VCR Games

VCR??? Technological heresy these days. But not when I began in Surveillance, back in the last century.

As for a remote...a remote would not be expected to possess one scintilla the desruptive power of a Martian blaster, as pictured h'yar.

*BUZZZZZER* All it takes is the proper venue. More on that in a 'mo.

When I was first introduced to the Surveillance Room of my former establishment -- back in the summer of '96 -- it was not, to my view, an inviting place. Small. Dark. Uncomfortably warm. Full of VCRs, tapes, switchers, quads, et al. The first suggestion that I should consider a transfer there was a decided "phfffft".

Then toward the end of '96, the room underwent a renovation. The next time I saw it....*TOING*...my future was before me.

And in April, 1997, I became an observer. In the words of a co-worker, I became one "who didn't play well with others", meaning the rest of the casino. Such was the view of my new department, by every other department in the place.

But I didn't worry about that. I had lots to learn in my new environment. A room full of monitors, with about 107 VCRs, and the supporting equipment. As for the brains of the system -- a computer-controlled matrix, fed by a Sargasso Sea of video cables -- I was about as computer illiterate as one coming to such a system could be. I knew "on-off", and little else.

But I learned. In time, I would go from a fledgling observer-in-training, to a cable-pulling, camera-installing, VCR-cleaning, component-replacing, trouble-shooting tech of sorts. I would find out how easy it was to affect a single component, feet or even yards away, by contact with a supporting component. I would spend hours trying to track a wiring problem down in that danged Sargasso Sea of wiring behind the rack. I would learn that using pull strings to install new wiring was soooooo phfffffffft, and that a telescoping 30' pull rod was vastly superior.

I would learn many other things as well, for another time.

At any rate, on the VCRs....about every 2 years, about 1/2 of the room's VCRs would be replaced. That number would gradually grow to number about 181 VCRs, before the advent of a digital system in '09. Meantime, after running 24/7 for 2 years, it was reckoned to be time to replace about 1/2 of the units. As new VCRs were installed, the old ones were cleaned, boxed up, and sold at a discount to whomever wanted one.

I have one that I got in '99; it still works today.

At any rate, each VCR came with its own remote. Now, until about 2003 or so, VCR brands and models were kept as compatible and uniform as possible, so as to minimize problems and recording quality. But -- and as in any organization with a purchasing department that isn't always interested in performance vs cost -- we started getting differing brands of VCRs, with different remotes.

Pretty soon, we had two different brands of VCR on the observer stations, and as many as three differing brands operating in the racks, with others in the dubbing stations. Each requiring a different remote to set their functions. Some of which could be affected by another remote.

So it wasn't unusual to, in a time of five things going at once with only two observers to cover, grab a wrong remote that didn't work what you needed it to...but it was sending an infrared signal someplace else in the room, to make your life miserable in other ways, once you discovered the error.

It was a real annoyance, when I took a bank of VCRs out of service to clean them, and had to re-set their record speeds when re-installing them. One little misfire with the remote, and I re-set the speeds on nearby VCRs. All were required to run on SLP (Standard Long Play, 8 hours); one wrong *zap* and you'd have this one running at SP (Standard Play, 2.5 hours) or EP (Extended Play, about 4-5 hours).

You'd figure it out when several VCRs stopped running at the same time, well short of a scheduled tape change cycle.

But the variety of remotes found another "unintended consequence" as well: it became a source of practical jokes.

One particular brand of VCR had an annoying display that would appear in the lower left corner of the screen, which had to be removed via remote, whenever the machine was intentionally or accidentally shut off and restarted. The slightest misfire with the remote, and while you removed the display from one VCR, you activated it in a half-dozen others. It took time and patience to fix the problem.

One day, my coworker of the moment -- an ex-NYC Italian named Vinnie, and had the accent to go widdit -- went forth to try to fix a bank of 5 VCRs that had experienced a 'ghost' power bump, and all had the annoying display on their respective monitors. As he began to work to remove the displays, I grabbed a second remote....and reactivated the display behind him.

He thought he'd finished...only to find that instead of having fixed 5 units, he now had a dozen with the display up. With even more deliberate care, he went to work...and I went to covert sabotage.

His dozen to fix now left him with 20 bearing the annoying display. His Italian ire was up. He went back, waxing Queens colorfully metaphoric, to fix the 20...as I 'zapped' along behind him, and made it 30 more to fix.

He about needed therapy by this time. Fortunately (for me), he never saw my deviltry at work.

Another time, while I was sitting at a side desk where our report computer was located, another observer was watching a dealer at work on a blackjack table, while idly chatting with another observer. With a remote for his observer VCR at hand, I just couldn't resist...his VCR stopped. Rewound. Began to play. Stopped. Began recording. Stopped. Rewound. His idle chatter became a confused silence, followed by a "WTF???" that he never thought to answer by glancing to his right at yours truly. I carefully put the remote back, and he was none the wiser.

Or so I thought, until two weeks later. Engaged in a tracking project, my VCR suddenly stopped. Started to rewind. Stopped. Started rewinding again. And kept rewinding, which wouldn't respond to my furious pushing of the buttons on the device.

Guess who was sitting to my right, wearing an ear-to-ear "gotcha" grin?

When I left Surveillance to assume a new departmental post in the summer of '06, there were a total of 181 VCRs in the room, making up four different manufacturers, and requiring six different remotes for all. And in keeping with a well-established and honored tradition, the 'Remote Wars' continued, right to the last week before the Digital Age took over.

Ah, the days gone by...*click*...*rewind*...yb enog syad eht ,hA...*click*...dang. Got me again.