Ampex ACR-25 Commercial Player Question

[Hurty]

Hello all, I was based to Thames Television in London. We had 4 ACR-25 machines, two used for the main channel commercials and two used for Channel 4 commercials. They where indeed phenomenal machines. The vacuum tape handling was a joy to watch. I was a maintenance engineer. Common problems where the "trombone" as we called it cassette loading mechanism as the rubber diaphragms would fail with the distinctive "whoosh" of air. Power supplies, photo sensors and lamp failures. The TTL logic IC's would keep you entertained on occasions. These machine where incredibly fast and quick to program which suited Thames as they sold commercials using a bidding system so changes could be last minute. I used to operate these on nights, this was sometimes a bit stressful and you would realise in the morning when you left the building and your stomach would hit the floor as you let out a sigh of relief. When you where driving these and things were going well all was o.k. but then you would first hear something that was not the normal sound!! You then would immediately look at the control panel to see which fault light lit up first! as the machine would then grind to a halt and loads of fault lights would then come on! the first to light was the clue. I also worked at the BBC where they had an AVR-1, again an excellent machine used for promo playout. Real television in those days with real machines.