Before VT.....Telerecording

[Nick Flowers]

Before the general introduction of videotape, the best way to record a television programme was to convert it to film. This article:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/40718050/Film%20Recording.pdf

explains the process.

Converting film back into a television signal was called in the UK TC (Tele-Cine) except by the BBC who, with an obsessive's addiction to the Greek roots of the word, called it TK (Tele-Kine).

[Marc Wielage]

We always called these Kinescopes in America or "kines" for short. They actually go back to the 1930s (at the dawn of TV history), and were still being made through the early 1970s. Modern Digital Intermediates are essentially a high-tech version of the same thing: converting a video image to motion picture film for release. RCA called it "Kinephoto," but their name never caught on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9mhleoBQAQ

[mikewest]

An amusing and very old story from a friend's father in the UK.

He worked for the BBC in an an un-identified role even working on the building of Broadcasting House London.

When the BBC ventured into television from Alexandra Palace they did not have video cameras.

The image was captured on film live and with a loop system the film was processed and then scanned!

He recalled that one day the system jammed and it took days to remove all the filmed filling the scanning room!

Alexandra Palace ended up the BBC News base and I worked there for a day in the dubbing theatre.

It was full of 78 rpm disc players and an old Marconi mixing desk with rotary faders.

mike

[Nick Flowers]

Great stuff, Mike. Our paths may have crossed at A.P.! Was the converted Mellotron in the dubbing theatre when you were there?

[mikewest]

Gee the blood Mellotron!

We had one at Lime Grove then it was replaced with the BBC designed PEG

I worked for the BBC 1969 to !972

mike

[Nick Flowers]

Yes, the Programme Effects Generator! The one at AP had four channels. A remarkably flutter-free start up.

[Rachel Cameron]

On December 17, 2015 at 11:45 PM, mikewest said:

Gee the blood Mellotron!

We had one at Lime Grove then it was replaced with the BBC designed PEG

I worked for the BBC 1969 to !972

mike

I found a little BBC London studio history (including Lime Grove and Alexandra Palace) with photographs, stories, and floor plans of other seminal BBC London broadcast facilities here: 

http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/old%20bbc%20studios.htm 

I was hoping to see the Mellotron, but that was much more engaging.

[Nick Flowers]

Thank you for posting that link, Rachel. Lots of stuff there about AP that I didn't know. 

[Rachel Cameron]

No problem, Nick. I really enjoyed the read. It looks like the writer still needs information from the soundies who have information to impart about the BBC's sound gear in the early days of the BBC broadcast studios:

"An apology - firstly for all those errors which are almost certainly still sprinkled throughout the above.  I shall do my best to put them right when I discover them or when somebody contacts me with the facts!  Secondly - I am very aware that I have almost completely ignored sound in all my comments about studio equipment.  It's not that I'm not interested, rather that I am far better informed about cameras and lighting and frankly there is very little information out there about which sound mixer was installed in what studio and when.  That's my excuse anyway"

3 hours ago, Rachel Cameron said:

http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/old%20bbc%20studios.htm 

Yes, I quoted myself,  :\  

[mikewest]

Wow what a wonderful resource of broadcasting history.

I worked at ATV Network for 3 years on large and small live and recorded shows.

I was a complete "production city" with 4 studio crews and 4 OB crews.

Very cleverly Sir Lew decided to make shows in colour for the USA so we worked

on big light entertainment spectaculars and some dramas for export.

The light ent shows were shot for the Amerian standard then there would be a 4 hour

systems changeover and would shoot it all again, meaning long days.

They were the days of real television and so very exciting.

Large band recordings were achieved in the band-room the size of a cinema

and I operated Mole and Fisher booms on live and recorded shows.

For a live show the boom would be fitted with two microphones in case of failure.

ATV D&M department developed their own radio microphones ( to the envy of local

film companies) but they were not good enough for dramas or vocalists particularly as

the microphones used were hung round the neck lavalier types RCA BK66 and AKG D109.

Hence studio boom operating was the skill to have, sadly and art which is diminishing.

mike

[Nick Flowers]

Some more stuff about the BBC in olden days!

http://www.orbem.co.uk/index.htm

Mike, very interesting that ATV shot in both PAL and NTSC. In earlier days perhaps they would have shot on 35mm film to get round the problem?

And yes, with technicians capable of operating Fishers and Moles  becoming rarer...thank heavens for soaps. They seem to be one of the final bastions of boom ops!