Re: IO-LA SC/H Phase (a great OT story)

sorry AJA, but this is a great story for Tom (since he owns a UVW-1800).

15 years ago, a client in NY rented an AVID and a UVW-1800 to CBS Network on 57th St. in NY. CBS was concerned about the horrible audio meters on the 1800 (averaging meters), and felt that they were not recording the correct audio levels. I went over there with test equipment, and assured them (and showed them) that everything was correct, and the 1800 just had terrible audio meters that did not accurately show the general levels of the media (tone of course is fine on these meters).

SO, the producer is nervous, so he says "lets go across the street to Quality Control, to make sure that everything is ok". So we record a short clip, with bars and tone at the head of the UVW-1800, and take it to CBS Master Control Quality Control on West 57th St. Not even this supervising producer had clearance to enter this area.

We get in there, and it's OLD - the equipment and the employees. And this old geezer (70 years old, I'm not kidding) takes my Beta tape, sticks it into a Sony DVW-A500 (with nice peak meters, showing the -20dB full scale indication for tone), and LOOKS UP TO THE TOP OF THE RACK.
And on the top of this old grey rack is a SINGLE MONO ANALOG VU METER. And the meter creeks it way up to 0VU, and the old bag turns to the producer and me, and says "yup, its BROADCAST QUALITY".

AND NOW YOU KNOW WHAT BROADCAST QUALITY MEANS AT CBS NETWORK IN NY.

Bob Zelin