Datavision Video Products - "Character Generator / Video Titling System" (Demo Reel, 1974?)

Here's a demo reel from Datavision Video Products for their Model D-3000 Character Generator, Model D-4000 RAM Floppy Disk Drive and Model D-3400 Video Titling System. The host was actor Bryan Clark (here billed as Brian Clark) (who was in a lot of TV shows and movies in the 80s and 90s), and his assistant was "Linda" (not worthy of a surname apparently).
The sans-serif font in this early CG system was ubiquitous on WSNS Channel 44 in Chicago from the latter half of the 1970's up to its early years as a Spanish-language station in the mid-1980's. Nationally, this typeface was also seen on the game show Wheel of Fortune in its early years on the air.
Includes:
One second of bars and tone
Brian impatiently waiting for graphics (old-style) to be readied for initial demonstration, explaining that said artist misspelled the title, which card is misaligned (notice the Norelco PC-70S-2 style camera seen in this segment), and how many people it takes to handle such graphics; he then shows a menu board (as used in restaurants) which are likewise considered inefficient for presentation, before coming to the first CG with lo-res type and, finally, the D-3400.
Opening titles:
Datavision Video Products
Presents
Model D-3000 Character Generator
(set in then-newer type)
With Linda demonstrating the system, Brian explains the simplicity of its operation - and professional look of the type onscreen.
Features of the keyboard shown are:
- Four-page, 40-row memory
- 2-channel display (Preview / Program)
- Keyboard layout (including a "Flash" key to signal a word to blink on and off)
- Symbols including percent (%), degrees (°), cents (¢), one-half (½), and cents after dollars (early superscript with underline)
- Keys controlling where you type, including arrows, Erase and Auto Center
- Title advance key which operates in conjunction with function switches at top right, controlling credit rolls and crawls, and title modes
- 3-speed vertical roll and horizontal crawl (slow, medium and fast)
- Manual title mode
- 40 one-row pages
- 20 two-row pages
- How to position them
- Large and small characters, with possibility of intermixing
- Edge key signal
- Display on Program, compose on Preview
This is followed by a demonstration of how each function is applied, then Brian shows Datavision's D-4000 RAM computer for storage of up to 1,000 pages (10,000 rows of storage) - all held on a 5¼" floppy disk (those were the days!). He then displays a keyboard that accesses any page (Random Addressing) at the touch of a button.
Next, the inside of a D-3000 is shown, with plug-in integrated circuits, and built for convenient service.
With that, Brian sums up the system and ends the presentation.
Ending credits: [music is "Man's Hope" by Herbie Mann (1971)]
The Model D-3400 Video Titling System
*****
Directed by Frank Hefferen
Cameraman - Ron Mack
Lighting Director - David Myatt
Set Design - Frank Hefferen
Video Tape - David Harten
Audio - Ron Bricker
Video - John Gisel
Demonstrated by Brian [sic] Clark and Linda
Datavision Graphics - Anthony Mattia
Produced at Tele-Color Productions, Washington, D.C.
Datavision Video Products
Mincom Division
3M Company
"Imagine - a full day of television graphics, at the touch of a key."
This did not air anywhere, but based on other research it appears to have been produced around 1974.
This was from a tape donated as part of The Mike and Britta Fayette Collection.
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