MartcasterJunior wrote:I'm pretty sure ENG video cameras were of fairly low-quality back then - good enough to capture a news story as it happened and get it back to the studio for broadcast but not something that would be used on a prime-time TV show as part of a multi-camera set-up. I'm sure there are others more knowledgable than me on the subject though!
I worked at BBC Scotland in 1980 and well remember sneaking into the observation gallery in Studio A Glasgow, to watch the Shadows doing a TV recording with George Ford on bass. Those colour cameras were mighty beasts: they didn't have small ones. News footage was still being shot on film in those days. Indeed, one of the film editors used to add discreet sound effects to news reports for the amusement of friends. You'd pass him in the corridor and he'd mutter something like, let's say, "Ambulance story - hyena". Sure enough,
Reporting Scotland that evening would show some item involving an ambulance and, if you listened very carefully to the wildtrack, you could just make out low-level canine laughter!