RD4/2 (EMI) 1958

This EMI RD4/2 is basically an EMI TR-90 in a customised BBC trolley made especially for them, by them, these started out being used in the Bush house in 1958. These machines where modified by the BBC’s internal workshop known as the designs department as the BBC required equipment which simply didn’t exist at the time or meet their demands, they simply made or altered them to fit the required parameters. These were used thought all of the major studios and were not sold outside the BBC, some black and white pictures feature the Radiophonic workshop

The TR-90’s were available IN EMI’s own cases such as the rack mount, portable or Console  ( which is larger than a BTR-2), the TR-90 was customisable, with mono or stereo heads, 2 watt VU meter monitoring module or 10 watt PPM monitoring, internal or external speaker, single or double power supply stereo machines ( more to do with stereo single or double metering).

The tape transport is rather unique, you have a large counter roller mounted in the centre of the deck behind the head block which keeps the tension on the counter roller high and makes the clock more accurate, the heads are easy to access and the transport has a lot of space to be able to edit freely. Logic controlled, this three motor deck featured “spooling” control which was very fast to wind, the tape speed selector is semi hidden from fiddlers as on the BTR-2 machines but in a position they can be altered between 7.1/5 and 15 ips. The amp section allows for monitoring of the source or the tape, with a VU or PPM meter for visual monitoring and L.S loud speaker output ( sometimes external or contained in the tape deck section or the amplifier section), the front of the amp has line input and outputs but the BBC model was adapted with their “hypertec” connector plug on the back which carries the remote signals as well as the audio signals.

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