C'est tellement facile: - TELE-satellite International Magazine

118 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 10-11/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com
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old video and audio tapes and save them
on present-day storage media. “We have at
hand video recorders for all systems that
have ever been on the market, and naturally
we keep theses systems operational
at all times.” Even ancient steel tapes can
be played back – which comes as a genuine
surprise. “Steel tape was the predecessor of
magnetic tape and was used in the 1940s
and 1950s.”
Time and again audio and video tapes
from decades ago pop up and the Radiomuseum
is the place to go for playing back or
copying their often valuable content. “This
can be particularly interesting if the tapes
include recordings of company assemblies,
for instance, and in some cases such historic
content may even have legal ramifications.”
In cases like this the Radiomuseum even
bridges an existing market gap, as there
are hardly any official institutions that keep
age-old technology up and running the way
Bjarne Nielsen does.
In a time and age in which modern satellite
receivers are discarded after only a few years
of use only to be replaced with yet another
new device, a visit to the Radiomuseum
in Ringsted is a step back in time. Modern
technology is put in perspective when you
wander past a sheer endless number of old
devices, some of which still working after
100 years – if maintained and serviced properly.
Bjarne Nielsen and his helpers definitely
know how to do just that. His Radiomuseum
is well worth a visit.
More information: www.rfr.dk
1. Bjarne Nielsen uses the museum’s
basement to keep all types of video
recorders up and running. All systems
are perfectly maintained and can be
used at the touch of a button. “Bring
us any kind of old video recording and
we’ll be able to copy the content on
DVD,” he proudly says.
2. A rare sight: Bjarne Nielsen’s fully
functional steel tape recorder is a
genuine marvel. Even today it can be
used to play back steel tape rolls that
are 50 years old (like the one he holds
in his hands), and to copy them onto
present-day storage media.
3. The basement of the vocational
school he used to teach at is a maze
that serves as storage area for the
Ringsted Radiomuseum. Close to
5000 radio and TV sets stand side
by side, including the first HDTV
set made in Europe, which used the
D2-MAC standard at the time. While
this transmission standard is long
gone, the TV set remains a reminder of
technical innovation in days gone by.
4. Of course, old satellite technology
is a given for Bjarne Nielsen too. Here
he is seen next to an old presentation
antenna made by TRIAX, with the
TRIASAT 2000 analogue receiver from
1990 in his hand.