Extracted from Marconi Sound and Vision – Winter 1962
Trooping the Colour-boxing at Newcastle — horse racing at Ascot — international athletics at White City - visit of H.M the Queen to Plymouth — the Third Asian Broadcasting Exposition at Kuala Lumpur - British Exhibition at Accra - horse racing at Longchamps, Paris — international Soccer, England v. France. These are a few of the many events in which the Marconi Television Demonstration Unit (TDU) has participated in the last few months.
The Unit was originally formed in 1949 in order to demonstrate technical features of the Company’s television and other broadcasting equipment. At the beginning of 1955 the unit’s activities were expanded to include not only demonstrations but also installation, operational and maintenance services.
Television organizations cannot easily maintain equipment and staff to meet every eventuality, and one of the functions of the Unit is to provide equipment and trained personnel to supplement existing services during periods of peak activity. Some thirty experienced engineers are available and a complete range of television broadcasting equipment is maintained for hire. This equipment includes a fully operational 4½” Image Orthicon Camera Outside Broadcast Unit. A television studio is also available, capable of providing all the technical requirements for producing programmes for broadcasting and training purposes.
Colour television has occupied a large part of the unit‘s activities for the past five years. ln 1958 the Company designed and manufactured an Image Orthicon Colour Television Unit for Smith Kline and French Laboratories Ltd. Since that time, the technical staff for the operation and maintenanc of the colour equipment have been supplied front the Television Demonstration Unit. The Colour Unit has attended some forty medical conferences in the UK and has also toured Australia and South Africa. A notable recent achievement was the transmission of the first live colour television from the United Kingdom to USA via Telstar.
The services offered by the Television Demonstration Unit are not intended to compete with existing technical services operating within or under sub-contract to broadcasting organizations, but its objectives are to offer a technical service for all types of television and broadcasting for the purpose of supplementing existing services as and when required.
Marconi Mark IV Cameras at the opening of the Third Asian Broadcasting
Exposition in Kuala Lumpur. Marconi’s Television Demonstration Unit
provided equipment and technical services at this important gathering.
Examples of many of the services that the TDU has supplied can be viewed here.