It all began during 1960 – 1961. Trevor Wallace, the founder of InterTel and indeed arguably called the Founding Father of the Facility Industry in the U.K. and Europe, was employed by ATV as a VTR editor and one of the first of his kind. He used to (probably at night) wheel out an early 2-inch VTR machine from ATV, load it into a hired van and go off to record events with his own Vidicon cameras (no mean feat for it could have been the Ampex X1000 valve driven machine which even I occasionally operated for some years after. With the X1000, any operator had to press “Play” and “Record” and simultaneously kick the 2.1-meter rack of valves behind him to get them to strike and enable record (all credit to Alan English who much later taught me that trick).

Trevor, along with Mike Styles (a program director) and Tony Cato (a video tape engineer) left ATV, for Trevor convinced some American producers, probably among them Joe Cates, that they could deliver a cheaper and better product than their current ATV employer.

The following paragraphs and important information were related to me whilst visiting Steve Beamish in the Spring of 2015. Giving further insight to the very formation of an industry which was to become a modus operandi for the foreseeable future and is still today – in 2017 – the norm, some nearly 60 years later!

Up until the very early 1960s, Television had been considered a live and immediate medium of programming transmission. The advent of Video Tape recording and subsequent editing enabled established broadcasters to transmit pre-recorded material instantaneously from 2-inch video tape as against live studio or 35mm film input. The adaption from the previous method of broadcasting to recording on video tape was slow due to cost factors. A Video Tape Recording machine was in the region of some £50,000, which in those days was a considerable amount of money: a 1 hour 2-inch tape was also very expensive and editing of any material on tape was initially not allowed due to the degradation of the signal due to the primitive methods involved and subsequent disturbance in transmission, let alone the extra cost involved.

Despite the cost, the medium did become popular and expedient. ATV, who had previously shared premises with ABC TV, decided to move and consolidate all their studios and growing video recording equipment including Ogilvie St. London to the renovated BMP film studios at Elstree. This provided both companies with opportunities to expand their play back facilities and enabled London News broadcasters to record and transmit edited material.

ATV merely sought to grow their own local facilities, and it was at this time that Trevor Wallace recognized a gap in the growing market for foreign TV enterprises requiring such facilities. Steve relates, there was a mobile 4-camera 1inch-video recording unit built by ATV in 1959 which was used to service NBC, CBS and ATV’s requirements. Steve Beamish and Dave Ashley-Smith were on that unit, and later joined by Chris Evans. At that time such a mobile unit was an altogether new concept. There had also been an Intercontinental Television unit operating out of Paris, but in 1961 it was closed down and exported back to USA. The ATV unit served to provide programs for German TV until about 1961. Both Trevor and Mike were managers of the newly formed InterTel VTR Services backed by the Rothchild’s, they also answered to the other investors from Holland and Germany who already had a unit based in Europe called InterTel A.G. consisting of 2 mobile articulated trucks with 4 Marconi Mk IV cameras and 2 Ampex VTRs of the day.

Originally Trevor and co. envisaged the London VTR unit as purely a video recording and editing unit, but it quickly became apparent in 1962 that Television establishments, local and overseas, required full facilities. Swiftly OB1 was modified to accommodate 4 EMI 203 four and half inch image orthicon cameras and the already installed Ampex VR1002 VTR. The first base was in Clapham High Road: at this time InterTel VTR Services had only about half a dozen full time staff and relied heavily on moonlighting staff to assist in the build and running of the unit. Soon the premises left a lot to be desired and new premises were found in Longfield Avenue, Ealing. Roland Brown well remembers those early lash-up days when Trevor and Mike obtained premises near Clapham Common and set up business. Trevor used a commercial truck building company for his first OB1 truck – ‘Howards’, based at Stratford London. Fred Weeks was in charge and was known as the ‘Gov’ for they built nearly all the trucks for a transporting company – Atlas Express Ltd. Roland Brown’s father (Jack Brown) partly owned Atlas Express and Fred introduced Roland (who was still at college) to Trevor who immediately realised Roland’s potential, enlisting his technical abilities to install the wiring and associated equipment into that first OB scanner. Their permanent driver (who shall remain nameless) had previously been employed as a chauffeur and suffered with a gammy leg due to being run over by his own car (don’t ask!). On gaining contracts to shoot in Amsterdam Trevor needed a competent two-legged driver, so employed an ex British Railway fireman who was currently driving buses for London Transport – Harry Paul. The story goes that Trevor, who knew Harry’s wife, stopped the bus and told him to go and resign from LT immediately as he wanted him to go to Amsterdam in two days’ time. “You work for me now!” Harry did just that and Trevor’s only problem from there on was that Harry might not make Amsterdam in time as he would probably keep stopping at all the bus stops en route!

Harry Paul

That was the beginning of InterTel (TVR) Services Ltd, for on the crew’s return from a month’s tour of Europe, Trevor and Mike bought or leased “Plant House Garage” Ealing as mentioned above by Steve. When I joined as a driver/rigger in 1963, following other drivers who had also left Lyons Ice Cream, Morden, the staff compliment was made up of: –

• Trevor Wallace (MD)
• Mike Styles (Partner)
• Steve Beamish (Senior Vision Engineer and Operations Manager)
• Chris Evans (Engineer ex ATV)
• George Connaughton (Videotape Recording)
• Alan English (also VTR)
• Dave Ashley-Smith (Sound)
• Roland Brown (Assistant Sound)
• Peter Lamb (Senior Cameraman)
• Albert Tolley (No2 Cameraman)
  Barry Proud (No 4 Cameraman)

The Riggers were.

• Harry Paul
• John Ridge (ex-Lyons)
• Stan Hamblin (ex-Lyons)
• Terry Heath (also ex Lyons)

Sue Thorlby was the Secretary.

All the camera crew had been, and in some cases still were, moonlighting from ATV – except in Harry Storey’s case, he was moonlighting from Granada. Harry, who had worked on previous events to my time, soon became permanent staff: other temporary staff included Bruce Gowers (Cameraman, ATV) (Bruce, years later, was to direct “Queen” Bohemian Rhapsody and American Top Twenty Hits and more recently American Idols). Ampex VR 1002. Roy Garner (cameras, ATV) also joined InterTel permanently sometime later.

Just for the record, Roy was, a decade or so later, to become General Manager of Trillion – Brewer St. Studio and even later still involved in Trillion’s entry into the South African market – where I was, and through him to be asked or invited to become Facility Manager. InterTel’s Ealing base consisted of a large garage, 3 very small offices and a small studio plus a room converted to a canteen area. The garage just housed the very tightly-packed four trucks.

OB1, the Bedford purpose-built scanner, was divided into 3 separate areas, a production area in the middle, a sound cubicle to the rear overlooking production and videotape section separated in front. The equipment included four EMI 203 cameras, an 8 channel EMI sound desk, an EMI vision mixer and a 2” Ampex VR 1002 (Video Recorder) The video recorder was a vertically rack mounted version, being the second-generation video recorder (the first generation was the flatbed Ampex VR 1000X style). The middle production area seated the Vision/Racks engineers and behind and above them a raised seated desk for the Vision Mixer (Switcher), Director and his PA, plus room for the Producer, all with comms. This layout became a standard format for future scanners and was adopted by the industry at large. A Diesel Generator sat on a Thames Trader, and a Large Tender also housing another Ampex VTR, plus a 1500 Thames panel van carried anything else required. All the specialised trucks and scanners were built by Howards Commercial Bodybuilders under the watchful eye of Mr. Fred Weeks. Fred continued building these specialised bodies and ancillary trucks throughout this period and for all the years to come. Built into the Garage were two offices up a short flight of stairs under which was tucked the engineering workshop. The garage was split lengthwise, half the garage to the right was made into a small studio, with a separate Green Room and in front of that overlooking the large yard was the crew tearoom.