Our group, Northlight Video/Visuals, Inc. was part of the new wave of independent video makers happening in the early 70’s – a big media shift away from the power of broadcast television of the 50’s & 60’s. The event at WGBH (exact date?) brought together many different users of the new technology. At Northlight V/V, we were shooting multi-camera of concerts and events, and I was merging my 60’s lightshow into video-art. Russ Connors from WNYT interviewed me about TV: “Quad” vs. “1/2 inch” – quad was the name for the 4-segment recording of 2″ VTR’s, compared to 1/2-inch, the newer, helical scan videotape recorders by Sony, Panasonic, etc. The growth happened when the Japanese makers decided to make one recording standard (EIA-J) so the various systems by different manufacturers would be interchangeable. Listening to what I’m saying about the tech – clearly clueless at the time, but the intent was there. In ’72, cable-TV had hardly happened, and all the new independent video didn’t have an audience yet. The cool part is describing the future of large screen TV’s . . . ok ? A few years later, Northlight was dropped from the name, and Video/Visuals, Inc. went on to be the northeast’s leading provider of video-projection services in the 80’s and 90’s.
– The following text is grabbed from the WGBH vault web-page on “THE VERY FIRST HALF-INCH VIDEO FESTIVAL EVER’ :
Video playback is explained to Russell Connor For this work video makers using the portapak were invited to bring their works into the WGBH studio, where the pieces were played back from and shot off of monitors. Host Russell Connors and others interviewed participants about their work. Television viewers were encouraged to call into the station with their comments and were given contact information for the participants. The work shown represents the explosion in the use of video after the invention of the portapak. Produced by Henry Becton and Dorothy Chiesa. Directed by David Atwood.
https://youtu.be/vLgVGYmOg5o
The advances in TV technology prophesized in this clip came true, too bad the quality of the programming that WGBH offered at that time has devolved into bland programming, pandering to a yuppie audience (with a few exceptions) and endless begathons that usually feature substandard programming to appeal to the masses…just like commercial TV does, without the commercials!
Pink Floyd – of course! Hooray! Psychedelic 70's. This fella has it right. Tune in, Turn on… (etc)