It takes a leap of faith to introduce a totally new product to the buying public (PLATE 1). You can do all the research you want but until it hits the marketplace you never really know for sure if you're going to have a hit. Before the first home recorder was introduced Sony felt confident that the time was right. But they didn't have any way of knowing if it was what the public actually wanted. They took a bold step, but it wasn't an all or nothing venture. They had a plan.
As we have learned from the previous panel Sony already had several important parts to the equation. They knew that professional broadcasting recognized the value of video recording, and they felt that the public should too. They knew that using a cassette was convenient and popular, from their market dominance in video with the U-matic format. And they knew that home recording was going to happen soon, because other companies were developing products of their own design. What made Sony different was really a stroke of marketing savvy. They used their reputation as a premier quality television maker to outsmart the competition. They combined a stellar 21 inch Trinitron television with their new home video format, Betamax. It was released first in Japan on May 10,1975. In November the same year it was offered in the USA. The photo above (PLATE 1) is of the front of the brochure for the first ever practical home video recorder. The genius of this model, the LV-1901A, is that for the price of a new car you could own a quality color TV and a video recorder. (Owning a Sony TV wasn't cheap anyway and it carried with it a certain amount of prestige.) The television helped sell the Betamax. Sony sold a good number of these units (over 100,000). This was enough to convince them that introducing their stand alone Beta deck was the next good idea, even though there had already been numerous failed attempts to market a home video recorder. Click on the picture (PLATE 2) to scrutinize some of these ventures. As you can see several of these came from some pretty heavy hitters. Several actually garnered a limited amount of sales in various areas of the world. The competition could have been fierce but they lacked one thing. They were not from Sony (and they were too complicated). Click again (PLATE 3) and you can see the tape loading schemes and cassette set ups for theses various formats. (If you want to explore more details on each of these cassette designs they can be found by clicking here.) None of these units were sold in any large quantities (electronics manufacturers are notorious about NOT releasing their sales figures) but this did establish two things about video recording. These were, that Sony was going to be the new home recorder and that the public (the ones that already had a TV) were going to want just the recorder alone. The LV-1901A was a revolutionary way to open the a new market but the Betamax TV combo was never duplicated again in any form. The VCR would forever remain separate from the TV to be added later. Click again (PLATE 4) and a features page for the LV-1901A console is shown. Click again (PLATE 5) and its sales brochures are shown. If you want to see the LA-1901A brochure in detail click here. After the success of the Betamax Sony Corporation soon licensed some heavy hitters that wanted to jump on the bandwagon. Specifically these were Aiwa, Magnasonic, Marantz, Montgomery Ward, NEC, Pioneer, Radio Shack, Sanyo, Sears, Toshiba and Zenith. Sony rebranded Betas for Zenith and Sanyo made machines for Magnasonic, Marantz and Radio Shack. Both Sanyo and Toshiba made them for Sears, plus some other specialty brands. The production lines were humming and all these were licensed by Sony, and all had to meet their stringent standards (something VHS makers were not required to do). Next we look at the inside of the first stand home video recorder. The one that exploded into the marketplace and made Sony the premier Betamax maker. Yes, I really am going to show the inside of the early machine so If you don't want to see the guts of the Betamax you can go directly to the next panel. It features the various models of Sony Betas that were offered to the public and the professional market. You can go there now by clicking here. But if you are a die hard Betamax fan and want to see how this first model was put together continue on to the next photo and read below Bruce.
Now, click on the photo above (PLATE 6). For the LV-1901A Sony built the electronics and had a cabinet maker construct a suitable enclosure. To add the betamax just required a bigger cabinet. Here in this photo we see the tuner section removed and highlighted. It needed to be large because there were two tuners, one for the TV and one for the Betamax. This allowed you to watch one channel on the TV and record a different channel on the recorder. You can see where the tuner was located to the right of the picture tube in the console in the background. Looking at the tuner itself we see the fine tuning controls are located on the lower right of the chassis and the clock/timer is in the center. The two dark wheels are the station indicators. Since we are focusing on the Betamax I am not going to go into any great detail about the 21 inch color Trinitron TV, the tuner/timer or the cabinet. All were upscale and very nice but the star of this outfit was the Betamax, so lets look at it. Click on the picture (PLATE 7).
In this picture we see the Betamax recorder (designated as the model SL-6200) on the left. On the right is the bottom of the VCR. I am showing this because the Betamax slid into the cabinet from the rear on two metal rails that mated with similar gadgets mounted on the bottom of the cabinet opening. This arrangement is unique to the LV-1901A. Click on the picture again (PLATE 8). Here is the Betamax with the top panel removed. If you remember the U-matic seen earlier you see how it laid the groundwork for the Betamax. There are some important differences but overall the layout is similar. Click on the picture (PLATE 9) and here are the two formats side by side. Once again similar but the execution is backwards (more on that in a moment). Everything was scaled down for the Betamax. It takes two people to move around a full sized U-matic machine, a Betamax came in a just under fifty pounds. (Still not something you wouldn't want to move around much or call portable.) Click the picture again (PLATE 10). Here are the two video drums, very much alike because they operate using the same scanning principle for video recording, that is using rotating video heads. The U-matic drum is a lot larger since it accommodates 3/4 inch wide tape and swipes a much larger area. Betamax is 1/2 inch and has a smaller recording envelope. Click again (PLATE 11). Here I am showing the two coil assemblies that serve as a brake. They act like a motor only in reverse. They produce drag on an armature seen on the left as a green cylinder with lines in it. Those lines are separators that allow the iron cores to produce magnetism or drag when current is applied by the coil. This is how the electronics managed a steady speed for the spinning head or disk. The drum is actually over driven (runs at a slightly higher speed) just so the drag motor can slow it down to a regulated consistent speed. Click again (PLATE 12). With the bottom plate removed we see the internal machinery (The bottom circuit boards have also been move out of the way). Notice the belt array and see how one motor drives the various rotating components. There are some big belts here just like in the U-matic. Click the picture to see both formats side by side (PLATE 13). Similar but different. Click again (PLATE 14) and here we see the size of the two cassettes with Betamax on top. Remember that Betamax is scaled down from the 3/4 inch cassette tape used for the U-matic. Both of the cassettes are Sony hallmarks of design and function. They are virtually indestructible and really easy to use. Click the photo again (PLATE 15) and here is the reel assembly drives for both formats. I think you can see the similarities here. These spindles drive the little reels inside the cassette. All VCRs have these. The U-matic runs the tape through in the machine in the opposite direction from the Betamax. This puts the tension arm and friction belt (backward tension belt) in opposite positions. You can't see the tension arms in the photos but you can see the metal belt that wraps around the supply reels for both. The belts have felt bonded to the inside and their job is to maintain backward tension on the tape as it leaves the supply reel inside the cassette. This makes the tape travel flat and smooth over the drums and other tape path components. Click again (PLATE 16). Now we are going to quickly go through how the Betamax loads the tape inside the tape path. This illustration shows it just beginning to pull the tape out of the cassette once it has been inserted. The threading ring is just starting to rotate the tape into the ready position. Since the Betamax travels the tape in the reverse direction to the U-matic the threading starts out on the right side of the cassette. In the right corner of the photo above is diagram showing the tape path for Betamax. Click the picture (PLATE 17).
Here the tape is position after threading has been completed. Click the picture again (PLATE 18).
This photo shows a view of tape as it would travel past the audio and control head when it is being pulled by the capstan and pinch roller. From here the tape makes a U-turn and then goes back into the cassette being slightly pulled by the take-up reel. The tape is totally controlled and under slight tension every step of the way. It has to be this way so the it doesn't run amuck in the machine and getting damaged. The tape paths for the U-matic and Betamax are side-by-side in the lower right. Click on the picture (PLATE 19). Stopping the tape at the end and beginning during winding is very important and here we see the methods used by the two formats. U-matic uses the photo cell and transparent leader method. When the clear section arrives at either end a light hits a photo cell and the machine stops. This also prevents operation if the tape breaks or doesn't thread properly. For Betamax Sony decided to use a foil (metal) tape at the ends and a sensor coil to detect it. Why did Sony choose the foil leader method? Reliability. In the lamp method if the lamp burns out, the photo cell gets dirty or anything blocks out the light the machine doesn't know when to stop or start. Foil doesn't loose its properties and is more dependable. VHS uses the lamp and photocell method. Click the picture one more time (PLATE 20). Here is the first Betamax deck (the SL-7200) and a U-matic, one on top of the other. There is a sizeable difference for sure, partly due to the larger cassette and wider tape, but as you can see they are related. That completes our tour of the graduation from one format to the other. Now lets look at where it went and how popular it became in the next panel. To go to the "Consumer Betamax" click here.
|
