philicorda wrote in message Excuse my ignorance, but what is a layback deck? A little googling shows
it to be something to do with transferring sound to video, but I'm none
the wiser.

What's the difference between a layback deck and a reqular one, and why is
a specialised machine required?

Back in those days (early to mid/end 80s) when one mixed to video, via
SMPTE time-code, Q-Locks (eg.), multi-track machines and Nagra-T
(another eg.), we used a video reference of the 1"C edited picture,
most often on cheaper U-Matic (yet another eg.).

One the mix was said and done, it somehow had to be transferred back
to the original video tape, in this instance 1"C. Some manufacturers
made 1"C "layback" machines (I personally used an MCI with great
delight, which still runs fine today if I can find the power cord)
that had all the audio electronics required for the sound part of the
1"C format, but none of the video. This made for big, huge, humomguous
savings on the investent and was much gentler with the tape. Also, you
didn't have to go through a video editing course to know how to enter
an In point (as compared to an Ampex VPR-2, eg.).

A side effect was that the audio quality of the circuitry was usually
better than that found on the video machines.

Enough writing, I've got to run back to the museum for my round...