The Sony AV-3420CE 'Rover' Portable B&W Video Recorder

The Sony AV-3420CE was one of the very first portable video recorders produced.

Introduced in the early 1970's (1971?) it formed part of the AC-CE 'system' that would usually
comprise the portable recorder itself, the camera, and a pair of larger mains machines as an 'edit
suite'. No computer editing controllers yet - just hit or miss 'crash' edits. Indeed video editing was
in those days a rather interesting experience, and just to connect two bits of video together in a
reasonably logical way without technical problems was something of a sucess!

Used with a lightweight vidicon camera, these machines were highly popular in education, and
were usually known as 'Rovers', or in the Sates; 'Rover Packs'. (This particular example came
from a teacher training college in York.)

Capable of only black and white recording of course, these Sony machines did though produce
rather good pictures for their time, thanks mainly to Sony 'high energy' half inch wide Chromium
dioxide tape, giving a resolution of over 300 lines.

Designed for very simple operation, there were just two levers to work. One to operate the
transport (REW-STOP-PLAY-FF) and one to put the machine into record standby. The camera had
a trigger to start the machine recording. The removable internal NiCad 12V battery powered the
recorder for around 30 minutes. The great thing about this type of set was that one could instantly
see the results via the camera's electronic viewfinder.

Quite compact (here shown with a near contemporary Uher audio recorder), they were usually to
be found in a synthetic leather carrying case, with their 8.6 Kg weight giving the cameraman
something else to think about.

Interestingly, Sony would echo the packaging of this elementary machine in their later high band
broadcast Umatic portables a decade after.

Gallery

Rover with lid open

Rover with Uher 4000 audio recorder

These portable video recorders were an 'interesing' mix of pressed sheet metal, 'bits of string'
and precision engineering.

Remarkable what one can do with without digital servos, digital system control and digital
signal processing; here we have a few transistors, a (very) few ICs and a great 'sprit of
Meccano*'!

Er, actually 82 transistors and 3 ICs.

Specifications:

Format:'Sony AV-CE series'

Recording time:30 minutes (VH 30 tape)

Tape speed:163.22 mm sec

Resolution:> 300 lines

S/N ratio:> 40dB

Power in:12V at 12.6W

Weight:8.5 Kg

Oh, and Black and White ONLY.

Above left - a nice view of rubber bands, idler wheels and bent bits of tin (what was used
before the World had microprocessors - and of course bent tin has become even more
popular). The main chassis of this machine is a pressed sheet of alloy. And the whole structure
looks just like a rather more complex semi-professional audio recorder of the time.

Above right - view of the head drum, the two opposing yellow objects are the stationary drive
generating coils for the camera. To adjust the synchronization of the camera one adjusts these
by moving them in their slots and also by bending their mounting brackets!

Below - bottom cover of the machine removed.

In the above right picture I have removed one of the boards to make things a bit clearer.

The direct drive head drum motor is at the mid left, and this also drives the capstan pulley
(right) via a flat belt, and the feel pulley (lower left) via a square section belt. The helper
motor also drives the capstan (double pulley) via a flat belt. When in fast wind mode
everything speeds up correspondingly and the head drum spins even faster than normal.

It all worked quite well really...

Here we see what lurks under the deck: even more rubber bands and bits of bent tin.

It's basically a single motor transport, with a servo-governed head drum motor driving both
the capstan and tape reels via various belts and clutches. There is however a secondary
'helper motor' (top right), that is used when the machine is put in fast wind mode; to speed
things up. A rather nice plug-in RF modulator (bottom left) was also included, so that you
could check your 'rushes' on a domestic television.