My first experience with the U-matic Video was at University when I joined the student TV station. They had a 2 machine edit suite comprising a VO5800/5850 and RM-440 controller. We used a VO-6800 as the portable recorder.
I was immediately impressed by the quality and robustness of the format, especially when compared with the pre-dominate home video format. Things should have been different but that's another story. Later, after experience of editing, my first impressions were reinforced by the stability of pictures after 3 or 4 generations of editing.
I have made happy memories of that suite. As students we didn't always treat the kit with the utmost of respect but the U-matic VTR's survived our hammering and gave sterling service. The VO-6800, I remember with less fondness. It seemed to weigh a ton. Especially after carting it around London for a day on a whirl-wind shoot. Of course, if we'd have had a DV machine then we'd have missed all the fun!
Submitted Tue Apr 6 22:55 1999