⏺ THE editing of video-tape is a vital part of TV production these days, with the vast majority of programmes going on to Ampex before they reach the public’s screens. Editing tape is a highly skilled operation — there are probably less than a dozen men in the country who can do it. A striking example of editing at its most intricate was the Charlie Drake Show series, which was literally “cut up into little bits and put together again” in six complete shows. We asked JOHNNY FIELDER, Video-Tape Editor, to unfold the mysteries of his work for us.

VIDEO-TAPE was first introduced as a means of carrying television pictures way back in 1956. Due to the vast size of America with time differences from coast to coast there was a great demand for a new system of recording and replaying television shows.

A system had to be devised which would ensure not only excellent production but it also had to be technically possible to replay the tape immediately after recording.

Video-tape made all this possible. Its invention enabled shows to be recorded in peak viewing hours in thousands of miles to other states, as well as Canada. Each state thus receive top shows at their own peak viewing time.

The introduction of videotape machines into this country followed soon afterwards.

The machine itself looks like an overgrown orthodox tape machine with large spools to carry two-inch-wide tape, the tape passing the heads at 15.6 inches per second. The videohead, which records and replays picture, has four separate heads embedded in a disc rotating at 250 revolutions per second. The sound head is displaced by nine inch or .6 second in front of picture. Approximate cost of this machine is £25,000 [£461,000 in today’s money, allowing for inflation – Ed].

It wasn’t long before it was realised that the ability to edit this tape would be an advantage, and the necessary techniques were developed.

The actual editing of videotape which contains sound and vision (married print sound in front of vision) needs some thinking about, since you can’t see by holding it up to the light.

While the tape is playing on the machine a picture is displayed on the monitor. You have to select your cut while playing, stop, run back and play again. But, this time, the machine is stopped at the point of the cut.

This point is marked, run back and played again, this time checking that when the mark reaches the video-head to coincide with the selected cutting point.

Of course the sound track will help you for this can be heard by rocking back and forward over the sound head. If it is a musical cut of which there were quite a few in the Charlie Drake shows then the edit must be made to the sound track.

Nowadays a tape can be reused with edits in it after it has been through a test recording over the cuts, but obviously too many cuts make the tape unusable.

The Charlie Drake shows produced by Colin Clews were recorded in sections. There were 178 segments of which between 25-30 were put into each show. After it was decided which piece was to go where, the show was then split into two reels, one reel carrying all the odds the other evens.

Here Colin Clews, with his production team, wiped from reel to reel.

All this was then recorded on yet another machine, giving the final result of a new TV show presented in a new way.

The post Johnny has got ’em all taped appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

THE opening ceremony of our new studios at Elstree went off successfully, although I am sure that many members of the staff will regret the lost opportunity to show our guests the new studios in full operation. The lost opportunity arose through the action of some members of the ACTT [Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians – Ed], and it is my view that the staff of the Company deserve a factual account of the events which involved the stoppages on this important day in the Company’s history.

On February 21, the Company and the union reached agreement on a number of issues raised by the union. Minutes were agreed recording the settlement, and a document issued by the union to its members listed the matters which were agreed, describing the whole as “a satisfactory settlement on the outstanding issues”.

The Company implemented all the decisions.

Without notice to the Company, certain ACTT members left their jobs at the Elstree Studios on the afternoon of Thursday, April 6 to hold a meeting.

This meeting passed a resolution which expressed “bitter disappointment at the Company’s failure to honour the agreement reached following the recent negotiations” and empowered the committee “to take further action to bring about a settlement”.

The committee referred to in the resolution was the ATV-ACTT shop committee.

Two Upgradings

The “failure to honour the agreement” proved to be an additional demand that the Company should upgrade immediately two people not mentioned in the agreed minutes recording the settlement reached, or in the document issued by the union to its members.

A meeting between the Company and local union representatives on Thursday evening produced no results other than a clear statement from the Company that it would not in any circumstances negotiate under duress but would deal with issues at any time through the properly agreed procedure.

The Company contacted ACTT’s acting general secretary and arranged a meeting for 10.15 a.m. on Friday.

The ACTT representatives did not arrive until 10.45 a.m. as a result of traffic hold-ups.

While the meeting was proceeding certain ACTT members left their jobs at Elstree Studios to attend another meeting at 11 a.m.

In view of this the Company’s representatives declined to continue the formal meeting until the members of the union had returned to work.

At about 11.45 a.m. work began again, and because of the opening ceremony the Company suggested a resumption of the meeting in the early afternoon.

Official Reception

The union’s acting general secretary told the Company at 12.35 (at the official reception) that unless there was a “gesture” — the concession of one or both of its demands — then work would stop again at 12.45 p.m.. just as the official ceremony was due to start.

The Company could only repeat its insistance [sic] on the need for constitutional procedures in matters of dispute.

Promptly, at 12.45, some members of the ACTT stopped work and during the afternoon some more members at other places of work followed them out.

Members of other unions continued working normally, and apart from the loss of “Emergency — Ward 10”, ATV maintained its full service to the public.

Successful Opening

Early Friday evening, an informal meeting with union representatives was held at which members of the shop committee stated that they would NOT use constitutional procedures in this matter.

The Company’s representatives could only reply that they were willing to hold themselves in readiness for negotiations as soon as the strike was called off. The union’s acting general secretary did not attend this meeting.

Later the same evening members of management met to ensure that ATV’s service to the public would continue. The Company also issued an assurance of its support both now and in the future for those employees in ACTT grades who remained loyal to the Company.

Talks Resumed

By Saturday morning the Management had perfected its plans to continue transmitting its programmes without a break until the morning of Sunday, April 9th, when the strikers resumed work. In the meantime, the Company had publicly announced that “Sunday Night at the London Palladium”wouldgo out as advertised. No further meetings took place until 4.15 p.m. when, at the request of the union, the informal talks were resumed.

These continued until about 10.15 p.m. Afterwards the following joint press statement was issued:

“As a result of informal talks between ATV and ACTT the members now on strike within the Company will resume work tomorrow, when official talks will take place immediately.

“There will be an early meeting next week seeking to resolve outstanding problems. The union and the Company both dissociate themselves from statements which have implied a lack of good faith between us. Both parties look to a more constructive relationship in the future.”

Throughout this Saturday evening the Company was heartened to know that all the other programme contractors supported ATV and transmitted its programmes except ABC Television which decided to put out its own re-arranged programming.

Normal Lines

Since the end of the stoppage, negotiations with the ACTT have proceeded on normal lines. On the morning of Sunday April 9, an agreement was reached for an independent inquirer to determine the grades of the two people about which the Company had earlier been accused of failing to honour its agreement.

Other decisions included a no-victimisation clause to be applied on both sides, and an insistence on talks with the union designed to improve local negotiating procedure within the framework of the national agreement.

Subsequently ATV put forward the names of three leading trade union officials to act as inquirers. One of these was free to conduct the independent inquiry and this gentleman was accepted by ACTT. The inquiry resulted in a finding that neither upgrading demanded by the union should take place immediately but should be deferred in each case.

These are the facts and I want every member of the staff to be aware of them.

I also want to take the opportunity of thanking, on behalf of ATV, those loyal employees who did not break their agreements but helped the Company to maintain its television service to the public.

VAL PARNELL
Managing Director

The post The facts behind the Elstree studio strike appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

THE Midlands administrative staff move into new offices this month.

The company has acquired the entire ground floor of a new multi-storey building in Edmund Street, Birmingham.

The new offices will be light and airy. They will also use the Open Plan principle which has proved so successful at ATV House in London.

Muzak has been installed to provide background music and the accommodation provided is the Midlands match to London’s ATV House in Great Cumberland Place.

Although the move has not been made yet — final touches are still going on — the building was officially opened last month by Alderman Garnet Boughton, Lord Mayor of Birmingham, by cutting a length of video tape at the entrance.

The ceremony was attended by Mr Prince Littler, Chairman of ATV; Mr Norman Collins (Deputy Chairman); Mr Val Parnell (Managing Director) and Mr Lew Grade (Deputy Managing Director).

The company’s London delegation were welcomed by Mr Philip Dorté, the Midlands Controller.

After the opening 150 Midlands dignitaries were entertained to lunch at the Grand Hotel. The Lord Mayor congratulated the company on its success and referred to television as “Another star in the firmament of our city”.

CHAIRMAN’S REPLY

In reply to the Lord Mayor’s speech, Mr Littler recalled that it was nearly five years since Independent Television had been inaugurated in the Midlands.

“In those five years ATV’s audience in the Midlands has grown from a handful in 1956 to well over four million today”, he said.

“Nowadays, 71 per cent of the Midland television audience with a choice of programme elects to view ATV in preference to the BBC, whose share is 29 per cent”.

Mr Littler added that although Mr Dorté the Midlands Controller met so many local people, and members of the Board visited Birmingham regularly, this was the first occasion for four years his Board of Directors, as a whole, had played host to a reception gathering of Midland civic, ecclesiastical and ambassadorial leaders.

ALPHA PROGRESS

Meanwhile, work continues on the new Alpha studios. Here, incidentally, the workers probably down tools more often than any other builders in Britain. And it’s all on account of TV.

“We had to issue programme bulletins to the foreman to enable him to call a stop to all noise while we are on the air”, Frank Beale, General Manager of Alpha, told me. While noise is a headache for the television staff, office accommodation for the production staff is at a premium too. But as soon as the new building is completed (August is the target month) there’ll be six floors of space with comfortable accommodation for everyone. But the building operations haven’t always been inconvenient.

SPECIAL FEATURES

One of ATV’s best “Lunch Box” shows was actually done on the building site. Special features in the new Alpha building will be: a control area on the top floor; a canteen covering the whole second floor and electric underfloor heating.

“We’ll turn on the current at night, and off in the day-time. This should keep the building comfortably warm all day” said chief engineer David Whittle.

The post New offices for midlands appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

THE men who really make television — but rarely make the news — had the unusual experience of being in the limelight when an exhibition of their work was staged at ATV House.

Members of the Company’s Development Department and Planning and Installation Department had assembled a selection of some of the most advanced television equipment that can be seen not only in Britain but in any part of the world.

And every piece of equipment on show was the result of work by ATV staff.

More than 300 people, including the new Chairman of the Company. Sir Robert Renwick, representatives of the national and trade press, electronic manufacturing companies and the BBC visited the impressive exhibition.

Centre-piece was the 34-channel fully transistorised studio sound mixer, designed and manufactured by Pye Ltd. to ATV’s requirements. This mixer is installed in the new studios at Elstree.

Peter Fowler and Ray McCabe dealt with hundreds of enquiries from visitors who marvelled at this remarkable piece of engineering which is quite unrivalled in the field of technical equipment.

The control vision mixer, designed and manufactured by the Development Department was explained to visitors by Ken Searle and Arthur Burbidge. This is a great contribution towards the stabilizing of the studio output picture. Unique circuits stabilize the picture against large variations of voltage and temperature.

ON DISPLAY

Among the interesting items of equipment designed and made by ATV were:

Cut and Effects Mixer. At the touch of a button or fader it provides inter-frame cutting and separate fading from twelve picture inputs.

Line Up Panel. This enables the accurate and speedy alignment of the many electronic circuits concerned with the vision mixing unit.

Special Effects Control Unit. This is used to select special visual effects to make programmes more interesting. Inlay and over lay may be used.

FOR OB’s

OB Portable Video Distribution Amplifier. The unit provides four separate vision outputs from a single co-axial input, particularly -useful at OBs where large areas are involved.

Transistorised Video Amplifier. Sixteen separate vision outputs are provided with integral power units.

Transistorised Microwave Transmitter. Designed for testing microwave paths before use on programmes. It is used in conjunction with a portable radio telephone.

Transistor Intercom Units. One is a simple transistor amplifier for a small technical centre. The other is a multi-studio system capable of operating between 44 stations in a studio centre.

Helping to explain the workings of these and other pieces of equipment were members of the company’s Engineering Department, all of whom have contributed to their development and manufacture.

The post Engineers on parade… appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

COLOUR pictures were cast 25 miles across London last month in a demonstration which showed how the latest television techniques can be used by companies in promoting their products.

Carreras Ltd, the tobacco manufacturers, were introducing their new Piccadilly filter-tip cigarettes at the Piccadilly Hotel. They wanted to show those present how the cigarettes were being made at their factory in Basildon, Essex — and show it all in colour.

It was the task of ATV engineers to link the factory with the hotel suite. This they achieved via a water tower at Laindon Hills, Essex, and the company’s permanent link at Hillcrest, Highgate. E.M.I equipment was used for the linking, Marconi equipment for the “shooting” at the factory and Bush monitors enabled the party at the Piccadilly to see the various processes taking place at the factory.

For ATV Bob Cooper, Stan Merrick and Bill Smith were at Basildon. Dennis Sippings and Arthur Durrell at Laindon Hills, Gordon Daniels and Vic Zytek at Highgate and Cliff Whiting, Percy Tickle and Henry Hall at the Piccadilly Hotel.

MOST LIKELY SYSTEM

When Britain gets Colour TV the system most likely to be used is the NTSC system now operating in the United States.

Len Mathews, Assistant Technical Controller, Communications and OBs, told guests at the Carreras colour demonstration some of the advantages and disadvantages of the system, with particular reference to the importance of the linking ATV had provided.

The NTSC system is a colour specification proposed by the National Television System Committee, an American industrywide engineering group set up between 1950 and 1953 to develop colour TV specification for the United States, said Mr Mathews.

FAIRLY COMPLEX

Although the NTSC system is a fairly complex one, which requires the use of what is known as a coding and a decoding equipment, it has two main advantages.

Firstly, it is compatible with the present monochrome system.

Secondly, the bandwidth occupied by the television signal is the same as required for the present-day black and white.

The post Colour TV in Piccadilly appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

THE start of colour television in the Midlands coincides with the completion of a remarkable achievement, technical and in construction, that marks a major stage in Birmingham’s development as a source of television programme production.

Programme-making switches from the Alpha Television Theatre at Aston Cross to the new city centre studios of ATV Network, part of a £6,000,000 [£84½m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] development.

When the administrative block is ready late next year, the TV unit will be the first completed section of the £15,000,000 [£211m] entertainment and hotel complex that is to rise on the site of the former West End Cinema and car park.

In design and fitness, the contrast between the two buildings could not be more vivid. At Aston ITV began in 1956 in a building converted from a former cinema which itself had replaced a theatre of Edwardian days.

The new building at ATV Centre houses the world’s most up-to-date complex electronic machines that create programmes for colour television — the new look viewing standard for the 1970s.

It could be a happy augury that ATVs new home goes on the air in little more than 15 months from the day construction of the building began.

Equipment

Progress on a complicated operation has called for the most exacting of timetables.

About half of the £6,000,000 outlay has been on studio equipment. The building, to which the administrative block is to be added, will occupy three acres of the six-acre West End site.

At the end of the year the Alpha studios will close, but the offices in Edmund Street will be occupied for another year. Then the new television headquarters will house a staff of 550.

What has most impressed the broadcasting world is the efficient, compact design that breaks away from the familiar system of lateral studio layout favoured in the past. ATV Centre embodies new architectural and acoustic features.

It has been planned so that the group of three main studios are at the heart of the structure, apart from essential service departments, but still within easy teach,

Control room design embodies a new principle that seems appropriate to 1970 thinking.

Now a producer, or director, must select his pictures for transmission solely from the array of monitor screens that light up the pictures captured by individual cameras.

Lighting and sound controllers command impressive galleries that include computer-regulated “memory banks” of lighting effects. By pre-selection these can store a vast range of patterns which can be “keyed” for use as the sdript demands.

Completion of the first stage of this development sets the seal on one of the most spectacular transformation scenes in a Birmingham accustomed to a major clearance projects and achievements that are re-shaping the city.

That achievement has earned the admiration of visitors from overseas and from many parts of Britain who have toured the building.

It required a dovetailing of building and operational priorities that depended on the installation of many thousands of pounds worth of intricate equipment for sound and vision.

Trend-setting colour

COLOUR TV is likely to prove an even more forceful mass persuader than it has been in the past. It will influence styles in many ways.

Girls won’t always be the trendsetters in fashion — though colour will emphasise the smartness of way-out clothes.

Masculine styles will encourage more attention for the peacock look.

Cosmetics will get sharper scrutiny because of colour’s “truth.” Blonde and brunette will be registered with a clarity that monochrome cannot match.

Pastel shades, too, will alter ideas about the household.

You can expect to see kitchen and cooking equipment in a wider range of colours — check how food really looks while it is being prepared and served.

Roasted meat joints, or poultry, will have to be seen to be the “lovely golden brown” the chefs proclaim.

We’re colourful in black and white… but look at us now!

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15th. ATV the Midlands network goes colour. Programmes produced at our new colour studios in Birmingham’s Television Centre will be beamed to viewers from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter. Your favourite characters, drama, news, sport, outside broadcasts, all will have a new richness, a new reality — in living colour!

What colour are Tom Jones’ eyes? Can you tell the Sky Blue of Coventry from the Old Gold of Wolves?

Is Noele Gordon wearing the same dress as last night? In colour it all comes true! And ATV gives you colour at its most natural. After all, we’ve been producing colour programmes for the world longer than anyone else in Britain. As far back as 1964 American viewers were enjoying ATV colour programmes. But even if you’re not quite ready yet to switch to colour viewing, your ATV favourites will still be entertaining you, as colourfully as ever, in black and white.

The post ATV’s own spectacular! appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

WHEN tackling a fresh event the Producer must work out the mechanical framework necessary to achieve the best results. This requires a broad outline knowledge of the event, and a visit to the venue with the Unit planner, who must obtain and cope with, the right equipment — the lighting engineer, who must ensure perfect lighting, and the communications engineer. The tricky planning to get the programme on to the television screen in the best possible way.

Tackling an O.B. programme is quite different from filming an event. The O.B. Producer has the difficult task of editing the show as it happens, unlike the film man who can edit the film after the event. The success of the venture also depends on the adaptability of all the crew. It is important that each member of the production staff slip into the mood of the programme and be at one with it. Recently, for example, the A.T.V. crew covered a religious programme and followed it after a short interval with an “All-In Wrestling” event. For the first O.B. it was necessary to feel the solemnity of the occasion and adjust the speed of presentation to fit, so that all the solemn atmosphere was portrayed to the viewing audience. Then, shortly afterwards, came the brash excitement of the Wrestling match.

The idea that the O.B. people are a leisurely crowd who point their cameras at cricket matches and get sun-burnt or weatherbeaten at leisure is a fallacy. It takes initiative, a liking for hard work, planning and split second timing and as one O.B. Producer said, “Above all a liking for the challenge of the unexpected, for Outside Broadcasts are not rehearsed, and one never knows quite what is likely to crop up at the last minute.”

The post Outside Broadcasts appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

Wood Green Empire, first built in 1912 as a twice-nightly variety theatre, took on a new lease of life in 1955 when Associated Television converted it into one of the busiest of the television studios.

Since September 1955, thousands of people have stepped through the Empire’s doors to watch some of the most popular A.T.V. programmes presented at Wood Green. “Val Parnell’s Saturday Spectacular,” “Free Speech,” “The Carroll Levis Show,” “Val Parnell’s Startime,” are just a few of the programmes originating from the old Empire.

The Theatre has always had a busy, bustling show-business life. In 1930 it changed over to films, but was converted back to variety in 1936. Then, in January 1955, the Empire was closed as a live Theatre, and taken over by Associated Television in May 1955. On to the empty stage marched an army of carpenters, builders, painters, fitters and electricians. By September, their jobs were completed and the Empire was ready for “Channel 9”, the first programme on the air for Independent Television which was transmitted on September 23rd 1955, from this studio. [This sentence appears to be completely inaccurate in every regard – Ed]

The Theatre still has its bevy of “stage door johnnies,” but now they are in the modern garb of the autograph hunters and fan club leaders.

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