This footage was filmed in March 2018 at Royal Holloway, University of London in Egham, United Kingdom.
A group of veteran television videotape engineers was reunited with obsolete editing equipment last used in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. The editors’ working practices and memories were recorded using multiple digital video cameras and wireless microphones.
This video is part of a series which explores the work of video tape librarians, who kept track of thousands of video cassettes filled with programming in the days before broadcast television transitioned to tapeless workflow and storage.
ADAPT (2013-8) is a European Research Council project at Royal Holloway University of London. The project studies the history of technologies in television, focussing on their everyday use in production activities.
ADAPT examines what technologies were adopted and why; how they worked; and how people worked with them. As well as publishing written accounts, the project carries out 'simulations' that reunite retired equipment with the people who used to use it.
Participants in these simulations explain how each machine worked and how different machines worked together as an 'array'; how they adapted the machines; and how they worked together as teams within the overall production process.