BBC to restage opening night of British Television

[Lowtone]

BBC to restage opening night of British Television to mark 80th anniversary

http://www.a516digital.com/2016/08/bbc- ... l?spref=tw

With no surviving recordings of the first night of television, the BBC Four team will attempt to piece back together and recreate every aspect of the show from scratch - from the variety acts to the cameras - using the original technology and filming techniques to capture the excitement of the day.


The system that went first on opening night, which is due to be recreated for the programme, was a seven-feet tall mechanical monster built by John Logie Baird’s company. It was called the 'Flying Spot' and at its heart was a huge steel disc spinning almost at the speed of sound.

[Dave Moll]

Presumably they are referring to the opening night of the "high definition" (i.e Baird 240-line and EMI 405-line) service in November 1936, which I find rather puzzling. If there are no surviving recordings of this opening night, what has been shown over the years? I have seen what claims to be just this a number of times.

[Panrock]

The trailer is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocoFIUlUopE

Steve O

[Panrock]

And the Preview Event in London, at the BFI on the South Bank is here:

https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/defau ... 22A28869E0

Steve O

[Panrock]

Having attended the above yesterday, I can tell you that, from the technical point of view, what this Cambridge-based team achieved was far from the original 240-line Baird Spotlight Studio! Rather, this was an approx. 2-ft diameter 60-line Nipkow disc apparently working as a spotlight scanner. The resulting pictures were displayed on a computer screen.

The emphasis was more on the 'drama' and seeing what a group of people, completely new to NBTV, could come up with when presented with the challenge. 90 minutes long, and quite fun to watch.

Steve O

[Harry Dalek]

Having attended the above yesterday, I can tell you that, from the technical point of view, what this Cambridge-based team achieved was far from the original 240-line Baird Spotlight Studio! Rather, this was an approx. 2-ft diameter 60-line Nipkow disc apparently working as a spotlight scanner. The resulting pictures were displayed on a computer screen.

The emphasis was more on the 'drama' and seeing what a group of people, completely new to NBTV, could come up with when presented with the challenge. 90 minutes long, and quite fun to watch.

Steve O

They should of asked the club people for Help 2ft 60 line nipkow ...pushing the limits of taking it easy me thinks ....

[Panrock]

Actually Harry, several club members were consulted in the early part of the preparation and I provided a feasibility study. Then we went our separate ways...

I think quite reasonably their aim was to create an entertaining 'story' for the general public, rather than worry too much about an accurate technical re-creation. In any case that would have been way beyond their budget and the time they had available, and only appreciated by a very few.

It can't have been easy making an exciting TV programme based on such a specialist interest.

Steve O

[Lowtone]

it's right now on BBC4, very interesting !

[McGee2021]

Is there any other way to watch it than the iPlayer service on the BBC's website? Since I'm in america, it won't let me view it due to rights agreements.

[Dave Moll]

Yes, I found it interesting and disappointing in equal measures. Probably as good as one could expect from a programme aimed at the general viewership - and it did a good job of highlighting some of the challenges faced by JLB. I was, however, rather disappointed that we didn't get to see the full run of output they produced. Is it too much to hope that this might be shown on a later occasion?

By the way, at one point I caught a quick flash of someone looking rather like a certain Jeffrey B. As a quick shot I didn't have time to get a good look - and I acknowledge that my facial recognition skills are pretty poor, anyway.

[DrZarkov]

Is there any other way to watch it than the iPlayer service on the BBC's website? Since I'm in america, it won't let me view it due to rights agreements.

Yes, you have to root your browser through a proxy-server in the UK, there are plugins for Firefox to make that easy. (As a German we have to use proxies for UK or US streams relative often...)

I found it quite untertaining to watch. Indeed I would have liked to see the full reproduction of the start of television. But 90 minutes was for sure too short for both, information about the backgrounds (technical, political and personal) and the reproduction of the programme itself.

[ppppenguin]

By the way, at one point I caught a quick flash of someone looking rather like a certain Jeffrey B. As a quick shot I didn't have time to get a good look - and I acknowledge that my facial recognition skills are pretty poor, anyway.

Yes, twas me. Can't see myself being a regular contributor here but thought I ought to confirm Dave Moll's comment.You can see other stuff I've written here:

http://golbornevintageradio.co.uk/forum ... 3#pid63043


Jeffrey Borinsky www.borinsky.co.uk

[Lowtone]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNZB-sfr1T4 on youtube

[Viewmaster]

That Bush TV was much overused. Terrible noise(music?) used near the end was most inappropriate.
For me, it didn't conjure up the 1936 excitement at the time, the PC display not helping.

They didn't even show a photo of the beautiful looking 8 Ally Pally dipole aerials of the time.
Just the modern bald tower.

I did learn something though. Oil can cure a squeak!

[gary]

I certainly hope someone associated with the production thought to record some of that flying spot camera output...