Colour TV in Piccadilly

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.