ETF - British Experiments with NTSC Color

British Experiments with NTSC Color

Britain retained its 405 line TV standard after World War Two, while the rest of Europe and America adopted higher resolution systems. When the NTSC color system was adopted in the U.S. in 1953, British manufacturers experimented with adopting it for the 405 line standard. Ultimately the BBC decided not to proceed with color using the 405 line standard, and finally adopted the PAL color system with the switch to a 625 line standard in the 1960s.

David Boynes is restoring a Pye color set built for this standard.

Paul Pelczynski wrote this to us:

Your story on color television transmission tests from Alexandra Palace in London reminded me on my 1953 work at Marconi Company. There, as a design engineer, I worked on a color camera and studio control equipment for the BBC. The system was capable to be switched to operate on three television standards (405, 525 and 625 lines) for evaluating purposes. An interesting item was a studio color monitor, using three CRTs with images combined using dichroic mirrors. The program was conducted under RCA license. operating equipment was installed in the Alexandra Palace studio in 1955.

From a 1957 book entitled "The Boy's Book Of Radio Television & Radar"

Courtesy of AK member Aussie Bloke