Video History Project

Chronology

Siegel Video Systems

Date
1975
Siegel Video Systems Processing Chrominence Synthesizer is available and distributed by Siegel-Ferraro Electronics.
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"Siegel Video Systems." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/siegel-video-systems.

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Last modified 16 May 2011

Related records

  • Descriptions of Systems Tools

    Siegel Video Systems presented the Electronic Video Synthesizer (E.V.S.) as the first all-electronic video synthesizer, intended for live performance with keyboard, foot pedals and D.C.-coupled signals; information available through Howard Wise Gallery, February 10, 1971. Siegel-Ferraro Electronics distributed the Processing Chrominence Synthesizer (PCS) in 1975 and Siegel Electronics distributed the Processing Chrominance Synthesiser Model 100 in Brooklyn in 1976; the PCS holds U.S. patent no. 3,647,942 and functions as a colour synthesizer and processing amplifier performing sync reconstruction, white peak limiting, keyed clamp D.C. restoration, luminance and detail controls, and chroma/phase adjustments. The PCS was reported in use by colleges and individuals in the U.S. and Canada; cited literature includes Pioneers of Electronic Art (1992) and a 1970 Jud Yalkut interview with Eric Siegel.

  • Standards Bibliography

    Collection of documents by Eric Siegel concerning modifications to the Portapak and development of a video/color synthesizer, dated 1971–1976. Includes an article Modifications to Portapak in Radical Software (Summer 1971); press material for the video synthesizer (1971); a document titled Siegel Processing Chrominance Synthesiser (1975); spec sheets for gen lock, proc amp and synthesizer plus correspondence (1976); standards (1971); technical design information for an electronic synthesizer; and a patent for a video synthesizer (1972).

  • Eric Siegel Chronology

    February 10, 1971. Eric Siegel announces the Electronic Video Synthesizer. Information available through Howard Wise Gallery.

  • Eric Siegel Chronology

    Processing Chrominance Synthesiser Model 100 designed by Eric Siegel and distributed by Siegel Electronics, Brooklyn 1976

  • Eric Siegel Chronology

    Eric Siegel builds Electronic Video Synthesizer with financial assistance from Howard Wise, New York

  • Notes Toward a History of Image-Processed Video; Eric Siegel, Stephen Beck, Dan Sandin, Steve Rutt, Bill and Louise Etra Bibliography

    Survey of the emergence of image-processing video as a genre situates its origins in the late 1960s alternative television movement and the pages of Radical Software; it describes tool types (raster manipulators, colorizers/mixers, synthesizers) and cites the Paik/Abe Video Synthesizer, the Rutt/Etra Scan Processor, Beck's Direct Video Synthesizer, Sandin's Image Processor, and Siegel's colorizer and prototype synthesizer. The article profiles Eric Siegel (built colorizers, prototype synthesizer, sold ~10 colorizers, later formed Siegel Electronics), Stephen Beck (NCET residency, completed synthesizer 1971, BeckTech), Dan Sandin (Image Processor finished by 1973, gave plans away, ~$3,000 Illinois Arts Council grant), and Bill and Louise Etra with Steve Rutt (built raster-scan device, WNET TV Lab support, ~20 machines produced; legal settlement ended marketing).