Rank Cintel TK

[Vintage Engr]

Interesting pictures. The MK1 that I referred to also had the control desk, complete with monochrome monitor. The controls on the desk were very limited.
There were a couple of P.O. type lever switches for PLUGE etc, and also for Sepmag/Sepopt switching of the audio. I think there was also an overall lift & gain. There was also a built-in Serviscope,(Part of Tektronix Ltd.) rack-mounted 'scope, used as a waveform monitor.

I can at present only remember one name from the Rank Cintel team, that was Gary O'connor. There are others, but my memory banks are a little tired at this time of the day!

At one point in my long career in broadcast & scientific/industrial TV, I worked for a division within the Rank Organisation that designed/installed/maintained television & audio systems. This was how I became involved in maintaining & installing TK, amongst other things.
I will try & find the Cintel TK brochures if I can.

David.

[rambo1152]

You could often see the result of the TC operator frantically "tariffing" the colour balance of the lowlights. More often during the final programme of the night. Perhaps it was because I was more likely to see it in a dark viewing room, but just possibly an inexperienced engineer rostered at a late hour? (Granada TV).

[John Caswell]

I believe another member was John Kerr, who from memory could drink prodigious amounts of Guinness without effect.

John

[Jon_G4MDC]

Mmm - Rank Cintel were in Ware. Rank Xerox in Welwyn Garden City.
Only my memory from back then..
I worked at Rank Xerox - photocopiers.

[Andy Doz]

Originally Posted by red16v

I presume this would be item 418 in this catalogue?

https://www.ppauctions.com/assets/au...1193332400.pdf

Perhaps if you were to contact them and ask nicely they might give you the information you would like?

I've passed this on. Thanks.

[Vintage Engr]

Originally Posted by John Caswell

I believe another member was John Kerr, who from memory could drink prodigious amounts of Guinness without effect.

John

Thanks for that, you've just revived my memory!
One of the other names that I was trying to recall, was indeed John Kerr.

David.

[red16v]

Someone has posted a link to this video on another forum and I thought i would post link here as it does relate to telecine.

It appears to be a BBC training film, interesting in itself, but it does refer to telecine machines and operations from about the 7 minute mark. The commentator states that the machines he is referring to are MKII machines but they look more like the MKI machines I used to work on - a key point for me being that our MKI's had the top spool mounted outside the transport cabinet rather than our MKII's which had the top spool inside the transport cabinet which made it look more modern in appearance.

Perhaps Rank Cintel made a bit of a hotch potch of machines?

I'd be interested to hear any comments from our ex-BBC forum members.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ped...ature=youtu.be

Could be wrong here, but I thought the first Rank Cintel to have side by side reels was the mkIII ('hopping patch'). A lot of the monitors in the TK section of that video are showing vertically stretched pics on a still (i.e. twin lens), which I would have thought meant they were coming off a mkII. There are a few shots of a mkIII around 4' in that video, but as far as I can remember Television Centre was a late adopter of the mkIII and most of theirs were either mk I or II.
Someone asked (Glyn, I think) how late TK was used for live TX - I worked in Cardiff and we were certainly transmitting live as a single machine or duplex pairs well into the early to mid 80's. I've transmitted many episodes of Star Trek and Dallas (or was it Dynasty) from the machine BBC Wales sold off from their old site.
News was also transmitted live from TK as A/B roll and a single machine in Bangor up to about the miners strike in 1984. Not a happy memory as they used to mix neg and reversal in the same reel - a real challenge to 'Tarif'.
From round about 1984/5 news had moved to Hi Band U-matic and TK was used pretty much for transfer/archive.

[cheerfulcharlie]

Originally Posted by Shuttle

Could be wrong here, but I thought the first Rank Cintel to have side by side reels was the mkIII ('hopping patch'). A lot of the monitors in the TK section of that video are showing vertically stretched pics on a still (i.e. twin lens), which I would have thought meant they were coming off a mkII. There are a few shots of a mkIII around 4' in that video, but as far as I can remember Television Centre was a late adopter of the mkIII and most of theirs were either mk I or II.
Someone asked (Glyn, I think) how late TK was used for live TX - I worked in Cardiff and we were certainly transmitting live as a single machine or duplex pairs well into the early to mid 80's. I've transmitted many episodes of Star Trek and Dallas (or was it Dynasty) from the machine BBC Wales sold off from their old site.
News was also transmitted live from TK as A/B roll and a single machine in Bangor up to about the miners strike in 1984. Not a happy memory as they used to mix neg and reversal in the same reel - a real challenge to 'Tarif'.
From round about 1984/5 news had moved to Hi Band U-matic and TK was used pretty much for transfer/archive.

I think I and many others remember when they started sending Dallas over on videotape, they looked and sounded appauling, dark flat pictures and judder on pans and a slurred sound track to finish it off.

[Philco-Pete]

My first BBC posting was in TK at TV Centre, Jan 1979. There were a lot of MkIIs( both 16 & 35mm) as well as a couple of 16mm polygon machines - IIRC TK36 was one of these. These were of course able to run variable speed and had a prominent Scan Reverse switch to allow backwards viewing. This sticks in my mind as one of my pals managed to forget to reset the switch after rehearsal and subsequently transmitted the “Tomorrow’s World” title sequence backwards and upside down
Back on topic I also fondly remember playing Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive” from a MKII into TOTP on seemingly endless occasions. The first time I was live on air was with a 35 mm MKII.
Don’t think there were any MK1 machines left by the time I was there.
Long time ago but happy times🙂

Best
Pete

[red16v]

Some more interesting information from an ex-BBC TVC telecine engineer. (Copied here with his permission):

"There were, autumn of 1969 (BBC-1 ITV colour from November ) at TvC 9 of those 35mm machines
on the 2nd floor of the Central Wedge 29 / 31 and 30 /32 were the two transmission pairs with 24 as reserve (which did Trade Test during non-programme hours BBC-2)
on the 1st floor of the Central Wedge 42, 43, 44, 45 were the studio insert machines

All 9 machines were built as B&W, 405 or dual 405/625, with valve scanning and valve processing.
All 9 machines were converted to colour, with transistorised processing but retained valve scanning for many years
Before BBC-2 colour in 1967 I believe that the TX machines were on the 1st Floor and the insert on the 2nd.
I have always understood that these much modified machines that served in TvC for some 3 decades were the original MkIIs

Additionally, in 1969 on the 1st Floor, there were 2 'blue tube' machines suitable only for use with B&W stock TK38 and TK40,
they allegedly did the insert into The Forsyte Saga and were almost certainly MKIs.
I never used either but think I once did a routine maintenance on one of them.
I am looking at the identifying plaque of TK38 as I type, but that is to do with the re-use of the cubicle in the 70s as an A-B roll neg mixing area.

At the same time I recall only 3 35mm machines in LGS, two were MK1 polygons converted to colour,
the other was a very odd beast with 4 spool boxes (picture and sep-mag driven by the same mechanism) which was never colourised.

LGS was originally equipped with both EMI and Cinema Television 35mm scanners, the fundamental difference being the way they dealt with shrunken stock,
Cintel was mechanical, EMI electronic. 'Old timers' referred to the 'EMI corridor' and the 'Cintel corridor'
The 'EMI corridor' was eventually equipped with 4 16mm Cintels, two MKIIs and two MKIIIs."

.. and subsequently added to ...:

"there was additionally on the 2nd floor TK25, I believe it was a MKI blue tube 35mm machine.

I remember it doing a very few lunchtime Watch With Mothers, Woodentops and Andy Pandy;
it was taken out of (bookable) service weeks before November 1969,
stood unused for ages until it housed a Shibaden helical scan recorder to record junctions for the benefit of Presentation inquests.

Eventually the cubicle was re-built as two (Net1 and Net2) remote TARIF control desks with provision for control of 3 transmission machines each;

these rooms could control 1st floor machines when rarely on TX duty!"

[rambo1152]

Originally Posted by red16v

it was taken out of (bookable) service weeks before November 1969,
stood unused for ages until it housed a Shibaden helical scan recorder to record junctions for the benefit of Presentation inquests.

As a non Broadcast Engineer, I can identify with that, as I used to maintain the LP VHS machines in the Loggists Booth in Granada Quay St presentation area.

Originally Posted by red16v

Eventually the cubicle was re-built as two (Net1 and Net2) remote TARIF control desks with provision for control of 3 transmission machines each;

I know that "tarrifing" is basically riding the joysticks, but I note your correspondent has capitalised it, so is it an acronym for something?

[stainless]

Television Apparatus for Reproduction of Inferior Film.

(some say Television Apparatus for Rectification of Inferior Film).

[now I can't remember SYPHER ]

[PaulM]

SYPHER: SYnchronised Post-dub Helical-scan and Eight track Recorder

I think . . .

My ex-BBC Rank Cintel MkII is one of the ones mentioned in #31 as being modded for colour in 1969. Almost a complete rebuild by the look of it.
I really must take some pics, but it's a bit grubby and needs a clean . . .

Best regards,

Paul M

[Philco-Pete]

According to many disgruntled BBC film cameramen who had seen their work transmitted in a less than ideal manner it was
Technical Apparatus for Ruining Immaculate Film......

Pete