Chorussed the fans –

“We love you Beatles,

Oh! yes we do.

Wherever you go,

We’ll follow you.

When you are not near us

We are blue.

Oh! Beatles, we love you”.

Within twenty-four hours of The Beatles’ triumphant return from America, the four undisputed kings of the pop-world were at Teddington rehearsing for their first ‘home again’ TV show – ABC’s “Big Night Out”.

George, Paul, John and Ringo had landed at London Airport in the cold, grey hours of Saturday morning to be greeted by the screams of 10,000 eager and delighted fans. And no less tumultuous a welcome awaited the Liverpool group when they arrived at the studios to keep their date with ABC.

Fans Gather Overnight
Beatles fans began to gather outside the studio gates hours in advance of the planned arrival of the four boys. Many hundreds of youngsters had made their way to Teddington straight after a long vigil at the airport the day before and had camped out all night in the hope of catching yet another fleeting glimpse of their idols.

“They’re Coming Up by Boat!”
ABC officials, concerned for the safety of their much mobbed star guests, had worked out an elaborate plan to dodge the mad, wild, scrambling crowd gathered around the gates. From a secret rendezvous the Beatles were taken by car to the river and transferred to a police launch for the rest of the journey to Teddington. But somehow the secret leaked out and word quickly spread among the fans, “They’re coming up by boat.”

Riverside Pandemonium
For a time then it was pandemonium. Crush barriers and commissionaires were swept aside as thousands of Beatlemaniacs rushed to throng the river bank. Harrassed [sic] but good natured ABC security guards finally managed to restore some semblance of order. But not before several over-eager teenagers had fallen into the water and been dragged back on the bank again, soaked to the skin.

By the time the police launch drew alongside the landing stage shortly after 11.00 a.m., excitement was at fever pitch. The Beatles, standing in the cockpit and smiling broadly, acknowledged a roar of greeting, stepped ashore, paused for a moment for the photographers and then, with a final wave to their fans, made a dash for the safety of Studio 1.

Half-an-hour later the rehearsals for “Big Night Out” were under way and, as the boys went through their paces with programme hosts Mike and Bernie Winters, other TV cameras were recording the scene for inclusion in another ABC scoop, “The Beatles Are Back!” – a 30 minute documentary covering the first 48 hours of their return to Britain.

Split Second Timing
Produced by Lloyd Shirley and directed by Tom Clegg, “The Beatles are Back!”, which was transmitted over the National Network on Sunday night, was, in itself, a major achievement in television programming and split second timing. Researchers, writers, cameramen and production staff had worked around the clock from early on Saturday morning evolving a format, shooting material on film or video tape, marrying the two together and getting the programme on the air in time to live up to ABC’s reputation for spot-on technicality.

Said producer Lloyd Shirley, “It was a race against time and there were moments when it looked as though we couldn’t possibly make it on schedule. But we had a great team and the Beatles couldn’t have been more helpful so everything worked fine.”

It was not until hours after “The Beatles Are Back!!” had gone out over the air that George, Paul, John and Ringo finally left Teddington, their recording stint over and “Big Night Out” safely on the shelf. It had been another long and tiring day. And outside in the darkness the patient fans were still waiting.

The Beatles and all the other top Mersey groups are heading for Montreux. Not in person but on videotape – to the festival of world TV light entertainment in April.

Official Entry
ABC TV learnt this week that their special Lucky Stars show ‘The Merseybeats’ which was transmitted on the ITV Network last December, has been selected as the official Independent Television entry for the Montreux Golden Rose Award.

Golden Rose
Another accolade for the Mersey groups, Thank Your Lucky Stars, producer Philip Jones and ABC TV who are hoping to add the Golden Rose to the two Melody Maker awards for the top pop-music show won by Lucky Stars over the last two years.

ABC TV plan to give viewers across the National Network more exciting light entertainment shows, with Sunday night series ‘Blackpool – Night Out’ in the summer.

Top Performers
Starting on July 5th and continuing for 10 weeks in the Sunday Palladium slot, this will be a one-hour variety show transmitted live from ABC’s new theatre at Blackpool. As well as featuring much of the comedy and musical talent that abounds in the North today, the show will star all the top-line performers in Blackpool for the summer season.

‘Blackpool – Night Out’ will be the best evening of entertainment that ABC TV has brought viewers yet.

With the story of ABC TV’s Beatles scoop comes more news of the Company’s success in the light entertainment field. ‘Big Night Out’ – the popular variety show which viewers in the rest of the country see on Saturday nights – is to be screened on the London ITV channel on Tuesdays by Associated-Rediffusion, the weekday contractor. First London screening will be The Beatles’ home-coming show on March 3rd at 8.0 p.m.

When they heard about the deal, Mike and Bernie Winters – regular hosts and comedians on ‘Big Night Out’ – said “We are excited at the news, it’s great that the London audience will get to see the show – now everybody in the country will see The Beatles and see us too”.

Programme Tribute
A-R’s decision to take ‘Big Night Out’ is the crowning tribute to a show which has been building a great reputation for itself amongst ABC TV’s own weekend audience in the North and Midlands. The programme was devised in June 1962 with a strong regional flavour, and billing a lot of the tremendous variety talent that exists in ABC TV’s area. Today the show has won national acclaim – and even international recognition when it was sold to Australia last summer. ABC TV has even bigger plans for maintaining the show’s success – and viewers across the whole country can look forward to some very exciting Big Nights Out in the near future.

ABC’s candid cameramen capture more moments from the Great Day at Teddington. The four boys seconds before they stepped ashore, Paul McCartney smiling a greeting to his excited fans, and George Harrison and John Lennon in conversation during a break in the ‘Big Night Out’ rehearsals.

On January 19th 1963, four hesitant, rather young lads turned up nervously at the main entrance to ABC’s Teddington studios, to appear for the first time on TV in ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’. No one took any notice of them arriving. The commissionaire had their names, but to the rest of the world they were virtually unknown. On the scripts in their hands, their names appeared way down the bill.

Back in Style
Today – only a little over a year later – those same four boys returned in triumph to Teddington Studios. But this time it was through the back way, by river, because their entry to the front of the studios was barred by thousands of screaming and struggling girls who had waited, many of them all night, to catch a glimpse of their idols and the biggest rave Britain (and now the States) has known since the war . . . The Beatles.

First Producer
Waiting to welcome the boys was producer Philip Jones, who directed their debut on ABC TV last year. Phil – who has made a big name for himself in TV light entertainment with Lucky Stars, Big Night Out and ABC spectaculars starring Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee – will be directing the Beatles again tonight on their first British TV show since their return from America.

The post Beatles big TV scoop!! appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

ABC-TV

THE DEPARTMENT OF
OUTSIDE BROADCASTS PRODUCTIONS
PRESENTS

‘HOLIDAY TOWN PARADE’

1962

WITH £4,000 CASH PRIZES

FEATURING TWO FABULOUS CONTESTS!

✻ TELEVISION BATHING BEAUTY QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN
✻ TELEVISION FASHION QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN

PRODUCED BY DAVID SOUTHWOOD
Compere Keith Fordyce – Interviewer Peter Lloyd

ENTRY FORM Application to participate in the 1962 contests of

ABC-TV’s ‘HOLIDAY TOWN PARADE’

I …………………………………………………….(full name) wish to be considered for inclusion in the TELEVISION CONTEST:

✻ BATHING BEAUTY QUEEN of GREAT BRITAIN
✻ FASHION QUEEN of GREAT BRITAIN

(Strike out the Contest not applicable)
(Note: If you wish to enter two contests please fill in additional entry form.)

and hereby agree that if accepted as a competitor I will abide by the undermentioned conditions:

1. I am a British subject over sixteen years of age.
2. I accept the decision of the ABC Television officials (or anybody appointed by them) as final.
3. I undertake that if accepted as a competitor and selected to enter the Resort Finals or Grand Finals of the contests I will appear on the dates required at the place chosen by ABC Television Ltd.
4. I will report for the Heat before the advertised time of starting and know that any competitor arriving after that time will be disqualified.
5. I agree to be photographed either before, during or after the Heats and or , and allow that such photographs may be used without payment with or without my name appended for any purposes desired by ABC Television Ltd.
6. If I win a Resort Final I shall not enter any heat for a subsequent Resort Final.
7. If I am selected to appear on television I shall not enter again for a period of at least ten , but I understand that this rule will be waived for the last week of the series.
8. I accept whatever method of judging shall be decided upon by the officials of ABC , who cannot enter into any correspondence on the subject.
9. In the event of the competition being of the Bathing Beauty , I agree that artificial aids will not be worn.
10. I agree that ABC Television have the right to televise me at any time during the competition and to repeat or record any such television transmission should they so desire it.
11. ABC Television shall be entitled at any time or times without prior notice to any contestant and without giving any reason therefor to cancel all or any of the heats, Resort Finals and the Grand Finals of the Contest and to refrain from televising the same or any of them. In such event I shall have no claim whatsoever against ABC other than for any prize money to which I may have become entitled in the Contest up to the date of any such cancellation.
12. I understand that I shall have no claim against ABC Television Ltd. in respect of any personal injury incurred during the course of my participation in the competition.
13. I know that no winner of any previous Grand Finals of “Holiday Town Parade” can take part.
14. I have not been employed professionally to appear on television in the United Kingdom during the past twelve months. I recognise that if at the time of the Heat or Final I have been employed professionally to appear on television in the United Kingdom Twill be disqualified.
15. I certify that I am not under contract to any organisation or person who could prevent me from appearing or attach any conditions to my appearance in the “Holiday Town Parade” programme either in a Heat or Resort Final or Grand Finals.
16. I shall at all times be responsible for any and all expenses of whatsoever nature incurred by me in connection with the Contest.
17. No Judges of this or previous Holiday Town Contests will be allowed to compete.

✻ IMPORTANT

Those selected at the qualifying heats on the Friday must be able to appear in the Television Show on the Saturday and to attend the rehearsals. If you cannot do so then do not enter.

TWO GREAT CONTESTS!

HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO APPEAR ON TELEVISION!

✻ TELEVISION BATHING BEAUTY QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN

Girls will be selected at the qualifying heats every Friday afternoon for twelve weeks, beginning with effect from June 29th. These successful competitors will appear on the ABC Television Network in “Holiday Town Parade” for the Resort Finals for which the weekly prizes are: 1st—£25, 2nd—£20, 3rd—£15 with £10 for each runner up.

Twelve girls will qualify for the GRAND FINAL on Saturday, September 22nd for which the prizes are:

FIRST PRIZE
£1000

SECOND PRIZE
£250

THIRD PRIZE
£100

✻ TELEVISION FASHION QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN

Open to all ladies over sixteen.

Ladies will be selected at the qualifying heats every Friday afternoon for the Resort Finals which are in the ABC Television Show “Holiday Town Parade” for which the weekly prizes are: 1st—£25, 2nd—£20, 3rd—£15 with £10 for each runner up.

Twelve ladies will qualify for the GRAND FINAL on Saturday, September 22nd for which the prizes are:

FIRST PRIZE
£250

SECOND PRIZE
£150

THIRD PRIZE
£100

Either bring the completed form with you, or preferably send it in advance to the Publicity Office of the resort at which you intend to compete, from which full details of locations, times, etc. can be obtained.

Follow the fun of ABC – TV!

David Southwood
presents
the seventh year of Television Contests
in the 1962 series of
the wonderfully successful

‘HOLIDAY TOWN PARADE’

from these twelve
popular Resorts
throughout the
summer

JUNE 29th and 30th –– MORECAMBE
JULY 6th and 7th –– BLACKPOOL
JULY 13th and 14th –– PRESTATYN
JULY 20th and 21st –– COLWYN BAY
JULY 27th and 28th –– PWLLHELI
AUG. 3rd and 4th –– SOUTHPORT
AUG. 10th and 11th –– SKEGNESS
AUG. 17th and 18th –– GREAT YARMOUTH (Gorleston-on-Sea)
AUG. 24th and 25th –– FILEY
AUG. 31st and SEPT 1st –– BRIDLINGTON
SEPT. 7th and 8th –– FLEETWOOD
SEPT. 14th and 15th –– SCARBOROUGH

★ GRAND FINAL TELEVISED on SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 22nd
Location to be announced later

★ RESORT QUALIFYING HEATS each FRIDAY AFTERNOON at 3-0 p.m.
(For details of location apply at Local Information Bureau)

★ RESORT FINALS TELEVISED each SATURDAY

The post Holiday Town Parade appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

The post Supporting actors appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

The television audience, while demanding a full share of drama, light entertainment and feature programming, also enjoys sport – even if only from its armchair. And because you can’t take a football field to a studio, the studio must go to the field. In outside broadcasting the scene is set by the programme. For the rest it requires the same basic resources as any other television production, plus a few of its own. The first of these is mobility; getting the cameras, control unit and attendant vehicles to the scene and, having got them there, getting the cameras to the spot that will deliver the best shots. The second is a private, flexible and extremely positive link with the studios. Where there are no GPO land-lines for carrying the pictures back to a Master Control, and so to the transmitters, the OB unit must create its own contact; by bouncing the signals in a straight, uninterrupted line from one high, lonely point to another; from one mobile micro-wave relay transmitter to the great dish aerial of a receiver on another – regardless of weather or terrain.

In short, the whole coverage of an event in the open requires men who are rugged and optimistic, and determined enough to go anywhere; with vehicles tough enough to get them there. The ‘vehicles’ in any of ABC’s three OB units might include a mobile generating plant for producing lighting power, a hydraulic tower for camera or micro-wave aerial, tender vehicles and, if the programme is not being transmitted ‘live’, a mobile VTR unit. Once these have been positioned, the necessary connections made, and the line back to Master Control set up, a normal transmission procedure follows.

The show must go on. Travelling with an outside broadcast unit is like being with the circus. The rigging and de-rigging before and after shows, the long caravan of vehicles… all this reminds you of the Big Top. The same spirit pervades both; whatever happens, whatever the difficulties, the show must go on.

Top: The floor manager holds up a caption card to begin recording. A familiar television scene, acted out in unfamiliar conditions.

Left: Like the circus, an outside broadcast unit needs large supplies of electricity in remote places where they are not always readily available. ABC has the same answer: a mobile generator.

Right: The numbed yet willing fingers of an electrician make a last-minute adjustment to one of the lamps lighting a cattle shed.

The cameras are the same as those in a studio, though perhaps fitted with ‘zoom’ lenses; the control suite – a ‘scanner’ – has nearly the same crew; and the radio or telephone ‘talk-back’ link with Master Control holds the unit as close to home as it would have done if it had been just down a corridor. ABC with its weekend contract in the North and Midlands, and a lot of difficult country-including the Pennines-to be crossed, has gained a great deal of experience in operating an OB fleet. The fact that they are now doing more ‘remote’ programmes than any other ITV company, and not many less than the BBC, is a strong pointer to the power they have built into their OB division.

The post Outside broadcasts: programmes set the scene appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

Future trends must be considered together with present requirements in the planning of any production line. Plant has a limited life; there must be room to grow; the quick reorganisation of equipment, demanded by new, more advanced methods of manufacture, must be easy. Truisms all, but particularly pertinent to television; a virile young industry, learning fast, changing with the pattern of public demand, and growing at the accelerated pace of all development in electronic processes.

As a company ABC TV has always been very awake to this changing face. While establishing its resources, it has also been especially busy anticipating the demands of promising and probable developments. A switching of line standards was something to expect. The arrival of colour television was another. Decisions have now been taken on the standards, but in 1959-when the new technical block was being planned for Teddington – the question was still wide open, and suggested the adoption of equipment that would work equally well on 405, 525 or 625. Fortunately manufacturers, too, were then beginning to recognise this need and cameras and monitors designed for quick switching between standards were on the way.

But as very little had been done to produce equipment for signal switching and distribution in a multi-standard form, ABC engineers started development along these lines themselves. And with the obvious advantages then being offered by transistorisation they naturally concentrated on designing equipment that employed this new technique to the full. The result has been a complete range of modular devices for the routing of signals, and with a performance capable of handling colour-another facet of the future that ABC had been investigating in the most practical way possible, through experimentation.

As the BBC were already putting a great deal of effort and brainpower into their design for British colour television, based on the American NTSC system, ABC decided that any experimental and development work they did would be of more value if directed at the embryo SECAM system. Out of this pioneering work, done with the co-operation of GEC, has come some very worthwhile equipment refinements, real flexibility and a lot of novel advantages in the arrangement and design of their technical facilities, and a valuable familiarity with the problems that colour television will bring. And, most practical of all, it has now led to the SECAM system being given high-power transmission trials.

One of the best examples of the Company’s foresight is embodied in the very skeleton of the new Teddington block. With the future promising an influx of new equipment, and new applications of technical space calling for massive reshuffling of facilities, ABC introduced a unique element into the design of the block. The entire floor of the technical area is a pre-cast concrete network of one-foot square holes, supported over a void that can be pressurised with fresh air during operation and is deep enough to crawl in.

Above the ceiling is a similar void that can be exhausted. As a result, equipment can be placed wherever it is needed, and supplied with cooling air and cables simply by cutting corresponding holes in the tiles covering the floor and ceiling grills. Other examples of their eye to the future can be found in the equipment they have chosen; telecine and VTR machines that are instantly switchable between line standards, easily and quickly adaptable for colour; lighting installations with sufficient reserve capacity for colour productions. Or in the arrangement of their facilities; the interlocking of production areas and routing of signals through one, central apparatus area; the special VTR suite equipped for electronic editing.

Perhaps the best composite example of ABC’s planning is Teddington as a whole. It is one of the most modern studio centres in Europe. But the drive towards tomorrow is the same throughout the Company.

The post Technical development: anticipating probablilities appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

An excerpt from ABC TV in Focus, a book given to potential advertisers in February 1963.

For economic productivity factories must work to full capacity; turn out a steady flow of goods. And as with factories, so with television…

In the beginning all programmes, other than those made in film studios, were ‘live’; acted out at the actual moment of transmission. This meant that all television companies suffered from unbalanced output; had fully equipped studios that were only called upon for short bursts of productivity. As weekend-only contractors the facilities in ABC studios were particularly wasted. During five days of every week the floors were virtually idle, their costly equipment unused. So the urgent need for some method of spreading the studio load, by staggering production and stockpiling, was an early one.

Like any other need, it was satisfied. The first preserving process to arrive was telerecording; a photographic method of capturing the fleeting television picture on cine film. ABC TV bought it. And led Britain in its use when they installed the 16mm fast pull-down system in their Manchester studio centre. As well as unshackling productions from actual transmission time, telerecording brought a bonus: it also meant that the programmes could be offered for sale overseas.

Next came VTR – Video Tape Recording – a process for recording the signals generated in a camera channel in much the same way as the waves generated in sound equipment can be preserved on a domestic tape recorder.

Once again ABC were quick to take advantage of the new system; to use it fully, incorporate improvements as they were developed, change to new machines when they offered better recordings, greater ease of control and flexibility, and advances that promised wider usefulness in the future. Such a machine is the RCA TR22. Fully transistorised, completely self-contained, and capable of remote control from the production suite or the electronic editing console; it is also instantly switchable between line standards and can record colour. Not much larger than an upright piano, it is the most advanced, most useful VTR unit on the market. ABC TV have bought the first four off the production line.

Until recently VTR had been used solely as a means of ‘canning’ whole programmes; of taking a continuous feed from the control suite, storing it on tape, and playing it back, unaltered, on the day of transmission. As no pictures appear on the tape editing was an expensive, difficult, and usually unsatisfactory business. But with an electronic process that has now been worked out, it has become possible for special sequences – such as Sunday Break interviews that cannot be timed to fit into the programme’s production schedule, outside broadcast sequences for programmes like Silver Wheel, and scenes that need perfect timing and could easily go wrong on ‘transmission’, like fights in drama productions – to be shot beforehand and fed into a programme in the same way as an output from telecine or a camera on the floor.

The post VTR: preserving the programme appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

An excerpt from ABC TV in Focus, a book given to potential advertisers in February 1963.

Programmes are moving pictures, music, voices-and captions, animated cartoons, still photographs, graphic designs. Studio cameras, gramophone records, magnetic tapes and microphones can take care of the former. But some other form of picture and sound device is necessary for the screening of filmed programmes like The Human Jungle, the animated triangle symbol that introduces every ABC production, complex caption and graphic design effects, and the slotting in of sequences that can be shot more easily and economically with a film camera.

The need for such a device led naturally to the development of telecine; in its simplest form a single-lens camera aimed at an image produced by a film projector. In its most highly developed form (a refinement of one of the earliest scanning devices used by Baird) it does away with the projected image and instead directs a spot of light – along a pattern identical to that followed by the electron beam that creates the picture on a television screen – through the film and onto a photo-electric cell. Each of these latest telecine units – there are three at Teddington – consists of a flying-spot projector, two machines for presenting 35 and 16mm film, and a slide carrier. All can be pre-loaded, and selected and operated from the control suite requiring the picture feed. Allied to each telecine unit is a caption scanning unit. This too can be pre-loaded and controlled by a Vision Mixer in any of the production control suites.

In it are two caption holders shaped like paddle wheels and each capable of presenting any one of sixteen captions, still photographs, or pieces of graphic design at the touch of a button; a VTR clock, an ABC-designed-and-built device for identifying video tape recordings and cueing the studio at the start of ‘transmission’ runs; and a roller-caption machine, used mainly for the moving ‘credits’ at the end of a programme. Each has its own light source and is scanned by a single vidicon camera through a multiplicity of prisms as it is selected and illuminated. As with other sources, the feed from each telecine/caption suite must be monitored; skilfully adjusted for perfect picture quality before being passed to the bank of pre-view screens in the Director’s suite. This is the Telecine Operator’s job. Following the studio through monitor and ‘talk-back’, alone in almost permanent twilight, he is alert for the cue ‘roll telecine!’

The post Telecine: a pre-packed picture source appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

An excerpt from ABC TV in Focus, a book given to potential advertisers in February 1963.

The pictures in television may only be waveforms to an engineer; but to the Director they are one of the plastic components of his art; to be moulded, selected, drawn upon at will.

They pass through to the Control Suite for his assembly from a variety of different sources. But, unlike sound which is fed into a programme from a microphone, the point of a pick-up stylus, or a magnetic play-back head, the initial television picture always starts in an electronic scanning device. The first, and most important of these in true television studio productions, is the camera.

In most ABC studios there are four 4½” Image Orthicon cameras; as many as six in Studio 1 at Teddington. And close technical links established between control centres allow extra cameras to be brought on to a set if specially demanded. Each camera is crewed by a cameraman who is solely concerned with switching lenses, framing the shot, and focusing on the action. Electronic control – the choice of picture density, contrast and brightness – is managed by the Vision Controller from the vision and lighting section of the control suite.

Here the cameras are ‘set-up’; their channels adjusted for matching performance during the next run.

Control is passed to the ‘joy-sticks’; simple-looking knobs that are designed to cope with final adjustments during ‘transmission’. Working closely with the Lighting Supervisor cameras and lights can then be adjusted for clear pictures in balanced sequences.

Beyond the ‘joy-sticks’ the pictures pass to the vision mixer and the banks of monitors facing the teams in the three control suite sections. From these the Director will make his final selection; cue the Vision Mixer in his electronic editing. And from these, through the check-point of the Technical Supervisor, will go the version to be seen on home screens.

The post Vision: pictures that qualify appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

An excerpt from ABC TV in Focus, a book given to potential advertisers in February 1963.

Sound – as with light – is a basic dimension of all television. Starting with the symbol and mood-setting theme music, it is an integral and indispensable part of the fabric of every production. So its quality must be perfect; its timing exact; its perspective placed precisely.

During the actual ‘transmission’ of most programmes it is gathered together from three sources within the production area; from microphones on the studio floor, and pre-recorded tapes and gramophone records ‘played-back’ in the Sound Control room of the Control Suite. In programmes like Thank Your Lucky Stars – mimed because it seeks the best in sound and vision; the excellence of quality that can best be achieved under the skilfully controlled conditions of a recording studio, and the free movement of artists and cameras unchecked by the limitations imposed by trailing microphone cables and hovering booms – a great deal of the sound is fed from recordings. In feature programmes like Tempo, and drama series like Jezebel-Ex UK most sound comes from the studio. But wherever it originates, it passes through one common point – the Sound Console. Here, ready and balanced, it is held by the Sound Supervisor for mixing with its picture.

And, as with lighting, each sound sequence – carefully rehearsed, timed, numbered – is pre-cued by the P.A, cued by the Director, checked for final quality by the Technical Supervisor.

In their overall planning for a perfect product, ABC engineers give sound as much attention as everything else. Equipment is picked for its flexibility in performance as well as ease of operation; where anything can be done to raise production quality and efficiency, it is done. The following are only a few of the innovations and facilities they have incorporated in the ABC studio centres.

During the building of the new block at Teddington, one rehearsal room was acoustically treated as a site for ‘live’ musical backings, and for the pre-recording of special sound effects. Next to this was built a soundproof control room and announcers’ booth that allows complex dubbings to be made without spilling into busy studio areas.

The sound distortion network linked to the Sound Console has been switch-coupled to the Vision Mixer so that it will automatically apply to particular shots in a picture run-through. And the output from the console has been split into separate ‘music’, ‘dialogue’ and ‘effects’ outputs so that recordings could be made which foreign buyers can add alternative music to, or dub in some other language. Everything that can be done for good sound… is done.

The post Sound: planned for perfection appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

An excerpt from ABC TV in Focus, a book given to potential advertisers in February 1963.

Every production needs light. Multi-set programmes like The Avengers and fast-moving shows like Thank Your Lucky Stars need a lot of it. Other, more static sequences, like the studio linking shots for Candid Camera, need less. But every studio programme must have it; under exact control, and in the right place at the right time.

The ‘right place’ means a system designed for speed of setting; a method that will allow a lighting engineer to place the lamp of his choice, at the point in space where he needs it most – with the least amount of effort. Basically two systems are in general use. Motorised barrel suspension and a point telescope system. In planning for the future, ABC decided that the flexibility of the telescope was the most practical, and a grid consisting of parallel slots, formed by steel rails and separated by light-weight metal decking, was installed. The lamps are suspended from this on individual telescopes hanging through the slots and attached to carriages rolling on the steel rails. Maximum manoeuvrability – the quick transference of lamps from one part of the studio to another – is attained by using a suspended trolley to carry complete lamp-telescope-carriage combinations along the lighting gallery, from the open mouth of one slot to either end of another.

The lamps themselves are raised and lowered by compressed-air driven winches built into the telescope carriages; leaving final direction of the light to be manipulated by pole from the studio floor. The result? Whereas it takes two or three days to rig lighting on a film set, it takes only two or three hours to rig the complete lighting for a major ABC television production. The slotted grid system is also ideal for carrying monitors, scenery, microphones and speakers, and microphone boom cables.

Power for the lighting, which in a production like the average Armchair Theatre play would keep a television receiver going for four years, is supplied by power points evenly spaced above the grid, and distributed around the studio. For ‘exact control at the right time’, each is connected to a switch on the lighting console and a dimmer on an adjacent control bank. Complete lighting sequences can be set on these and transferred to a lighting ‘memory’ that can hold up to twenty lighting combinations; to be called upon at the press of a button during the run of a production.

As the intensity of light in any sequence or set must be matched to the lighting in subsequent sequences and on adjacent sets, and plays an important part in the picture seen by the camera and demanded by the camera setting, the lighting and vision controllers share the same area and monitors in ABC studios – and work very closely together. They must devise lighting and camera alignments as a team, and this calls for an exact working knowledge of each other’s equipment. As a result, picture technique at ABC is evolving to a point where one man could finally have control of both facets of the end product.

The post Lights: at the touch of a button appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

An excerpt from ABC TV in Focus, a book given to potential advertisers in February 1963.

Three arrowheads; three chords; a familiar triangle symbol – and another ABC programme is announced.

It could be Thank Your Lucky Stars, The Sunday Break, ABC At Large, or one of many well known weekend programmes. At 9.35 on Sunday, 17 February, it was Armchair Theatre presenting ‘The Paradise Suite’ another play specially written for ABC and scheduled for screening across the ITV Network; another full scale-television production…

It started with an idea by author Robert Muller. It was acted out-against a set imagined by award-winning designer Voytek – on the floor of Studio 1 at Teddington. It was directed by Philip Saville. And it was the product of a system, a highly refined process, a time-tied progression of skilled technical events; the product of many uncredited experts, and a great deal of modern equipment.

This is an outline of that process, of the technical demands made by every television production, and the specialised way in which they are met by ABC TV.

The point of main activity is the Control Suite. Here, in a fluorescent cockpit of intense concentration, soundproofed against the world outside and set ideally with an eagle’s-nest view of the studio, the centre point is the Director. In front of him is a bank of monitor screens showing every picture source available for his selection. Flanking him him are some of the assistants and controls he will rely upon to link and blend all the elements that make a programme. Each assistant is an expert, in control of equipment

that is the latest the industry has to offer, as advanced as ABC’s development engineers can make it. And each is an integral part of a close-locked team that must do more than co-operate; must think in every dimension and, under the Director, hold the overall effect paramount. To achieve this in the new Teddington block, the operators and equipment have been grouped in the most practical way possible.

Three soundproofed compartments, viewed left to right from the studio, handle Vision, Production and Sound. The first is concerned with lighting and cameras, the second is manned by the Production Assistant, Director, Vision Mixer and Technical Supervisor, and the third by a Sound Mixer and Grams Operator. On ‘transmission’ – the final run-through of a programme for recording or ‘live’ (immediate) transmission – each is responsible for supplying the Director with a set sequence

of elements. These are demanded by the production, or issue from the Director’s interpretation, and are arranged, refined and fixed upon during rehearsal.

Most of these elements originate on the studio floor, through action controlled by the Director via the Floor Manager, and cameras and microphones directed by means of an elaborate intercom or ‘talk-back’ system. Other elements can be woven in from a variety of sources; from film,

tape recordings (video and sound), outside broadcast feeds, gramophone records and other studios. But whatever the source, final control of use must be the Director’s. And in working to achieve this in its simplest form, ABC engineers are pace-setters. Wherever possible, they have designed or adapted picture and sound source equipment for pre-setting, and made selection and operation available by the press of a button in the Control Suite.

This then is the place where programmes are put together; where the Director is king-pin. But between him and the finished product leaving the Control Suite, for recording or transmission, stands the final check of the Technical Supervisor. He has the last adjustment of sound and picture. Like a checker on a factory floor, only his acceptance passes the product as Well Made.

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