Oxford Duplication Centre Ltd

Sony’s Betamax lost out to JVC’s VHS in the home video entertainment format war in the 1980s.   This didn’t stop Sony from venturing into another ‘Beta’ format, namely, Betacam SP or Beta SP. SP stands for Superior Quality.   Sony introduced this analogue video camera format in 1986.  Before Betacam SP was Betacam which was released in 1982 as the ‘pro version’ of Betamax.   Betacam SP is an enhancement of the Betacam format. The Betacam system was a 1/2-inch tape format (similar to VHS and Betamax) that needed a camcorder, video recorder, and tape. It was targeted at the professional market.    It was meant to be an improvement on Sony’s 3/4-inch U-Matic tape format.   Betacam tapes came in two sizes – Short (S) and Long (L).   Betacam camcorders for consumers could only load the S version.   Only broadcast stations with a complete Beta system could support both the S and L versions through recorders meant for editing.   Betacam offer...

We were priviledged to work with Peter Dawn, a Jazz journalist and historian who commissioned our company to digitise his companies complete archive of rare shellac and pathe records, into National Archive Standard digital files, preserving the music for future listening. Our audio engineering services offered Broadcast WAV files with MP3 asset files for online listening. Audio restoration using Isotope standards were gently applied to ensure the outcome was a pure record sound. Talking to Peter about this fascinating and specialist archive revealed that over twenty years  he has researched to write a book about the legendary Phil Seamen, Britains greatest Jazz drummer, and this collection of rare vinyl is part of this amazing story.  Peter, in his own words highlights:  "The Parnell band’s minor riot, Billie Holiday at the Royal Albert Hall, West Side Story’s ‘Dinner is Served’ episode, Phil being stopped from going to America, the start of European Free Form jazz, thirt...

The Preservation of The Curnock Glass Plate Negatives Introduction Our services ( @OxfordDuplicat1 )  are highly recommended in the UK for specialist photographic film scanning. Trusted to our company, we are preparing The Curnock glass plate collection, held at Oxford Brookes University and part of the  @MethodistGB collection. Almost all archives possess some type of photographic collection. Many individuals typically think of “photographs” as plastic-based negatives and slides; but these photographic techniques are relatively recent inventions. Prior to the invention of cellulose nitrate film in 1903, photographic emulsions were made on glass supports. These glass supports are typically referred to as glass plate negatives. The term “glass plate negative” refers to two separate formats: the collodion wet plate negative and the gelatin dry plate. Both of these formats consist of a light sensitive emulsion that is fixed to the glass plate base with a binder. Dozens of photog...