A Brief History of CCTV and Video Tape Recording 1942: Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is first used in Germany. German scientists developed the technology so that they could monitor the launch of V2 rockets. Later, this kind of video surveillance was used in the United States during the testing of Atomic Bombs. 1951: The Video Tape Recorder (VTR) is invented. The VTR was used to record live images from a television camera through the use of a magnetic recording strip. Five years later, this technology would become commercially available, and would eventually be coupled with CCTV to record surveillance for later viewing. 1965: Public surveillance cameras become more common. Press reports from the time indicate that police had adopted the use of cameras in a number of public places. 1969: The first video home security system is born. Marie Van Brittan Brown received a patent on her system which consisted of four peepholes and camera that could be moved to look through any one of them. The camera would broadcast its images to a monitor. 1970s: CCTV makes a splash in the non-government market. Banks and retailers began to use CCTV as an added security measure against theft. This would continue through the 1980s. 1976: Charge-coupled device (CCD) technology leads to the creation of cameras that can be used in low light situations. These used microchip technology and made round-theclock surveillance possible. Source: https://www.verizon.com/business/small-business-essentials/resources/edisoninternet-history-video-surveillance105000047/#:~:text=1942%3A%20Closed%20Circuit%20Television%20(CCTV,Recorder%20(VTR )%20is%20invented. & https://tinyurl.com/2vzbpt28 Closed circuit TV monitoring at the Central Police Control Station, Munich Germany in 1973. CCTV Footage Format Based on my research, the most likely format of the CCTV footage was EIAJ-1 or 2-inch quadruplex video. Circa 1970, the year of Joey’s death… VHS didn’t yet exist. JVS created the first functional VHS prototype in 1973. Betamax wasn’t released until May 10, 1975. U-Matic wasn’t released until 1971. o “In 1969, JVC collaborated with Sony Corporation and Matsushita Electric…in building a video recording standard for the Japanese consumer. The effort produced the U-Matic format in 1971, which was the first cassette format to become a unified standard for different companies. It was preceded by the reelto-reel 1/2" EIAJ format.” About EIAJ-1: It was the first standardized format for industrial/non-broadcast video tape recorders. Prior to that, “a reel of tape recorded on a Panasonic machine would not play on a Sony machine, and vice versa. The EIAJ-1 standard ended this incompatibility, giving those manufacturers a standardized format, interchangeable with almost all VTRs.” “The EIAJ-1 standard paved the way for consumer-oriented, non-professional analog video recording technology to become more affordable and widespread, with many businesses, schools, government agencies, hospitals, and even some consumers adopting the format in the early 1970s.” “By 1971, Sony introduced the first successful videocassette system, the U-matic format. The U-Matic system offered many advantages over EIAJ-1, including color recording as standard, stereo sound, and automatic tape threading. However, EIAJ-1 equipment remained in use for some years as it was less expensive than U-Matic machines or tape, EIAJ-1 equipment was lighter and more compact, and portable battery operated EIAJ-1 machines with companion video cameras were already available (such as the AV-3400). It was not until the mid-1970s, that portable U-Matic machines and compatible portable color cameras were introduced. Another option: 2-inch quadruplex video “Those experimenting with the use of video in journalism, the arts, and industrial applications were hampered by the inability to distribute and circulate video content, as the lack of compatibility between VTRs made sharing tapes problematic. Strides towards standardization came a lot quicker for a format like 2-inch quadruplex video, which was the professional standard for television studios.” Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIAJ-1 & https://miap.hosting.nyu.edu/program/student_work/2007fall_2/07f_2910_villereal_a1_y.pdf & https://miap.hosting.nyu.edu/program/student_work/2007fall_2/07f_2910_villereal_a1_y.pdf Possible VTR Playback Devices FOR USE WITH 2-INCH QUADRUPLEX VIDEOTAPE: AMPEX VR-3000 It played back 2-inch quadruplex videotape, the first practical and commercially successful analog recording video tape format. Invented in 1967, it was a suitcase-sized, portable video recording device meant for field usage, including in military operations. The device needed to be connected to a separate video monitor for playback as shown in a recent YouTube video below: The suitcase could be worn as a backpack and could be attached to the BC-300 handheld camera for video recording purposes, as seen here: “Because the Ampex VR-3000 model was self-contained portable, the U.S. military used it in a wide variety of reconnaissance applications in various vehicles and aircraft. Its ability to accurately record a wide bandwidth of signals, especially high-frequency signals, was a definite advantage for signals intelligence applications.” “The Ampex VR3000 is a portable, record-only quadruplex VTR that was built for field acquisition. Despite its Mark 11 ball-bearing head, the machine was quite capable of color. Power was supplied by silver oxide rechargeable batteries. In use, the operator wore it on his back while handling a heavy, bulky camera. (It took great strength to be a videographer in those days! In fact, legend has it that the machine bent the dummy that was wearing it at the first NAB show where it was exhibited!) Despite being in production a fairly long time, relatively few were made, and there are only a handful of machines that I know of still in existence.” Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadruplex_videotape#Military_applications and https://www.labguysworld.com/Ampex_VR-3000-Anniversary.htm and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy1FtBkLkeA&t=687s and https://www.bcs.tv/store/model_detail.cfm?id=815175 FOR USE WITH EIAJ-1 VIDEOTAPE: Sony AV-3400 (aka the PortaPak) It played back EIAJ-1 videotape Developed in 1969, “it was not the only portable video recorder around at the time, but it was by far the most successful and it spawned a whole genre of video making.” “A portapak consists of a portable video camera with a built -in microphone and electronic view finder, a VTR and a monitor all engineered into a batterypowered unit that weighs from 15 to 50 pounds and records up to 30 minutes of videotape.” The device needed to be connected to a separate video monitor for playback as shown in photos below: 3 different portable cameras could be used with the AV-3400 and the device had a strap to be carried over the shoulder and operated. Sources: https://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/4457-a-long-time-ago-in-abrochure-far-far-away-we-found-a-video-recorder-like-the-sony-av-3400-portapak and https://cool.culturalheritage.org/videopreservation/vid_guide/12/12.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portapak and https://tinyurl.com/2p8vteup
