World's First International Television Hook-up Gives Industry Big
Sales Opportunity
Cameras on the Eiffel Tower will bring this bird's eye view of Paris
to television screen throughout Britain on July 8, when the series of
programmes from the French Capital commences. In the foreground
can be seen the buildings in which the recent General Assembly of UNO
was held.
The series of Franco-British joint television programmes to be
broadcast from July 8-14 will focus public interest on television to
a degree that has not been experienced for many months. They give the
industry, and dealers in particular, an opportunity to stimulate
sales not only during the quiet season when demand naturally drops,
but to build up new prospective purchasers who will buy later in the year.
Many dealers will already have planned to make the most of this
opportunity. Those who have not will find that there is just time if
they act without delay. No retail shop selling television in any of
the areas served by one of the BBC TV transmitters should be without
a special window display and special demonstration facilities during
the July 8-14 period, preferably backed by suitable local publicity
and advertising in the local press and by other means.
The national newspapers, too, will be helping to build up public
interest. For not only will the appeal of live pictures from the
French capital catch the public imagination; but this first exchange
of programmes is the first step towards international TV which will
open up new horizons to every owner of a vision receiver.
In this feature the Trader has collected together all the facts about
the Paris-London programmes so that dealers have as much information
at their disposal to help in planning their own sales campaigns.
Bush Radio show how to Tie-up with "television's thrilling
week." This half-page advertisement featuring the
programmes appeared in the "Daily Express" last week.
It included a coupon for details of the set and the name of the
nearest Bush dealer. Bush radio have also put in a special
window display in the Keith Prowse premises in Bond Street,
London. Carried out in a light and airy style, it depicts a
café scene. It has already aroused widespread interest
among the London crowds of shoppers and visitors.
New Techniques
Techniques and equipment never used before will contribute to the
series of relays. The programmes, to be introduced by the French
Ambassador in London, and the British Ambassador in Paris, end with
the celebrations in Paris on July 14, France’s national day.
They will be the first programmes to come from Paris to London. With
the exception of a BBC outside broadcast from Calais to England in
1950, they will also be the first to be picked up in one country and
broadcast "live" from another and the first ever to be
transmitted simultaneously by two countries working on different
television systems.
Thanks to months of work by engineers of the BBC and Rediodiffusion
et Télévision Françaises and the British and
French radio industries, viewers throughout the four television areas
in Great Britain will see what French viewers are seeing – 17
programmes in all, showing Paris, Paris people and Paris life in all
its aspects. Later it is intended to reverse the process and let
Paris see British television programmes.
Only the Beginning
"This first international sharing of programmes is only the
beginning," a Radio Industry Council spokesman said. "It
will show that even countries using different television systems
– in this case France on 819 lines and Britain on 405 – can
interchange programmes.
"Programmes are the most expensive part of television and
ability to share them will reduce costs and may bring TV within the
means of countries so far hesitating to adopt it.
"All Europe could eventually be linked – an ideal which
seemed impossible a few years ago when the countries failed to reach
agreement on a standard system."
The television signals will come from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to
Senate House, University of London in eight hops. There are two radio
relay stations between Paris and Lille, where there is another TV
transmitter. The route is then to Cassel, well known to British
troops in two wars and the site of Field Marshal Montgomery’s
famous "No. 10 set" wireless headphone in the later stages
of the last war. Here a British television camera will convert the
picture to the BBC 405-line system.
The channel is crossed by radio relay between Alembon and Swingate,
near Dover, a distance of 40 miles, and then to Wrotham and London.
The longest jump is from Swingate to Wrotham, a distance of 49 miles.
Counting the two TV transmitters in Paris, one in Lille and four in
Britain, the programmes will be transmitted simultaneously from seven
stations – Europe’s biggest TV "hook-up" yet.
More countries want to be included next year, when the BBC have
offered to take pictures of the Coronation as far as the English
Channel for anyone to pick up on the other side.
Programme Details
The BBC’s Television Service and Rediodiffusion et
Télévision Françaises have planned close on a
score of programmes from Paris. As a curtain raiser RTF will show
French viewers six films about London, based on Stephen
McCormack’s "London Town" programmes.
The week will culminate in the Quatorze Juillet programmes, on
France’s National Day, July 14. The programmes which lead up to
July 14 will show Paris in her many aspects, as a centre of the arts,
as a centre of elegance, as a centre of gaiety. Viewers will see
aspects of French sport in a soccer match and in a film of the Tour
de France; they will join typical Parisians in a day’s outing on
the Marne at Joinville, they will go with the children to see the
animals at the Jardin d’Acclimatation. The subject of all the
programmes is Paris, and the people of Paris.
The main burden of the Franco-British Week will rest on the mobile
camera units of RTF. BBC producers will assist their French
colleagues, as will BBC commentators and engineers.
The Franco-British week will be inaugurated on July 8 by H.E. the
French Ambassador and Mme. Massigli, who will speak from the gardens
of the French Embassy in London, welcoming British viewers to Paris,
where H.E. the British Ambassador and Lady Harvey will be waiting to
greet them.
"Paris of the Arts" (July 9). – Four programmes on
July 9 will form a composite picture representing Paris as a centre
of the Arts. First comes a short French film, showing the
artists’ quarters in Ternes, Denfert-Rochereau and Montmatre.
This is followed by a visit to the studio of the artist Gromaire. He
is already known for his fine engravings, water colours and
tapestries, and as is work is bold and full of contrast it should
show up well on television.
From the artist’s studio viewers will be introduced to one of
the existential clubs, the Caves of ST. Germain des Prés, now
popular with the intelligentsia and visited by tourists. One of these
clubs will be reconstituted in a studio, and a selection of acts and
turns, given by well-known figures from the various Caves will be
brought into the studio for this programme. Finaly, the mobile
cameras will visit the Louvre, famous treasure-house of works of art.
Paris as a Centre of Elegance (July 10). – The Bateau Mouche is
a Paris pleasure craft which plies up and down the Seine, and for
this programme it will be anchored at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. A
fashion parade will take place on the open decks of the Bateau
Mouche; and on various small bedecked river craft which will be in
the immediate neighbourhood of the Bateau. The parade will be watched
by the cameras and described by the commentators and will also be
overlooked by the public on the Pont du Trocadéro.
Mannequins from the famous fashion houses of Paris will show clothes
for various river and sporting occasions as well as other fashions.
At the base of the tower on the shore of the Seine, near which the
Bateau Mouche is anchored there is a podium and part of the show will
be televised form that location.
Mannequins of Paris have recently formed themselves into a club
called the Cercle de Mannequins de Paris. The Cercle plans to give a
party that night on the Bateau Mouche, and as the programme ends,
viewers will say farewell to a gay scene of music and dancing.
Paris at Play (July 12 and 13). – Among the programmes
reflecting the way the Parisian takes his day off will be a visit to
Joinville sur Marne on July 12. Cameras and commentators will join
the crowd enjoying itself on the riverside on a Saturday afternoon on
the terrace of the café, "Chez Berretrôt,"
whose "patron" is one of the best-known sporting
personalities in Paris.
Only July 13, a children’s programme will be televised from the
Jardin d’Accllimatation, Zoological Gardens in the Bois de
Boulogne, which are approached by a little railway from the Port Maillot.
Paris as a Centre of Gaiety (July 8 and 12). – Among the
programmes reflecting the "gay life" of Paris will be a
cabaret from a studio on July 8 and from an outside location on July
12. These programmes are expected to be sophisticated and fast
moving. The first will come from the second platform of the Eiffel
Tower, and from time to time the cameras will pan around to show the
city of Paris twinkling below. The second, which will some from one
of the leading night-spots, will possibly include among the audience
stars and celebrities who will be seen by the cameras and introduced
to viewers.
Paris on Quatorze Juillet (July 14). – Quatorze Juillet, ever
since the fall of the Bastille, has been the great day of
Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité. In the morning,
viewers will see the annual march past of [sic] the French Services.
The magnificent avenue of the Champs Elysées will be gay with
flags and bunting, and the various units will come marching down from
the Etoile and the Arc de Triomphe to the statue of Geroges
Clemenceau where a wreath is laid and the President of the French
Republic takes the salute.
In the evening there are torchlight processions, dancing in the
street, buskers, and every form of popular entertainment. A Bal
Populaire will be televised from a small square in the Bastille
district, which was at the Revolution a haymarket, and from which, it
is said, the hay and straw were taken to fire the Bastille. The
scenes of gaiety will be televised until nearly midnight on the last
day of the Franco-British programmes.
Technical Arrangements
Technical details of some of the equipment which is to be used to
bring the programmes from Paris to London are of considerable
interest and are summarized below. Preliminary tests were
carried out some time ago and there have been continual discussions
between engineers of Rediodiffusion et Télévision
Françaises and the BBC.
Paris. - From the OB points vision signals will be conveyed to a
receiving point at the Eiffel Tower by radio link. Three 9,000
Mc/s radio link units will be used, manufactured by the Campagnie des
Compteurs. The programmes will be broadcast to French viewers
in the Paris Region from the two RTF transmitters in Paris, one
operating on the 819-line system and the other on the 441-line system
(the old French standard). The RTF converter developed by the
French firm Radio Industrie will be used to convert the 819-line
pictures to the 441-line standard.
Courtesy of Dave Hills
Paris-Lille (136 miles). - The 819-line vision signals will be
carried by the RTF experimental radio link with intermediate stations
at Villers-Cotterets (44 miles north-east of Paris) and
Saillly-Saillissel near Peronne (50 miles from Villers-Cotterets and
42 miles from Lille). This radio link works on a frequency of
900 Mc/s approximately and was manufactured by Campagnie
Française Thomson Houston. This link is used by RTF to
supply programmes to the Lille television transmitter untill the
permanent radio link now being installed by the French Post Office is ready.
Lille. - The programmes will be broadcast from the RTF at Lille for
the benefit of viewers in that area.
Cassel. - The Lille transmissions on 180 Mc/s approximately will be
picked up at Cassel by a special receiver manufactured by
Société Desmet. RTF will also install a temporary
radio link working on 9,000 Mc/s approximately, manufactured by
Campagnie des Compteurs. The signals thus received will be fed
to the converter developed by the BBC Research Department, for
changing pictures from French standards to British standards (819-405 lines).
Cassel-Alembon (18 miles). - BBC radio link on 7,000 Mc/s
approximately. Equipment manufactured by Marconi's Wireless
Telegraph Co., Ltd.
Alembon-Swingate (Dover) (40 miles). - BBC radio link on 4,500 Mc/s
approximately. Equipment manufactured by Electric and Musical
Industries, Ltd.
Swingate-Wrotham (49 miles). - BBC radio link on 4,500 Mc/s
approximately. Equipment manufactured by Electric and Musical
Industries, Ltd.
Wrotham-London (23 miles). - BBC radio link on 4,500 Mc/s
approximately. Equipment manufactured by Standard Telephones
and Cables, Ltd.
Sketch map of the route by which the TV signals will be taken from
Paris to London and thence to the four British Television Transmitters.
Work on the installation and testing of the converter at Cassel and
of the temporary links between Cassel and London started on June 19
and this work will continue up to the date of the first programme transmission.
Technical responsibility for the camera equipment and for the picking
up of programmes in Paris will be in the hands of RTF. At
various times during the week July 8-14, four different types of
camera equipment will be used, namely: Pye, Ltd.
(Image-Orthicon); Radio Industrie (Image-Orthicon); Campagnie
Française Thomson Houston (Photicon); and Radio Industrie (Image-Iconoscope).
From the January, 1953 issue of Television Magazine
