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Master Control
(First View)
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It was through the jack fields seen on the equipment racks that both studio and
remote material was patched into the master control desk that you'll see in the
second view of this room. Additional jack fields determined the routing of the
outgoing channels. The wall racks also contained equalizers that compensated for
frequency response variations on the incoming lines, as well as amplifiers for
NBC's in-house public address system. Much of the equipment in this room was redundant,
so that it could be bypassed in case of failure. |
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Here's what Broadcasting
magazine said about Master Control in its issue of June 15th, 1932:
| THIS MAIN CONTROL
room is one of the showplaces of the Chicago headquarters of NBC and daily attracts
hundreds of visitors because of its neatness and the very rhythm with which the
ever-busy engineers move. The light that filters through a glass ceiling on the
black and white acoustically treated floor forms an artistic picture. |
[During World War
II, black paint was applied over the skylight to save this "nerve center"
from enemy bombing attacks. The paint was never removed. Master Control thus endured
the Second World War and the Cold War that followed without casualty.]
When television arrived at the Merchandise Mart in the late 1940's, this radio
master control room was reborn as "Video Central". Control equipment
(for purposes of shading, etc.) for each studio camera chain was installed here.
The actual television master control point was some distance away at the southwest
corner of the 19th floor of the Merchandise Mart. Radio's master control point
was moved to a former equipment storage area between studios F, G and H, the three
"new" studios built in 1935.
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Created by
Rich Samuels (e-mail to rich@richsamuels.com)
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