Cyberamics Betamax

Source metadata
Type	Showtape Formats
Dates	1987-01-15 – 1988
Tags	Chuck E. Cheese's
Contributors	sudo-trans-pony, Ceclife13

Cyberamics Betamax is an obscure predecessor to the C&R SVHS (Pre-93) format that was tested at the Arlington, TX (2216 S Fielder Rd) from January 15, 1987, until some time in 1988. The format was used to synchronize video with showtapes and to combine the main show with the previously separate Showbiz Pizza Programs and Family Vision tapes. ^[1]

History

Cybervision was first demonstrated to members of the SPT Entertainment Committee at the programming studio in the Corporate Office during a meeting on September 18, 1986. ^[2]

On January 15, 1987, the Arlington, TX (2216 S Fielder Rd) store began testing the first iteration of Cybervision using Betamax tapes. ^[1] This would be done for every tape of that year before Cybervision would make its way to the rest of the stores in early 1988. These tapes would use minimum system features in order to ensure essential features could work feasibly, utilizing only the main show, background music, a basic countdown, and Family Vision. ^[3] The switch from Reel to Cybervision resulted in certain features having to be discontinued, including Interactive Animation and non-birthday Special skits included on the tape. ^[3]

A quote from David Philipson many years ago also discusses the system, though he notes two stores had the old system and were instead in Austin, TX. It is unclear if these were two extra stores, or if he meant to say Arlington, or if one was in Arlington and one in Austin. There being two stores also leads to the idea that the other store was indeed a ShowBiz store, as shown by the RAE Betamax tape. ^[4] Another option is that the second store is White Settlement, TX (7750 Scott St), which was the main store filmed for Cybervision/Cyberstar and training videos.

The Cyberstar Diagnostic Tape for the Rock-afire was notably produced in 1988 on Betamax. It has not been confirmed if this tape was used like previous CEI Betamax tapes on an external monitor, or if it was produced for the early tests of Cyberstar. Only one copy of the tape has ever been found.

Potential Showtapes

The potential tapes that debuted on this format include:

Given the earliest Cybervision showtape was Tune Machine / Country, and that the Betamax stores were in the test market area, this is likely when the prototype format was phased out for Cybervision, but it still could have taken place later in the year at either store.

Reused & Updated Footage

Eventually, Cybervision would swap its footage style from filming at White Settlement, TX (7750 Scott St), and instead filmed at the CEC Corporate offices with a bluescreen. The last showtape to film at White Settlement was CEC Dance Showtape in September of 1988, and the first at corporate was CEC Fractured Classics in January of 1989. The segments from 1987's CEC Home for the Holidays would be used again in 1988, though no video would be shown for them. Chuck E. Cheese Shows (CEC Best of 1988) would reuse segments from Country, Faves, and Tune Machine. The Tune Machine video is of White Settlement, but the videos for Faves and Country were newly recorded at Corporate. The 1987 Holiday segments would also have new video recorded at Corporate for CEC Christmas '89 / Wave Bday, and three songs from CEC TV Westerns would have new footage recorded for CEC TV Classics.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 showbizpizza.com
↑ showbizpizza.com
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 showbizpizza.com
↑ Quote from David Philipsen: 'Cybervision was an idea that Paul Linden and I came up with in around 1986. This was before DVDs and before we ever thought of combining video with a show. All shows has traditionally run on reel-to-reel tape decks. Paul and I had played around a little with a couple of VCR formats, VHS HiFi and Beta HiFi. These formats used the rotating head on a VCR to record a much higher quality audio signal. Some professional decks were just starting to become available with the ability to record audio not only on the longitudinal tracks (standard) but also on the HiFi tracks. This meant that they were capable of playing back four audio channels and video simultaneously. After some wrangling, we finally convinced the boss to let us prototype a system that would run a 3-stage show with stereo audio and use the two longitudinal tracks for character data. We called it 'Cybervision'. It was installed in two locations in Austin, TX and the name later morphed to 'Cyberstar'.'

Import provenance

Imported from Cheese-E-Pedia at source revision 274f085c7132d784f81b7a4cbd96e7a0922db854. Source material is provided under CC BY-SA 4.0.

[cep4-1] 1.0 ^1.1 showbizpizza.com

[cep3-2] showbizpizza.com

[cep2-3] 3.0 ^3.1 showbizpizza.com

[cep1-4] Quote from David Philipsen: 'Cybervision was an idea that Paul Linden and I came up with in around 1986. This was before DVDs and before we ever thought of combining video with a show. All shows has traditionally run on reel-to-reel tape decks. Paul and I had played around a little with a couple of VCR formats, VHS HiFi and Beta HiFi. These formats used the rotating head on a VCR to record a much higher quality audio signal. Some professional decks were just starting to become available with the ability to record audio not only on the longitudinal tracks (standard) but also on the HiFi tracks. This meant that they were capable of playing back four audio channels and video simultaneously. After some wrangling, we finally convinced the boss to let us prototype a system that would run a 3-stage show with stereo audio and use the two longitudinal tracks for character data. We called it 'Cybervision'. It was installed in two locations in Austin, TX and the name later morphed to 'Cyberstar'.'

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