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Time Machine: RCA TK-47
“That Was Then!”
RCA's Last Great Studio Camera: the TK-47
In 1978, RCA introduced the TK-47, a camera that what would become the company's last hurrah in full-size studio cameras. The ubiquitous camera became a television industry workhorse--and was still selling well when RCA exited the broadcast business in 1985--until the era of CCDs made it obsolete.
The TK-47 series became so popular, in fact, that it won an Emmy award for its unique use of computing power in 1981. After years of time-consuming and laborious manual set-up, the TK47 was welcomed by engineers for its automatic set-up including registration and alignment of the beams on the tubes.
Although this made life much easier for those assigned to the tweaking of cameras for maximum color fidelity, the first cameras showed a vulnerability to static electricity which could interfere with the CMOS-based microprocessor used in the camera head. This could knock a studio camera system out of whack.
Even so, RCA's TK-47 series were quickly modified and made to work reliably through the years. The camera system used three basic components: the camera head, a camera processing unit and remote control. The RCA-developed TV-24 camera cable connected the original camera and processing unit. RCA boasted (and advertised) that there were no controls at the camera head, thus "freeing the operator to concentrate more on creativity and picture composition."
The TK-47s stayed in service at NBC into the mid 1990s and even longer in some affiliates around the country. From NBC's "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson to Bob Hope's lavish television specials, the TK-47 camera was an industry staple until well after the arrival of CCD sensors in the first video camera in the 1980s.
Larry Thorpe, who worked for RCA's Broadcast Division from 1966 to 1982 and earlier had helped design the legendary TK-44A camera, was the engineering project leader on the development of the TK-47. In 1981, Thorpe, serving as project leader on the TK-47, shared the David Sarnoff Award with the Princeton Research labs engineers for their innovations in automatic studio color cameras.
Thorpe went on to work at Sony in 1982, where he was closely associated with the design and marketing of some of Sony's most popular cameras, ranging from Sony's BVP360 studio camera, the Betacam, and various high-definition models, including the F900 HDCAM product line. He represented Sony at various world standards bodies and helped the company gain credibility for its revolutionary CCD imager. In 2004, Thorpe joined Canon, where he currently works leads the marketing group of their Broadcast & Communications Division.
In 1978, RCA introduced the TK-47, a camera that what would become the company's last hurrah in full-size studio cameras. The ubiquitous camera became a television industry workhorse--and was still selling well when RCA exited the broadcast business in 1985--until the era of CCDs made it obsolete.
