The Video Lab of South Florida

The Video Lab of South Florida South Florida's premiere concierge broadcast videotape archivists. Formats include 3/4" thru HDCAM/D5

05/28/2024

We received this Scotch 379 1" Video tape from the mid 1980's with "Space Shuttle Landing" written on the label for archiving.

The owner was unsure what was truly on the videotape with only knowledge of the tape coming from the estate of a video engineer from the Central Florida area.

The Scotch (3M) 479 reel/tapes from this era are prone to potential issues due to a foam fl**ge and glue on the front of the tape that could erode over the years and make its way onto the tape.

Fortunately for this tape, damage was non existent and after a good baking played back flawlessly using a Sony BVH 2000 VTR (Video Tape Recorded).

Sure enough, the Space Shuttle Challenger was on the tape!

What do you have stored that The Video Lab can assist to archive?

#1980

04/12/2024

Multi format archive project this week of various content. Source material came in on Digital Beta, D2, 3/4", HDCAM-SR and 1".

What do you have stored we can assist with to professionally archive?

Nice archive project this week from the late 90's to early 2000's of various projects and tape formats. 1", 3/4", Digita...
04/12/2024

Nice archive project this week from the late 90's to early 2000's of various projects and tape formats. 1", 3/4", Digital Beta, Beta SP and HDCAM!

Client chose to archive native video using ProRes codec.

03/23/2024

Something a a little different to share: 8 channels of unmixed audio, compared to a final mix with 2 or 4 channels of audio on a HDCAMSR tape.

Archiving HDCAM SR videotapes of HBO promotional content using a Sony SRW-5000 VTR. One of 3 HDCAM VTR’s we have at The Video Lab of South Florida. This particular tape has 8 channels of unmixed audio - various sound on each track as shown in the video.

Final videos that are broadcast or viewed via web/non tv devices are typically mixed down to less channels that are not isolated (I.e., surround/stereo etc) .

This clips shows a bit of both… enjoy!

It’s D3 videotape capture time using a Panasonic AJ-D350 VTR for our friends at Accord Productions Miami, of the US Gol...
03/06/2024

It’s D3 videotape capture time using a Panasonic AJ-D350 VTR for our friends at Accord Productions Miami, of the US Golf Association 1999 US Open. Great see a young Tiger Woods!

These are 3 hour tapes! Yes, 3 hours each. We have not seen or captured tapes this long before. Unfortunately, and as expected, these tapes tend to shed and clog the heads, whereby every so often we would need to pause the capture, clean the heads and continue capturing eventually editing together a full three hour clip.

It’s what needs to be done to preserve history!

Thank you Us Kids for trusting us to digitize and archive your music video from 1987 on 1” video tape with an upres to...
01/29/2024

Thank you Us Kids for trusting us to digitize and archive your music video from 1987 on 1” video tape with an upres to 1080P!

Thrilled to be archiving 50+ reels of hand drawn animation cartoons from the late 1970s and early 1980s.Captured using A...
01/04/2024

Thrilled to be archiving 50+ reels of hand drawn animation cartoons from the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Captured using Ampex VPR-6 and Sony BVH2000 1” video tape recorders, videos were archived as 480i ProRes files, per client request.

What can we help you archive?

12/23/2023

It’s EIAJ tape transfer time! Today we are using a Sony 8600 EIAJ VTR, connected to an DPS 295 TBC, going analog-to-digital through AJA transcoder and upresed to 720p through a Snell & Wilcox Quasar Ph.D.

The tape was baked yet still had issues on playback in certain sections (as seen).

The family was thrilled to see their memories after 40+ years!

How can we help you? 

10/05/2023

Fun in the labs this week with a 24 tape transfer that included D2, digital beta, beta SP, HDCAM and HDCAMSR, to ProRes files , completed in one day. Lots of historical b-roll content that was fantastic to watch at it was captured.

What tapes do you have in your closet/basement that we can help archive?

10/02/2023

There are so many tapes out there with amazing content! Here’s a story of helping a client to capture 3/4” tapes that have not been viewed in 48 years for THE MISS OREGON PAGEANT from 1975 that was not

The story: a bunch of the production team that worked on the yearly pageants are getting together in person, and wanted to show these videos at the event!

From our client “It was the first live remote entertainment broadcast produced for the network of Oregon TV stations.

It required six individual microwave hops over the coast mountain range to get the signal to Telco for transmission to all the stations.

We used a small industrial production truck with four IVC cameras, no VTR playback, and art cards for graphics.

Rudimentary by todays standards, but successful.

We went on to do build a full broadcast production truck and did many more live remote programs over the years “

- - - -
We take for granted how easy it is to stream and share content now… 6 microwave hops to send a feed; a monumental task back then!

Thanks to our client for sharing your story and enjoy watching your work/ the pageants with your friends and former colleagues!

Watching the tapes-it was a much simpler time back then!

09/24/2023

Received this 1” videotape from a client (on a budget) in Mexico. Was not stored in ideal conditions, was very sticky and contained mold.

It needed to be spooled off and put onto another reel. We baked the tape two times, played it back slowly while cleaning it on a non-working Sony BVH-2000 prepping it for playback.

Due to the stickiness there was some damage for first few minutes of the tape, yet salvageable and digitized to a 1080p ProRes file as asked by the client.

What do you have in your possession we can help archive?

09/22/2023

This is a short video. No, literally, this is a 10 second commercial for Q-tips from 1985!

Part of a larger collection of commercials on 1” video tape that we are digitizing on a Ampex VPR6 VTR.

News broadcasts, commercials , music videos, college projects, short films, sports footage…. What do you have that we can assist with capturing?

As the tapes age, it gets harder to guarantee a good archive!

Reach out to discuss at [email protected]

Address

2890 W State Road 84 #106
Fort Lauderdale, FL
33312

Telephone

+18887897138

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Video Lab of South Florida posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category