MY Very Accidental Collection- the cameras, Betacam and Umatic video tape machines of the 1980/1990's

How? You might ask.🤔

Why? You also might ask...😳

What the hell are they, many more of you will ask....🤣

And I will answer all of those questions for you now, as I still keep asking myself the same questions nearly 20 years later....🤣😭🙄

So for this #HivePUD, I will share a story with you about investing in the future generations, just as we invest in ourselves and our Hive family and Friends on the 1st day of every month for The Hive Power Up Day #HIVEpud and just as we Strengthen our influence on the blockchain with stronger votes on content, proposals and witnesses. in digitising this huge collection to preserve it for the future generations, we also strengthen their understanding of historical events and people and enable them to see these stories of the people, through the eyes of the people, as captured by the people, for the people. and in doing so, power up their education, opportunities, achievements and future as a whole too.

So #hivepud is for all of us and if you would like to know more, then please clink on this link to find out how to join in the fun and why you really should https://peakd.com/hive-122221/@hivebuzz/pud-202406

So, it all started in 2013.

Actually no, it started much earlier than that, in 1988 to be more precise, but for me, it started in 2005 when I became SKA'ed - the term that we use to describe the spell- the hold, that has been put on us after all these years still.

And this week, I thought I would share with you ONE of the collections that I have been SKA'ed with since.

When I first moved to Melbourne in 2005, I joined a non profit organisation called #SKATV- St Kilda Access Television, that was a production house for community media and broadcast here on Melbourne's community media channel- C31.

I was there for 4 years and in that time, not only did I volunteer in the archiving project- transferring the old #analogue #Umatic, #Betacam, #VHS tapes on to #MiniDv tapes to preserve the footage, but I also produced a current affairs program called SKA Story and 7 days a week, chased a wide variety of minority community stories, from social justice, anti war, refugee, environmental, youth, indigenous, arts, music, human rights and other stories to record and edit to broadcast for 4 years, until it closed down in 2010 due to lack of funding and volunteers.

I even wrote a song too- which was recorded by an old friend of mine, but I don't know how to upload an audio file here...😭

This is when the departing SKA TV CoM- Committee of Management at the very last meeting created Melbourne Media Archive, as another non-profit to bequeath the collection of tapes to with the intent of digitising them, but that never happened.

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Then in 2013, I heard through the grapevine that the massive tape collection that we had been storing at #tradesHall in Melbourne were going to be thrown into the rubbish and I could not let this happen as not only had I put so much time and effort into sharing the stories of these communities, the history of Melbourne and the world at large, so had sooooo many other hundreds of former SKA TV volunteers.

So I contacted Pete, an old workmate and we banded together with a couple of others, reactivated Melbourne Media Archive and became the official custodians of the SKA TV collection, got a grant to digitise the collection from the National Library of Austrlia as it was previously recognised and deemed by the #NationalFilmAnd SoundArchive as a Nationally socially and historically significant collection and I knew that someday, researchers, documentarians, students and others would love to see this footage.

https://melbournemediaarch.wixsite.com/melb-media-archive

So myself and Pete, spent the last decade- when we could- when life didn't interrupt (and boy oh boy has life done nothing BUT interrupt us in that decade.....), digitising as much as we could and we now have over 200 tapes online, but still more to go, however most of the tapes are now on MiniDv, so we have no need for the old Analogue tape machines anymore, and as much as we would love to keep them, I have been carting them around from house to house to house and now small flat WITH over 60 boxes of the old tapes since 2014.

https://melbournemediaarch.wixsite.com/melb-media-archive/collection-database

But now it's time for them to go to another home because I have a new flatmate in mine and no room for them anymore...

So please, let me introduce you to the cutting edge technology of portable #television #cameras and #editing equipment from yestyear and I hope that you enjoy the tale of my collection instead of Mum's for a change..though don't worry, Mum's Real Vintage collection is still an ongoing concern...😆🤣😂😅

https://melbournemediaarch.wixsite.com/melb-media-archive/organisations-that-ska-tv-filmed

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Vintage Hitachi SV340 Portable Video Cassette Recorder player

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Vintage SONY Video 8 1985 Sony CCD-V8AF Video 8 Camera Recorder - With Auto Focus

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SONY Umatic Blue Marble Intercape Video Cassette Recorder VO 5630

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A sophisticated yet easy to use record/playback machine designed to match the VP-5030 playback model in streamlined styling and high performance. The VO-5630 offers the same array of positive playback controls, together with record facilities. https://umatic.palsite.com/vo5630ovi.shtml

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Vintage SONY Umatic SP Video Cassette Recorder VO-9800p (bird not included...🤣)

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The VO-9800P player incorporates SP (Superior Performance) U-matic technology, significantly improving picture quality characteristics while remaining compatible with High Band U-matic. In the playback mode, the VO-9800P provides SP/High Band/Low Band playback capability and can playback many Low Band U-matic cassettes still in video libraries. The VO-9800P incorporates a Dolby noise reduction system ensuring excellent quality in SP mode. https://www.next-archive.com/product/vo-9800p-sony-u-matic/

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Sony BETACAM SP video cassette recorder PVW 2800 P

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With the high performance standards of the Betacam SP format and the affordability of Sony's Betacam SP 2000 PRO series, the Sony PVW-2800 is ideal for corporate and institutional videographers. This editing recorder/player is designed for editing flexibility, excellent video/audio quality and easy operation. Its compatibility with BVW series Betacam SP products and peripherals make it an easy way to upgrade current systems.

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It features built-in TBC, built-in TC generator/reader, full editing control facility, 90 min record/playback, 24 times picture search, RS-422 remote interface, Y/C input/output and component video (Y, R-Y, B-Y) inputs/outputs. It records on metal particle tape and will playback any Betacam or Betacam SP recorded tape. https://www.southernadvantage.com/products/sony-pvw-2800-betacam-sp-studio-player-recorder-with-rs-422a

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BETACAM TAPES

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All Betacam variants from (plain) analog recording Betacam to Betacam SP and digital recording Digital Betacam (and additionally, HDCAM and HDCAM SR), use the same shape videocassettes, meaning vaults and other storage facilities do not have to be changed when upgrading to a new format. The cassettes are available in two sizes: S (short or small) and L (long or large). The Betacam camcorder can only load S magnetic tapes, while television studio sized video tape recorders (VTR) designed for video editing can play both S and L tapes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betacam

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Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, Betacam singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself.

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Vintage Panasonic S-VHS movie camera NV – MS 4

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UMATIC TAPES
U-matic or 3⁄4-inch Type E Helical Scan[1][2] or SMPTE E[3] is an analogue recording videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opposed to the various reel-to-reel or open-reel formats of the time. The videotape is 3⁄4 in (19 mm) wide, so the format is often known as "three-quarter-inch" or simply "three-quarter", compared to open reel videotape formats in use, such as 1 in (25 mm) type C videotape and 2 in (51 mm) quadruplex videotape.

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Unlike most other cassette-based tape formats, the supply and take-up reels in the cassette turn in opposite directions during playback, fast-forward, and rewind: one reel would run clockwise while the other would run counter-clockwise. A locking mechanism integral to each cassette case secures the tape hubs during transportation to keep the tape wound tightly on the hubs. Once the cassette is taken off the case, the hubs are free to spin. A spring-loaded tape cover door protects the tape from damage; when the cassette is inserted into the VCR, the door is released and is opened, enabling the VCR mechanism to spool the tape around the spinning video drum. Accidental recording is prevented by the absence of a red plastic button fitted to a hole on the bottom surface of the tape; removal of the button disabled recording https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-matic

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Thank you so much for reading my post, I really hope that you enjoyed it and look forward to your comments and thoughts.

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And unless otherwise stated- ALL photographs, all media, material and writings, are all my originals taken by me sometime in the past few decades or so somewhere in my travels and as such, ofcourse they are subject to all international IP and copyright laws and I may have already used them for my own commercial purposes here https://www.redbubble.com/people/CHOCOLATESCORPI/shop And here https://fineartamerica.com/art/chocolatescorpi, So please ask first if you want to use any of them as we wouldn't want you getting into trouble. Thank you 😊

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Please feel free to checkout my other work on

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ChocolateScorpi is so incredibly grateful to the the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, the traditional custodians of this beautiful land that I call home and I thank you for caring for it for so long.

I pay our respects to elders, past, present and emerging and offer our hand to all first nations hands in order to help heal all of our relationships to the earth on this truly magical and extraordinary island nation that we now all call home.

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Awesome…
Good to invest in the future.

You produced the program and a song.

Thanks for sharing that 😊
Have a beautiful weekend!
!HUG

Yes it was an exciting time of changing the world, (trying), one program, one issue at a time...

And still doing it....Still trying anyway...🤣

As long as one has fun 🤩

Hahaha 🤣 yep me too.

Dear @chocolatescorpi, you just got hugged.
I sent 1.0 HUG on behalf of @littlebee4.
(1/3)

Happy Hive PUD @chocolatescorpi 💪🐝

Thanks @hivebuzz and a very happy #hivepud to you too! 😃

I hope that it is a day that succeeds above all other past Hivepud days!

Nice!
That brings back some memories :)

Yes?
You worked with them at some stage?

Was that back when they were considered cutting edge and editing on them like the original SKA TV crew did, or using them as decks to duplicate from them like I did when I first started there?

I would love to know more and hear about your experiences with them too. 😃

Hi,

I used to work for the broadcast company Alfacam. Back then, one of the pioneers in Full HD tv. Most of the time I just installed the machines in the OB van. Using them as backup machines in combination with HDpro, LSM and other formats.

Or a bit earlier during inerships as editing devices. Tape to tape or on the Mac with media100 :)

bird not included...🤣

😂😂 hahaha, but he is a very cute part of your collection - not your mom's collection lol

Yes she is sooo totally adorable. I never thought I fall in love with a bird as much as Indy Jean. She was my mum's bird and HATED me until mum died and I inherited her and now we are besties and she goes everywhere with me.

Right now we have just arrived back in my home town after a 9 hours drive today and for the last few hours of that, she was cuddled up on her 2 favourite cushions (my boobs..) 🤣

She loves to stick her nose into everything, she is soooo nosey, she has got serious FOMO and also geta BADDD separation anxiety...So I HAVE to take her everywhere with me otherwise she SCREECHES the house down...Worse than fire engine sirens.

An exquisite collection of equipment that has made history in the world of audiovisual technology.
I enjoyed appreciating it as I share the same taste. Regards