In 1975 or so, the CBS network chose took the first step in changing the way video for news broadcasts was gathered. Up to that point, film camera crews shot the footage, which was then processed and cut for broadcast. At best, it was a several hour operation.
CBS decided to do its newsgathering using a video camera, and a “portable” 3/4” videotape machine that weighed about 25 pounds. They made the announcement at their annual affiliates meeting by having the news crew shoot footage of the station owners and guests dancing at the hotel ballroom. We then cut the footage to music on videotape and they surprised the affiliates with the footage at the end of the night. The song we used was “We’ve Only Just Begun”.
I’ve seen a few of those “portable” 3/4 and a 1 inch or two in storage years ago at the public TV network I was at.
Every now and then I cranked up the the U-Matics. I used the Ampex AVR quads more but not by much.