THE Wachung hills, showing in the distance like a half-inch ribbon of lustrous purple, overlook the tall “domestic” tower of the NBC network station WJZ, and the smaller 180-foot posts supporting the directive aerials of the short-wave station W3XAL. Names like “Wachung,” and others attached to mountain ranges near by — the Pocanos, the Ramapos — recall that Indian tribes once roamed this region. To-day it would seem to have been taken over by radio engineers, for within a few miles of each other can be found the Bound Brook transmitters of W3XAL, those of the CBS at Wayne, the transmitter of WOR at Carteret, and many other plants belonging to the principal international communications companies and situated on the Atlantic coast. The level, accessible stretches of New Jersey, near the seaboard, have made it into the radio “mouthpiece” of America.
Ten or a dozen men, under Mr. D. N. Stair, serve the NBC transmitters inside a stucco building which, with its pillared, pleasantly-shaded porch, looks from the outside like some well-to-do American’s summer home, rather than the nest, which it is, for complex mercury vapour rectifiers, compressed-air neutralising condensers, and other necessary elements in modern broadcasting. Carefully ordered shrubs, running in parallel rows underneath the wires of the horizontal, twenty-degree angle “V” array, which sends the signal of W3XAL on its Great Circle path to Europe, have a suburban look. Engineers, I found, were still putting finishing touches to the twin 25-kW transmitters which were installed last May. Capable of being switched very simply on to the NBC Blue Network – or to studios sending out programmes prepared exclusively for overseas listeners, the new equipment is considered especially “flexible” in operation; it has duplicate 10-ampere, 12,000-volt rectifiers. Carrying twice the station’s former power, the great water-cooled valves and other elements are also subduing “background” noises, besides giving a much greater field strength and improved fidelity in the signal.
W3XAL broadcasts, according to the time of day, on either 6,100 or 17,780 kc/s. The wires radiating the lower frequency are some 175 feet above ground, representing a wavelength and a half, while the 17,780 kc/s wires both for Europe and on the sixty-degree South American array, are at 100 feet. Incidentally, Mr. Raymond F. Guy, NBC Facilities Engineer who designed the station, told me that he received, in a laboratory in New York, the first (almost unintelligible!) American network rebroadcast of a foreign programme. This was in 1925, when station 5XX, in Chelmsford, transmitted music which was received at Belfast, Maine, and relayed to WJZ, viâ the laboratory in New York.
Taking it for granted that, technically, the signal from Bound Brook will do all that is expected of it “to keep America from lagging behind in international broadcasting” — as President Lenox R Lohr, of NBC, recently expressed it — a staff under Mr. Frank E. Mason has been organised and put to work at Radio City. Its members, numbering thirty-eight, make the International Division, on the sixth floor of the RCA Building, a lively place, as busy as the city room of a metropolitan daily and also slightly suggestive of a philatelists’ convention by reason of a forty-foot wall covered entirely with stamped envelopes, hundreds of them, glowing like a tapestry, representing the three dozen or more different countries from which listeners write in respecting broadcasts from W3XAL. Fourteen announcers, with a similar number of translators in the various sections, furnish the programmes in English, French, German, Italian (Natalia Danesi is the only woman on the staff), Spanish, and Portuguese, during many of the sixteen hours daily that W3XAL is “on the air.” The backbone of the schedules is news, co-ordinated from three of the principal agencies, and supplemented by judicious quotations from a few leading American newspapers. A Geneva in miniature, the studio on the fifth floor sees one foreign language commentator succeed another “every hour on the hour;” in observance of the international amenities a half-serious little salute is given and returned before the newcomer settles into the still warm chair. I heard the studious German utterance of Mr. John H. Marsching give place to the cordial precision of the French announcer, Mr. Richard Thomas, who (strange irony in these times) addressed some of his comment to a correspondent writing from his home in “Avenue Tranquillite ” in a French town! Mr. Thomas in turn gave way to Julian Muriel, who, in Spanish, turned his attention immediately to Latin America. A notice on the studio wall enjoins the announcers to “Watch the chimes!” Each does so faithfully, with a punctilious eye upon the clock as the moment for a “station break” draws near; then he carefully removes a little green cushion from the flat tubular gong on the table and tans each tube in proper sequence to produce the familiar NBC identifying chime.
A total of 328 programmes were broadcast in a typical week’s activities recently; 155 of these were taken from the network, while 96 were talks programmes on the lines suggested above. A speech by the President of the United States is invariably relayed over the world by the station, which also offers overseas listeners programmes originating far beyond the borders of America itself. Phus listeners in Great Britain — many of them seem from letters I have seen to be members of the Long-Distance Listeners’ Club — were able, if they wished, to follow the Hughes flight, relayed to the NBC from the east-bound plane, then rebroadcast Europe-ward again. Thus, with the number of its “fans” rapidly mounting, W3XAL is seeking to present for the world at large “a mirror” (as Mr. Mason expressed the station’s aims) “to reflect things in a friendly way, without distortion.”
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The two experimental relay broadcasting stations W2XAF and W2XAD, operated by the General Electric Company in Schenectady, N.Y., U.S.A., are perhaps the best known of all the shortwave stations in the United States, not only because of their long years of uninterrupted service, but also for their power, high fidelity of signal, and their many unusual programmes. W2XAF, transmitting on a wavelength of 31.48 m., or a frequency of 9,530 kc/s, is the more powerful and perhaps the best known because its time on the air is four times that of W2XAD, which operates on a daytime wavelength of 19.56 m. (15,330 kc/s).
W2XAF uses an aerial system directional to European countries or South America. This was especially designed by Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson to assure reliable reception by Admiral Byrd and his men during their expeditions to Little America in the Antarctic. This antenna has a tendency to boost the power of this 40 kW station to the equivalent of about 400 kW.
During the last expedition to Little America, the General Electric Company maintained a regular bi-weekly broadcast to Byrd and his men, and, according to a radiogram recently received, not a programme was missed. During this series, many unusual broadcasts were sent. Sydney, Australia, originated a programme and sent it, through VK2ME, to Schenectady, a distance of 10,000 miles. The programme was then relayed to Little America, another 12,000 miles. Another programme in the series, originating in Honolulu, Hawaii, was sent by short-wave to San Francisco and thence by wire to Schenectady, where it was relayed to Admiral Byrd. Little America, being “free” from nature’s thunder and lightning storms, was given an artificial one by radio, as a stunt. In General Electric’s high-voltage laboratory 10,000,000 volts of artificial lightning, with its crashings and bangs resembling a real storm, were broadcast to the expedition with the explanation: “Here’s something you are missing at home.” A radiogram reply the next day stated Byrd and his men had heard the demonstration, but “really are quite satisfied to be in a place where we miss the electrical storms.”
This same artificial lightning is now used as the call of General Electric’s short-wave stations. A record has been made of three crashes of artificial lightning, with its attending roll of thunder, and this is broadcast at the opening and close of every programme. This so-called theme song, the “Voice of Electricity,” is distinctive and understood by all listeners, regardless of their language.
Perhaps the most outstanding achievement of W2XAD, which has been heard in practically every country, was its broadcast around the world on June 30, 1930. This had never been accomplished before and, as far as it is known, has never been done since. General Electric engineers, who have carried on experimental exchange of programmes with Australia for years, felt that if it were possible to reach the Antipodes in a westerly direction, it might also be possible to do so in an easterly path in co-operation with some of the European short-wave stations.
A test was arranged on June 30, in cooperation with Philips Radio, of Holland, and the Amalgamated Wireless Australasia, Limited, of Australia. The first test was unexpectedly successful. Within two hours after the test was instituted, Australia reported that it was getting Schenectady by way of Java, and at the request of Schenectady put the signal through completing the circuit.
The voice of the speaker left Schenectady on W2XAD, on 19.58 m., was received in Huizen, Holland, where it was relayed by PHI, on 16.88 m., received by PLW at Bandoeng, Java, and re-transmitted on 36.5 m. to Sydney, where the engineers of VK2ME, operating on 28.5 m., sent it, by the westerly route, direct to Schenectady. Thus C. D. Wagoner, of General Electric, who was the speaker, talked to himself while the world listened. His voice came back as an echo, each syllable repeating itself an eighth of a second later. The distance was approximately 22,900 miles.
Because of the unexpected success of the first test, the signal was broadcast on the medium-wave transmitter WGY. As an additional novelty, a phonograph record, electrically reproduced, was sent viâ W2XAD over the round-the-world circuit and reproduced on its return. Listeners to WGY heard only the received signal, and the music was sufficiently clear for them to identify it as “I Love You Truly.”
Another unusual world-wide broadcast, which brought in letters from the four corners of the globe, was staged when both transmitters, W2XAF and W2XAD, were used for a special programme by Robert “Believe it or Not” Ripley, well-known cartoonist, directed to all countries and translated into nine different languages. It is because of such unusual broadcasts that General Electric’s stations have become so widely known all over the world. These short-wave transmitters normally radiate the “chain” programmes of the National Broadcasting Company.
For several years after the radio broadcasting industry was born, short-wave activities were in the background, put there as being of little commercial use. It was not until 1923 that the General Electric Company thought seriously of using higher frequencies for voice transmission. One hundred metres, then definitely in the short-wave class, was selected as the frequency to be used for this development. Preliminary work was begun with the development of oscillator and modulator units for the newly-designed, 20-kilowatt, water-cooled valve. Intense high-frequency pick-up from this short-wave oscillator caused serious interference with other important work nearby. So the little-thought-of short-wave apparatus was moved to other quarters. From the radio engineering laboratories, the engineers moved their equipment to an abandoned “potato shack” on an island in a river near the General Electric plant in Schenectady.
The development and investigations were but well under way when instructions came to have a short-wave transmitter, designed to operate on 100 m. and capable of relaying WGY programmes, ready to go on the air by a certain date. The high-power rectifier, oscillator, modulator unit, and large air capacitor were hastily assembled and installed. Such was the need for speed that some of the transformers were not even removed from their packing-cases. But the station, then known as W2XI, went “on the air ” — to be heard by a few amateurs and foreign listeners, who immediately wrote to Schenectady about the “terrific 100-metre harmonic of WGY.”
Once established, short-wave broadcasting developed rapidly. With the assistance of General Electric engineers, the Radio Corporation of America set up a plant at Tuckerton, New Jersey, and carried on conversations with England on short waves. Other nations were also beginning to take notice of the possibilities of the higher frequencies.
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The short-wave station W3XAU, used in conjunction with the 50-kilowatt transmitter WCAU, has been in daily operation since 1929. It was originally licensed for 500 watts, and the transmitter was situated at Byberry, Pennsylvania. In 1932 the power was increased to 1,000 watts and the transmitter was moved to the new station building, of which a photograph is shown, at Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. This is 12.8 miles air distance from the studio building, which is in the heart of metropolitan Philadelphia.
Both the short-wave and medium-wave transmitters are installed on the upper floor of the building shown, and the rotating machinery — water pumps, cooling system, etc. — on the ground floor. The transmitter itself consists of three units—the oscillator, power amplifier, and rectifier. A single crystal oscillator unit is used for both operating frequencies — 9,590 and 6,060 kc/s. The crystals, of course, are contained in a thermostatically controlled heat chamber with adequate insulation from the outside air.
The oscillator output is fed to a frequency doubler, thence to two screened-grid intermediate amplifiers and to the modulated R.F. amplifier and finally the water-cooled power amplifier, which has an output rating of 5 kilowatts. The final power amplifier is operated as a linear amplifier and delivers a carrier output of 1 kilowatt at 100 per cent. modulation.
All the valves and their associated circuits — with the exception of the water-cooled amplifier — are contained in the exciter unit. The final power amplifier, the water-cooling system, and the output circuits are contained in the second unit.
The third panel — shown oh the right of the accompanying illustration — contains a three-phase full-wave mercury-vapour rectifier, which delivers 5,000 volts to the anode of the water-cooled power valve, as well as furnishing the necessary anode voltages for all the smaller valves.
The output of the transmitter is fed into two 500-ohm transmission lines which lead to two half-wave vertical aerial systems, erected one on each side of an 85-foot wooden mast. A separate transmission line and aerial is used for each frequency, with suitable switches mounted overhead for rapid change from one to the other. Switches are also provided for changing the constants of the transmitter circuits to allow operation on either of the assigned frequencies.
The programme carried by W3XAU is usually that of the mediumwave station, WCAU. These programmes emanate from the studio building at 1,622, Chestnut Street — where eight studios (including an auditorium), their associated control rooms, a master control room, and other quarters incidental to a broadcast station, are situated — and are carried to the transmitter over high-quality telephone circuits.
The radio equipment contained in the studio building is RCA Victor manufacture and was put into operation on December 25, 1932. It is operated entirely from 110-volt A C. mains, and is capable of faithful reproduction from 30 to practically 10,000 cycles. The RCA Victor velocity microphones are used throughout, giving an excellent over-all frequency characteristic from microphone to transmitter output. WCAU, and its short-wave transmitter, W3XAU, are members of the Columbia Broadcasting System, and approximately 50 per cent of the programmes radiated by both stations are received from that network.
Letters reporting reception of W3XAU have been received from practically every State in the United States and from almost every foreign country in the world. The majority of the letters are received from the British Isles, which may be due to either unintentional directional transmission, or to the popularity of short-wave receivers there.
All reports of transmissions from W3XAU are acknowledged, and verified if the information contained corresponds with the records. Comments are always welcomed, especially those received from foreign countries.
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Where in the world would you find such an ill-assorted group waiting for a bus? Where else but in the unique world of Peter Fluck and Roger Law, who have created life-size puppets which caricature some of the most famous people in the world. They have given them a whole range of facial expressions, including tears, matched their voices and costumes and emerged with this Sunday’s new topical comedy series on ITV, Spitting Images [sic]. It’s described by the script editor, Tony Hendra, as ‘entertainment with an edge. A sort of global soap-opera, based on broad political satire.’
The Fluck and Law workshop – known to the outside world as Luck and Flaw-covers a large windowless area of the new Limehouse Studios in the London Docklands. Perched on a high stool, making decisive changes to a clay model of President Mitterand, Roger Law would pass for one of Santa’s little helpers, if he were smaller. Dressed in blue work denims with a sturdy leather belt circling his waist, his round face and curly black beard are topped by a tasselled woolly hat. He is, however, built like a rugby full-back and looks quite capable of stapling a wig to the President of the United States, a task he is shortly to undertake – on the puppet of course.
Meanwhile Peter Fluck, who is slighter and fairer, is adjusting Prince Andrew’s royal lips with a businesslike knife, cutting through the wet clay and explaining why some faces are easier to caricature than others.
‘Royalty and politicians are relatively simple,’ he says, ‘because they learn to control their faces into two or three expressions – intelligent interest, laughter and sorrow – that’s it. Someone like Billy Connolly is extremely difficult because his face is so mobile, it’s hard to choose the real expression. Princess Diana is difficult because she’s really quite pretty and young, but we have to do her because she is the most famous woman in the world.’
Fluck and Law met at Cambridge (‘art college, not university’) but spent many successful years working independently as illustrators and journalists before becoming partners in 1975. In a studio in Cambridge, they began by sculpting extraordinary caricatures of the famous in Plasticine. These models became instantly successful, appearing on the covers of the most prestigious magazines in the world.
Surprisingly few of the ‘victims’ complained, but there were many requests for their models from the subjects, although ‘no one ever wanted to pay’. In fact, once photographed and filed, the Plasticine models were broken down – only one has survived. In a corner of the workshop, stands the face of Denis Thatcher, the last remaining Plasticine sculpture. ‘We’re rather fond of him,’ Peter Pluck admits.
They were getting along nicely until three years ago when someone suggested: ‘Why don’t you make them move?’, and a television programme was proposed, they began a ‘long, horrible, process of research for financial backing and expertise’.
The difficulty of finding anyone who had ever attempted something like it on this scale before meant a shortage on practical advice and suggestions.
They knew what they wanted – a satirical puppet show, using likenesses of the famous in which the aim would be, as script editor Hendra explains, ‘not a cheap and easy laugh, but an informed laugh. You may think the public view is bad enough, but look what goes on in private.’ In the end, they did it themselves.
The process of creating a moving, talking personality goes through a number of well-defined stages. First Fluck and Law watch videos and look at photographs of the subject and draw a strong caricature emphasising notable features. They insist it is not cruel, although Barry Manilow is depicted as simply a nose with a wig on. The model is then moulded in clay, cast in latex rubber and, when it’s dry, fitted out for handmanipulation, painted and dressed. Most of the puppets will be seen only from the waist up.
Bubbly TVTimes astrologer Russell Grant actually had the opportunity to meet his image face-to-face as you can see on our cover. His first reaction was one of alarm, he admits, until the photographer told him he ought to ‘thank his lucky stars’ because his was one of the nicest of the caricatures he had seen. Russell admits that his face did grow on him but, he says: ‘It still reminds me of a basking hippo in the Zambezi basin.’
The 30 trained staff in the puppet factory include eight puppeteers, two ‘voices’ – Chris and Steve – and a choreographer, Errol, who ‘dances’ with the few full-length models such as Mick Jagger. A team of writers from the worlds of comedy and politics are working up to the moment when the show is televised. They have a few ‘moles’ in high places. ‘If someone becomes newsworthy overnight,’ Roger Law explains, ‘we have to make the puppet in time for the show on Sunday.’
• pictures by Roderick Ebdon
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Meet RONALD ROBINSON, a Senior Vision Engineer at Lime Grove
ONE of the BBC men whom viewers seldom hear about is the senior vision engineer in charge of one of the apparatus rooms at Lime Grove.
“Apparatus room” sounds impressive, and it is certainly a very important place, for without it — and the “back room boys” who work there — you would not have the technically excellent TV service you enjoy today.
Since before the war, when I was working at Alexandra Palace, I had always been mystified by what went on in one of these rooms. The other day I had a talk with Ronald Robinson, one of the senior vision engineers at Lime Grove and asked him to explain to me in simple language what his job meant.
“There is one apparatus room for each studio,” he explained. “In it — among other things — is a camera control unit which can adjust the electrical focus of any camera in the studio for the purpose of improving the televised picture.
“I have four or five other engineers working with me, and I am responsible for the quality of the pictures emanating from the studio. I’m in charge of four cameras, a film projecting channel and the monitors — small television screens used in the studio itself which enable the producer, the studio manager and the artists to see exactly what is being televised.”
“You also do necessary repairs and adjustments?” I asked.
“More or less,” Ronald Robinson replied. “Of course, if there is a major fault in, say, one of the cameras, we can’t repair it on the spot. It has to be ‘sent to hospital’ — in other words, the Maintenance Department.
“But if trouble occurs in apparatus that can’t be moved, then I send for the maintenance engineers and get them to service it on the spot.
“The film projecting channel is used for film sequences which are often mingled with ‘live’ scenes from the studio itself.”
During the actual transmission, Ronald Robinson has to see that the pictures match each other perfectly when a producer wants to cut or fade from one camera to another.
If there is a breakdown while a programme is on the air, he will know at once, and then has to get really busy.
He must find out the actual cause of the breakdown, and when it is found he has to inform the Presentation Department — who are responsible for the actual order of the programmes arranged for that day.
The producer has to be told the exact position; how long it will take to effect the repairs and put the programme on the air again. Then it is up to the producer and the Presentation staff to decide what they will do to fill the gap.
The duty announcer will tell viewers about the breakdown and after that you will see an interval film or listen to gramophone records.
While you sit impatiently at home, grumbling about “another breakdown” (though you must admit they are more rare these days) Ronald Robinson and his men are working at top speed until they are able to say that everything is in order again.
Part of his job includes the care and maintenance of many thousands of valves. If the picture disappears, the cause may be one or more of these valves. I asked him how on earth he could tell which one might be responsible.
“That’s not easy to answer,” he replied. “But I suppose it’s the sort of thing that can only be learnt by experience.”
Well, it’s quite a job, isn’t it? And it is because he is such a quiet, unassuming man, and has such a knowledge of his job, that he is successful in coping with the weight of his responsibility.
That also applies to the engineers on his staff. They are the sort of people who don’t get rattled when difficulties arise. They just carry on until the job is successfully done.
Ronald Robinson lives at Harrow, in Middlesex. He goes to and from Lime Grove by tube railway. As he works on the shift system, he is able to spend whole days at home. This makes up for the late hours of his working days.
His hobbies are all forms of woodwork, such as making furniture, and carving; and television. And he is able to make his own set.
He joined the sound side of the BBC in 1939, where he worked in the operational and maintenance department of the London control room at Broadcasting House. Not long afterwards he left to become a radar mechanic in the RAF, at the beginning of the War. He was demobilised in 1945, and returned once more to the BBC.
It was not until 1949 that he joined the television staff at Alexandra Palace. He has now been at Lime Grove for the last three years.
It must be most satisfying for him to be working at something that is not only his job, but also one of his hobbies.
… and here you see lighting supervisor Michael Leeston Smith using a gadget which ensures that the pictures sent from the studio to the apparatus room (described above) are well lit.
But what do we mean by “well lit”? Too much light will cause dazzle; too little will result in gloom and lack of detail. The job of the lighting supervisor is to see that an all-over illumination is provided which will give you one of those pleasing pictures made up of a good range of tones. What is more, the same picture quality must be obtained from all parts of the scene.
Can the human eye judge this? It can, but the “exposure photometer” seen in the picture is used as a check. It actually measures the amount of light and indicates exactly what lens adjustment should be made on the camera for best results.
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THE equipment installed in the new Scottish studio centre at Queen Margaret College, Glasgow, incorporates the latest developments which have been made by the BBC in studio and control room apparatus. A description of all the units and circuits in detail is beyond the scope of one article, but an attempt will be made to show how the latest requirements of broadcasting technique have been met.
The necessity has arisen for the control of programmes to be carried out in studio control cubicles adjacent to the studios, and this facility has been provided in five of the studios, viz., Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8, in which major productions are made. It will, therefore, only be necessary to describe one circuit. A further innovation is that in two studios — Nos. 1 and 5 — the echo effects can be applied to the programme by the producer.
The layout of Studio No. 1, with its associated control cubicle and narrators’ studio, has already been given. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the circuit used in this studio suite, which is the largest possessed by the BBC at any provincial studio centre and is capable of accommodating a full symphony orchestra of about one hundred players.
The main studio is equipped with five individual microphone points, each with a “paralleled” point on an opposite wall, served with a ribbon microphone on either a vertical or balanced-arm microphone stand; an announcer’s desk with separate microphone; a studio gramophone desk with two turntables with parallel tracking pick-ups, a compère’s microphone, and a three-channel mixer; a loudspeaker unit with mains-operated amplifier and headphone points.
The Studio Control Cubicle is equipped with two desks, loudspeaker unit, etc. The first desk is fitted with three mixer units, two of which have four channels each, to which are connected the studio microphone points of both the main and narrators’ studios, and a reserve point in the cubicle itself. The output of the gramophone desk is connected to the nearest microphone point in the studio. The third mixer has two channels only, each of which is connected to an output of one of the other mixer units. Thus control can be exercised either individually or collectively over the various microphone circuits. The output of the mixer is taken back to the announcer’s desk in the studio where by means of a switch either this output or the separate microphone can be selected and connected, viâ a repeating coil, to the balanced line supplying the input of the “A” amplifier associated with this studio. This amplifier has two outputs, No. 1 being normally used in the programme circuit and No. 2 for echo purposes. When echo is required, this second output is connected to the loudspeaker unit in the echo room from which a microphone feeds, viâ a repeating coil, the input of a second “A” amplifier.
The No. 1 outputs of both “A” amplifiers are connected to the input channels of a two-channel fade unit on the second desk in the Studio Control Cubicle so that the direct and echo sources can be mixed at the required relative levels and applied to a control potentiometer on this desk. The programme then passes to the “B” amplifier input switching circuits, by means of which it is made available to any of the input channels of the fade units on the control positions in the Control Room.
By simple cross-plugging operations with double-ended cords any individual circuit, or the whole of the circuits, can be cut out. The circuit arrangement then corresponds with that employed at the older studio centres where studio control facilities are not available.
Communication between the studio and its cubicle during rehearsals is carried out by means of a “talk-back” circuit, a microphone and switch unit being installed in the cubicle for this purpose. When the “talk-back” switching is operated, the studio output is disconnected from the line to the Control Room and the “talk-back” microphone substituted in its place. Loudspeakers are provided in both studio and cubicle, but in the normal condition only that in the cubicle is connected to the “B” amplifier output and reproduces the studio programme. The operation of the “talk-back” switching key first silences the cubicle loudspeaker by disconnecting it from the circuit and then, by means of electromagnetic relays, switches the studio line over to the cubicle microphone and the “B” amplifier output to the studio loudspeaker.
The circuit of Studio No. 5 is similar (except for the narrators’ studio associated with Studio No. 1), but as it is much smaller, only one three-channel mixer is provided, with no central mixing facilities. It will be used largely for dramatic productions which do not require the elaborate circuit provided in the Dramatic Control equipment. Studios Nos. 2, 3, and 8 are provided with control cubicles, but no echo circuits. The switching circuits are similar, but simpler.
The remaining studios — Nos. 7 and 9 — are fitted with gramophone equipment, which in the former is for use on dramatic productions and in the latter for record recitals with a compère. Studio No. 7 has three desks, each with two turntables so that six separate channels are available. Each turntable is provided with a pick-up on a parallel tracking device which enables any pre-determined groove on a record to be selected. Mains-operated amplifiers in each desk give pre-fade listening circuits on each channel. A separate microphone channel is fitted on the centre desk, and a loudspeaker circuit enables the operator to listen to the programme as it is produced. This is, of course, cut off if the microphone channel is faded up. Studio No. 9 is equipped with a three-channel mixer, two channels from gramophone turntables and the third from a microphone.
The Control Room is situated on the ground floor and its approximate dimensions are 54 ft. 9 in. by 24 ft. 6 in. The amplifiers, jack fields, meter panels, switching relays, line termination and testing equipment, check receivers, etc., are all rack-mounted on apparatus bays, in five racks of ten bays each. Each rack is mounted on a wooden plinth and secured to the next one and to the rear wall by steel tubing. In order to provide for any subsequent expansion to take place in an orderly manner spare space has been provided on the racks, and, in the final contingency of this being completely utilised, a sixth row of ten bays can be installed on a plinth for which space has already been allocated.
Two control desks, each equipped with two “control positions,” are installed in this room, one on each side of a supervisory and S.B. (simultaneous broadcast) rack of five bays. The first two control positions are intended to be used as main transmission positions and each is equipped with a four-channel fade unit — a combination of three two-channel fade units — followed by a control potentiometer, the output of which is connected to the input of the “B” amplifier — i.e., the second amplifier in the main programme chain. Each of the channel inputs can be connected to any of the programme sources available, and by suitable operation of the controls these sources can be selected or mixed as required.
In addition, the position is equipped with a programme meter and a headphone point for visual and aural monitoring of the programme at the “B” amplifier output, across which are the inputs of the programme meter and trap-valve amplifiers feeding these points. Signalling keys and lamps are provided for studio signalling purposes.
A further innovation is the provision of a pre-fade listening circuit, by means of which the controlling engineer is enabled to listen across the incoming circuit of each of his channels before it is faded into the programme chain. This facility is most useful when the engineer has either to fade up on a particular cue in a programme already running, or to receive a verbal cue from the announcer immediately before the start of a programme. Between the two control positions on the desk, an indicating lamp field is fitted, a vertical row of lamps being provided for each channel on the two positions. Each lamp in the vertical row represents a source of programme, so that both controlling engineers on these positions obtain visual indication of the source which has been applied to any one of the channels.
The second desk, comprising the third and fourth control positions, is similarly equipped except that two-channel fade units only are provided, with corresponding reductions in the numbers of pre-fade listening keys and lamps on the indicating lamp fields.
The supervisory and S B. position, situated between the control desks, and illustrated in the accompanying photograph, is the main operating centre of the circuits and represents a departure in design from previous practice in that the equipment is rack-mounted on a row of five bays instead of being a desk similar in type to the other positions. This gave the advantage of a better layout than was previously possible and enabled more apparatus to be provided.
The first three bays in this rack form the supervisory engineer’s position. Following established practice at provincial stations the selection of sources to channels is centralised at this position and Bay No. 1 is equipped with the operating keys, etc., for these circuits. The ” B ” input switching circuit consists of a network of relays arranged in thirteen rows of thirty-four relays per row; the thirteen rows represent the total number of channels on the control and supervisory positions, and the thirty-four relays in each row comprise thirty “A” relays, one for each of the studio outputs, etc., available, and four “P” relays for selection purposes. This represents the ultimate capacity of the station. At the present time only twenty-three “A” relays are fitted, but the switching bays are wired for ultimate capacity so that additions can easily be made.
Fig. 2 shows the circuit used for source selection. The channel operating key (shown at the bottom of the diagram) of a particular control-position circuit is first made; this supplies current to the “private wire circuits” of the amplifiers used with that position and so switches them on. These circuits are common to all the channel keys of that position. The “P” relays in the switching row associated with the channel also operate and prepare the “punching” circuit of the source. The source is then selected by momentarily depressing the punching key (a non-locking plunger key) associated with it. This immediately closes the appropriate “A” relay which locks up over its own contacts and at the same time the “P” relays release because their holding circuits have been broken. The holding circuit is a series circuit through contacts of all the “A” relays in that row. No other source can now be punched to that channel. Proof that the circuit is correctly operated is given by light signals on the indicating lamp fields of the control and supervisory positions, showing that the source is on the desired channel, and by the dimming of the light over the channel operating key owing to added resistance being thrown into its circuit by the release of the “P” relays. The arrangement of the keys and lamps is such that immediately the circuit is set up an indicating lamp glows on the same vertical line as the operating key so that the supervisory engineer has an easy visual check on all the control position channels.
Bays 2 and 5 in the rack are similar and are equipped with telephone equipment for communicating with the studios, O.B. points, other stations in the S.B. system, etc. Bay 5 is further equipped with switching facilities for inserting a two-way repeater with balancing networks into any control line network of which Glasgow is an intermediate station. Circuits are also provided to enable the supervisory and S.B. engineers to monitor any programme and give cue signals to any control position. Bay 3 comprises a single-channel control position with signalling circuits to all studios.
When the programme is to be radiated — i.e. is not merely a rehearsal — the output of the “B” amplifier is connected to the lines feeding the transmitting stations, viâ “C” amplifiers, the necessary connexions being made by means of an input switching network similar to that previously described. The operating keys and indicating lamps for these circuits are provided on Bay 4 of the rack so that the S.B. engineer has visual indication of his engaged circuits. Provision is also made to enable this engineer to fade any “C” amplifier into a programme which is passing through the station and, by means of a suitable test amplifier and meter, to measure the level of any incoming or outgoing programme.
Where the programme has not been previously controlled this function is normally carried out in a control cubicle, to which it is transferred by the operation of change-over switching provided on the supervisory position. In this case the inputs to the fade units on the control position are transferred to similar circuits in the cubicle, and the “B” amplifier input is transferred from the output of the control position potentiometer to that of the cubicle potentiometer. Two such cubicles are provided and these are used in conjunction with the main transmission control positions. Each cubicle is, in consequence, equipped with a desk fitted with a four-channel fade unit, control potentiometer, programme meter, pre-fade listening keys, and source indicating lamp field. Monitoring in these cubicles is normally carried out by loudspeaker.
The dramatic control unit is used where the production of a programme involves the use of a number of studios or other programme sources. The unit installed at Glasgow is of the latest type developed by the BBC and incorporates twelve channels, arranged in two groups each of five channels, each group being controlled by a main group mixer, and two channels which are independent of the group mixers. The outputs of the main group mixers and of the independent channels are connected to the inputs of a special amplifier (known as DCA) which is provided to make good the mixer loss. The output of the DCA amplifier is controlled on the DC unit and monitored by loudspeaker.
Provision is made for “talk-back” and light cueing in both directions. The circuit provides that each studio shall receive the complete DC programme by loudspeaker except when a particular studious contributing its part to the programme. Talking-back arrangements are incorporated in the circuit for both rehearsal and transmission conditions. In the former case production can be held up for the purpose and the studio loudspeakers can be used, but in the case of transmissions only the headphone circuits are used.
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LORD THOMSON of Monifieth is a kind, shrewd and thoughtful man. As chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority he is now leading a campaign, which has the backing of the BBC, for the IBA to be awarded the task of overseeing the development of cable television.
Whether he succeeds or fails, he is fortunate in the process by which this franchise will be awarded. The merits of his case will be openly debated over a period of months. The decision will ultimately be taken by a democratically elected body, namely the House of Commons. Whatever the decision may be, the case will have to be argued publicly by the Government. There is the possibility of appeal. Lord Thomson could even argue for amendments in the House of Lords.
Recently I was joint deputy chairman of London Sound, a group which applied unsuccessfully to the IBA for the London news and information franchise. Their decision was made, in private, within five days of our 90-minute interview.
Members of the Authority have no democratic constituency; they are nominated by the Home Secretary. Having reached its decision, the Authority gives no reasons. And there is no appeal.
Perhaps a brief account of our experience would be enlightening for those who now have to decide on the merits of the IBA’s claim to wider responsibilities.
Coming together at short notice, we assembled a board and programme team with outstanding media experience, including Jocelyn Stevens (former deputy chairman of Express Newspapers), Gerard Mansell (former deputy Director-General of the BBC), Nigel Ryan (former head of ITN) and Tina Brown (editor of The Tatler).
We were convinced that we could do better than LBC which, after eight years on the air, had never been listened to by six out of 10 people in the London area, according to its own research.
Working against the clock, Jocelyn Stevens submitted our case. He raised the money — far more than we needed — from British sources such as pension funds and insurance companies which had never invested in radio before. (LBC was 53 per cent owned by a Canadian company, which had 49 per cent of the voting rights.) We gathered more broadcasting talent. We put great stress on multiethnic programming. We developed ideas for giving greater independence to IRN. We investigated various studio sites, including one in Dockland. And we rehearsed our crucial meeting with the IBA.
Of course, the rehearsals were nothing like the real thing. The rehearsals were a touch fractious; the interview was courteous in the extreme. The rehearsals devoted most time to programming; the interview concentrated more on finance. The rehearsals spent much time on education, but the interview contained not a single question about education.
We also made ourselves familiar with the potted biographies of the 12 members of the Authority issued by the IBA. (In fact, only 10 turned up for the interview.) They are all part-time, paid less than £60 a week [£200 in today’s money, allowing for inflation – Ed] (apart from the chairman and the vice-chairman [Sir John Riddell]) and picked to give a good spread of regional interests.
They include a lady who designs country house interiors in Yorkshire [Juliet Jowitt]; a woman barrister who takes an active role in social and charitable work in Northern Ireland [Jill McIvor]; a retired chief executive from a Welsh county [Gwilym Peregrine]; a London University professor specialising in microwave measurement [Alexander Cullen]; a Scottish minister [William Morris]; and two more women — a project co-ordinator in a privately funded job creation scheme for Toxteth [Paula Ridley] and a very articulate black schools inspector from London [Yvonne Conolly].
The Authority did its utmost to be fair. LBC had been through many troubles; they had improved to some degree; they were liked by that minority of Londoners who listened to them regularly. Although we had a Chief Executive with a track record in radio which far exceeded anything else in independent radio, although we expressed our determination to improve the station’s standards, with what Lord Thomson in his rejection letter described as ‘verve and freshness,’ we were an unknown quantity.
But radio franchises are relatively small concerns compared with television. It seems indefensible that decisions sometimes involving millions of pounds, loss of jobs, changes of favour, should be left to this part-time body. It is true that they are assisted by a very able group of officials. In particular, we are grateful to John Thompson, Director of Radio, for steering us towards a sensible presentation of our ideas.
It was last May I telephoned to ask him if it was worth putting in an application. He paused a long time. (Conversations with John Thompson are always full of pregnant pauses, but his next remark was undoubtedly delivered by Caesarian section.) Then he said: yes, he thought it would be worthwhile. The IBA had an obligation laid upon them to reconsider the franchise and would discharge their duty faithfully. He added that a lot of work was involved. He was right there, if wrong in suggesting that the application was worthwhile. It was only worthwhile if we won.
For the future, I make three suggestions. First, an interview of 90 minutes is too short. Towards the end, members of the Authority were hustling through their questions, aware of the shortage of time. A number of areas were not covered at all.
Second, in considering franchises for particular areas, the IBA should appoint three local assessors who know the needs of the area and can advise which applicant, in their view, can best meet them. Further, the advice of the IBA’s civil service should formally be requested, which does not happen now.
Third, the IBA is in the communications business. The chairman should not be afraid to say why they took a decision. To state, ‘We arrived at our decision only after much thought and analysis,’ is a cop-out.
When the decision was announced, Jocelyn Stevens sent Christopher Chataway, chairman of LBC, a congratulatory telegram. Chataway replied gracefully, saying he knew what it was like to lose since he had been an unsuccessful applicant for breakfast television. The system is no better now than it was then. Sometimes the IBA gets it right — I happen to think they were right about the breakfast franchise, though I was involved with another group. Sometimes their decisions are baffling. I still do not understand why Southern Television lost its franchise.
Surely it is reasonable to conclude, however, that if Lord Thomson refuses to overhaul the present lucky dip arrangements for handling such applicants within his existing bailiwick, his Authority can scarcely expect to be regarded as a worthy contender for the job of monitoring cable.
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THIS week’s Television Weekly gives details of the final programmes arranged for your entertainment by TWW. Next week our successors will be providing your services of Independent Television.
It is sad to have to say “goodbye” after more than ten years. We started Independent Television in the West of England and Wales, and have built up this service for more than three million viewers. Our licence was not renewed by the Independent Television Authority and therefore we must end our work and hand over to our successors. They will, I am sure, continue to entertain you in the best traditions of Independent Television.
TWW itself has been a remarkably happy company with a real ‘family’ feeling, which we hope has come over in our programme work. A great deal of original work has been done, and everyone in the Company at Cardiff, Bristol and in London have given of their best to this effort.
We hope you will particularly enjoy the programmes during our last weekend, and we thank you for all the support and interest which made us consistently the most popular television service in the region. We have a record we shall always be proud of.
EVER since TWW started, a very large number of us on the staff have been out and about working in the region in all sorts of places from Anglesey to Exeter, from Swindon to Haverfordwest.
Film crews and reporters have become well known; technicians with the outside broadcast unit have visited hosts of towns and villages to record shows in front of local audiences; staff and executives alike have frequently left their desks to talk about the problems of television with people on the spot, or to organise and arrange some aspect of the company’s work and future activities.
For ten years the warmth of reception which has been given to TWW has been most rewarding. Everywhere we have been, and I can speak on behalf of all my colleagues, we have been made welcome and made to feel that we were doing a worthwhile job for the West of England and Wales.
Thank you all very much for all you have given us: for all the helpful co-operation which has made such a pleasure of working for Independent Television in the TWW region.
Whether it has been the Bath Festival, or the National Eisteddfod, we have made very many friends and met hundreds upon hundreds of interesting and enjoyable men and women. Whether it has been a point-to-point which TWW has helped sponsor, or a church fete one of our announcers has been opening, the work has been a pleasure, and the remembrances worth cherishing.
TWW set out to be a local company, even though its personnel (specialists in this field of communications) were drawn from all over the place. Since we started there have been many homes made and families brought up in and around Cardiff and Bristol. There have been weekends and holidays made delightful by the discovery of new parts of this beautiful countryside and coast. There have been conversations over pints of beer or cups of tea which have enriched our experience.
Now it is time for TWW to say goodbye: the large majority of personnel will continue to work for Independent Television in the area under a new management and a new banner. Some of us will be leaving
All of us have belonged to TWW and the spirit it attempted to foster. It has been an experience we shall never forget.
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