John Howell
… found a book: “Sound And Television Broadcasting General Principles” by K R Sturley, pub. 1961
Pat Heigham
Was that the famous Sturley – the Camp Commandant of Evesham? He had me in to his office to tell me to pull my finger out (exact words) if I wanted to continue in the Corporation! I think I did, and vowed to do my best – achieving a double salary increase in one year!
While I was in his office, having been dragged away from a photography session, my negative plate reticulated in the developer bath which at least gave me something to write about in the report! That and a portrait session with my course colleague, who happened to be black, posing an exposure and contrast problem! He was a great guy and during an elbow lifting evening at the Evesham club, we asked him from where he came:
“Nigerian Broadcasting Co.”
“And what do you do?”
“I’m the head of it!”
His government reckoned that as they were entering the TV broadcasting age, there was no finer place to learn about it than the BBC.
I recall that we all said to him – “Well, if we fail this course, we’ll come and work for you!”
Well, we would have had the basic knowledge…..
Such wonderful times, and to think that 50 years on, some of us are still in contact – like a University?
Mike Jordan
I was organising “Animal Watch” in the Mara in Kenya for BBC and NHK and, at the Post Office relay station, a very important man came up to me and, seeing I was BBC, asked if Wes McGowan was still at Wood Norton. I said I hadn’t been there for some time but doubted it and asked how he knew Wes.
It turned out that this guy was Head of Kenyan TV and had been on C60 in 1968 – Guess what, so was I! If I had known before, I could have probably got the circuits easier and avoided some of the “back pocket” payments!
The regular engineer there was over the moon as we sent him a digital multi-meter which he had heard of but never seen – let alone be able to obtain!
Pat Heigham
It’s an extraordinary thing about folk who work in the same field. I was on a shoot for NBC in (then East Germany) Berlin, filming Katarina Witt, the Olympic ice skater, who was to address the East German parliament.
The PA engineer asked me if I needed a feed of the lectern mike – yes.
There was a bank of Tuchel outlets, and he produced an adaptor cable to XLR – and when he sent tone, it came up at exactly PPM4. Brilliant!
Mike Jordan
Perhaps he should be employed in the BBC nowadays to get levels correct between various programme routes. BBC1 HD is a different level from SD (needed for London News) even when fed via the same Sky box!
Dave Plowman
“If in doubt, peak to 5” doesn’t seem to exist these days.
An experiment(replicated by John Howell)
Set the level on, say, BBC1 SD on the STB so it matches the level on BBC1 SD
from the TV direct. Setting reads 85 on the STB.Now switch both of them to BBC 1 HD. The sound from the STB is now considerably louder – I’d estimate at around 6 dB. Have to reduce the setting to 75 to get a match.
Switch them both back to BBC1 SD and the STB is now lower level than from the TV. This seems to be the case with all SD and HD channels.
