His first O.B. – a Coronation!

TERENCE C. MACNAMARA, ATV’s Technical Controller, has worked in television and radio since the pioneer days.

He joined the BBC engineering department in 1923 and saw the building up of both the BBC sound and television services. Today he is in charge of ATV’s 179-strong engineering department.

At the age of 56, he has seen the growth of the industry since the earliest days. He proudly remembers showing Marconi around the BBC’s Savoy Hill studios in 1923 and Lord Rutherford around Alexandra Palace in 1936. He also worked with James Logie Baird [sic: John – Ed].

Baird, he remembers as “a lovable man of great vision — impractical, though, and with no idea of money.”

Mr Macnamara was responsible for the complete installation at Alexandra Palace after he moved to the television section of the BBC engineering design and installation department, of which he ultimately became head.

In 1951, he joined Norman Collins in High Definition Films Ltd., making electronic films with Pye Ltd. at Highbury. Mr Macnamara has chalked up some notable “firsts” during his career.

He was in charge of the first television outside broadcast ever carried out at the coronation of George VI, and also supervised the first TV outside broadcast of the Oxford and Cambridge boat race from a launch following the boats.

When ATV started there were only five months to get the service going.

“It was an enormous strain on the technical people. We worked all day and all night. The job was planned by about three people.

“Today we are using a similar team to plan the great new Elstree studio scheme”.

During the war Mr Macnamara worked for the BBC team used by the Air Ministry. Their job was radio counter-measures such as distorting German beacon signals to throw their aviators off course.

Mr Macnamara helped to deal with a German mystery voice that interrupted London programmes. The voice, which the technicians called “Funf” came from a transmitter on the continent. He and his colleagues had to devise a way of blotting out the German signals.

Looking to the future, Mr Macnamara says: “I’m a supporter of the introduction of the 625-line system. I’ve seen colour TV too, both in America and Russia, and we keep a close eye on developments in that direction.

“I believe young people with a bent for engineering should be encouraged to go in for the technical side. We started a trainee scheme straight away at ATV and nearly all the original trainees are now in posts of considerable responsibility.”

Mr Macnamara has been married for 33 years and lives with his wife, Kathleen in a “minute Regency terrace house in St John’s Wood.” But at weekends he goes to his country house in the village of Cadbury, Devonshire.