Brenell 1970

Page 2

the equipment makers

BRENELL

JOHN CHAPMAN

Re/Irlnlz'tl from Records and Recording .Al/Ill/ I 970 lam»

At tin. l..\l) of World War 2 millions ot~

servicemen ere looking for nork in hicll

they could use their ne\\ talents. Matty of

these had jobs to go back to. but this was not
the case for Robert Halnt. a Czechoslovakian
ho had fought 7th the Royal Air Force
and decided Bri in bad tnore to otler than
his man country. Having a little capital and
an engineering background. Robert Hahn
pooled his resr urcts \\ith l Glaser. one of
his airlorce colleagues. to start a small
prccismn engineering not ' (alled Brenell
Engineering. the compatty undertook a
variety of sub-contracting work ranging from
elativcly Simple photographic equipment to
etephoneansueringma ' '

Phe First Tape Recorders

These ere pretty advanced machines and
prompted the tirms entr into the tape
recorder busines. Several of Britains
leading radio manufacturers approached
Brenell Engineering for a domestic tape
recorder design in the early WSOS. The idea
was for a 'do-it-yourselfv unit, no doubt
triggered oll~ by the highly succ Iul tele-
vision rcceiyer kit hieh was being made
at the time. It might not be appreciated. but
the home construction requirement greatly
added to the design problems since the
component parts had to be assembled by
unskilled hands.

The challenge was met and a kit of parts

ll'tlltll'tllltlll 0/ [hr
,tpmitt/ mm'ltim'
[0le rail [or
pmu'liing lltt' Illtllll
lupr (I('('I\ assembly

under the trade name 'Soundmaster proved
a great stlece It was in fact responsible for
introducing many thousands to tape record-
ingia hobby then in its infancy. The
quality of these kits. which \\ ere subsequently
assembled by Brenell Engineering and sold
under the company's own name. can be
coniiitned a, them-wiv- .. wevhywvmn
etttltusia ts. This machine had a three motor
deck attangement. belt-driven llynheel and
was one of the first decks with three speeds
IS. 7} attd 3:} i. s.

The next major change took place in l957
hen the Mark 4 made its debut. This
machine retained the well proven belt-
driven llynheel arrangement. but had new
motor which greatly improved wow and
flutter figures.
Breakthroughs

One of the breakthroughs. if it might so be
called. happened llCll the brass flywheel
gene way to a heavi aluminium ttnit which
had been carefully cast to distribute most of
its mass on to the periphery of the wheel.

Undrrxlrlr vimr 0/ the
Blllll'll qmtrltr-lrark,
llll'tt' .rprt'tl. Iupe

ilrr/t mill which
l-IH'UI'IHNUIUX Hill)~
[ralures including:
llll(t motors, lockable
puuxe Hturlmnixm uml
I'm-l tuition control.

Carefully balanced and dri\en from its
widest circumference. wow attd flutter
ligures dropped once again. Improved
drive motors have. of course. played an
important part in obtainin the present
specification which features a on and
flutter figure of better than 0.05 per cent at
IS in. a figure considered impossible
with th class of macntne only a te\\ y at)
Brenell [Engineering was the tirst
h eompam to use the West German
Papst hyster' s synchronous outer-rotor
capstan motors which are no used by
many prominent tape recorder manufac-
turers.

Many other noteworthy developments ha\c
taken pl e below deck. The braking syst '
has. for example. had to be complet
redesigned for the outer-rotor molt
Control Facilities are also greatly improved.
The latest pause control is to quote .l W
Raine. the companys technical develop-
ment engineer. really positive yet so simple
it is ponder \te didn't think of it before'.
Fac cs for titting up to four heads are still
retained. On some machines. solenoid
control is featured to meet the needs of "w
professional worker. Also some machint
are available to accommodate l()}-ineh
spools.

Professional Market

Trying to get 'ontcthin dill'erent for the
Radio Show several yea ago the company
exhibited a machine capable of It 'ing the
professional-size lOL-inch spools. The res-
ponse was terrific. Several studios placed
orders for the ntachine which \\as net]
below competitors in price and thought an
ideal editing machine. The professional
rccordists were pleasantly surprised \\ith the
quality of the Brenell machines. Wow and
lint. r were remarkably low for this type of
machine and it was not long before sotne
studies were using them as nork-hotses.
Hundreds of these machines are ttow in