evangelicalism, evangelical university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1963, the university is named after its founder, Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christian preacher Oral ...

–

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

* ORF-Austrian Broadcasting Corporation – Vienna, Austria * Premore (see Solo Cup Company) – Culver City, California * Ruxton – Burbank, California * Spin Physics – San Diego, California * Starfax – Burbank, California * STW Channel 9 – Perth, Western Australia *

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

– Newberry Park, California * The Video Tape Company – North Hollywood, California * The Videography Studios – West Los Angeles, California * TV2 in Framersheim, Germany * TV Bandeirantes – São Paulo, Brazil * Tyne Tees Television – Newcastle, United Kingdom (used the BCN100 cart system for commercial playout) * VDI – Hollywood, California * Video Business –

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

* Video Pack – New York, New York * Video Tape Company – Burbank, California * Vidtronics – Hollywood, California * WHFT-TV – Pembroke Park, Florida * WTVY – Dothan, Alabama *

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

– Leeds, United Kingdom (used the BCN100 cart system for commercial playout) * ZDF –

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, Germany

References

External links

vtoldboys.com BCN Pictures
* The history of television, 1942 to 2000, page 197, By Albert Abramso
DC Video BNC page, Current useryoutube.com BCN studio demoyoutube.com BCN20 demoyoutube.com BCN 51 PAL studio demo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Type B Videotape Videotape Products introduced in 1976 Composite video formats Television technology Television terminology