Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1981 - 29

ABC TV-2:

A Studio
of the

Eighties

by Jay

Glerum

On September 15, 1980, at a meeting of the New York
chapter of the SOCIETY OF MOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION ENGINEERS, the American Broadcasting Company unveiled its newly equipped and remodeled television studio, TV2, in New York. At the meeting, Bill Cooper, Chairman of the
New York chapter of SMPTE, called TV-2 a "studio of the
eighties." The title refers to the "state-of-the-art" equipment
installed in TV-2. The equipment was described at the meeting
by the people responsible for the various areas of renovation.
Kevin Hamburger was in charge of control room equipment;
Bruce Simon supervised the installation of cameras; John
Schmidt was in charge of audio and acoustics; and Bob Plath
was project manager for lighting and rigging.
The building which houses studios TV-1 and TV-2 was the
Central Park Riding Academy in the 1940's. In the early fifties,
the building was taken over by ABC and converted into three
television studios. These three studios were later consolidated
into TV-1 and TV-2-the homes of such shows as Space Cadet, the Pat Boone Show, Walter Winchell, and Patrice Munse/. In 1967 TV-2 was colorized; in 1974 the switcher was replaced; and in 1978 new cameras were added. In 1978 it was
decided to do a major remodeling job to update the rest of the
equipment to "state-of-the-art".
Construction began in 1979 with additional external walls,
and a three-layer roof to improve sound isolation from outside
noise. The old control rooms were torn out, redesigned, and

rebuilt to accomodate the new equipment. This allowed for
more efficient use of that equipment in human engineering
terms.
The installation of the new equipment brought with it an
abundance of microprocessor and memory-capable systems.
To begin with, the seven new IKAGAMI HK312E cameras can
be operated with an auto set-up computer that provides for
fast coordinated set-up with consistent results. A computer
looks at a test chart in each of the cameras while sampling
and aligning the pictures of all the cameras simultaneously.
The entire cycle is repeated and in ninety seconds the cameras have been set up, aligned with each other, and double
checked.
The original tube-type audio console for TV-2 was installed
in 1950. It has been replaced with a Ward-Beck 460 series
console with forty inputs, eight sUb-masters, four masters,
and peak program meters.
The intercom system, a custom designed Ward-Beck system made to ABC's specifications, is one of the largest on the
East Coast. It is a hard wire system only because a microprocessor system was not available at the time the specifications were being written. The system includes four hard wire
patching matrices used to determine who talks to whom, both
in the studio and on remote locations.
There is a small mixing system for programs that need music or sound effects. The system consists of a Ward-Beck
10 x 2 console, two ATR 100 tape decks, turntable, casette
player, and an equalizer.
An AMS digital time delay is incorporated into the total
audio system. This is necessary during remote telecasting because the video signal arrives several seconds after the audio
signal. The video signal is sent by satellite and the audio is
transmitted by land line. The AMS is used in the intercom system to synchronize what a performer or newscaster hears with
what he or she sees on the monitor. The control room contains
the first permanent installation anywhere in the world of a
Grass Valley 300 production switcher. It is a three mix effect
system with sixty pre-sets and a memory that is capable of
storing all switch and knob settings.
There are many video sources available to the control room
from anywhere in the entire ABC plant. These sources include
video tape machines and 16mm and 35mm film chains. ABC
developed a Vertical Interval Modular Control System to use
these sources from the control room. The system is microprocessor based, and can easily accomodate any changes in
the future. TV-2 is the first network studio equipped With this
system. The studio also contains a digital electronic slide projector called ESS (electronic still store). The ESS has storage
for several hundred still pictures and has the capability of recording stills from either tape or film.
Visual variety for captions is made easy using the electronic character generator with memory. This device generates caption characters electronically, rather than with hard
copy. Once generated, the movement and attitude of the characters can be programmed in a vairety of ways to lend excitement and interest to titles. This device was used for ABC's
coverage of the 1980 winter Olympics.
A Quantel 5000 effects device is used for special effects. It
can control up to five pictures, compress or expand them, rotate a single picture, and rotate a cube of pictures. All the effects can be recorded on floppy disk and quickly recalled.
The first production televised from TV-2 was the election
returns on November 4th. In early December Good Morning
America and 20/20 moved into TV-2. The projected use of
the studio determined the goals and limits for the lighting and
rigging systems.
For the lighting, maximum flexibility was desired. ABC

(continued on p. 54 ... J

Jay Glerum is on the staff of Peter Albrecht Corporation. Several of his articles have previously appeared in TD& T.

USITT /Spring, 1981

Theatre Design & Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1981