1954 TV photo

[ppppenguin]

Yesterday Ruth and I visited the Museum of English Rural Life: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/
The purpose of the visit was to donate some drafts done by Ruth's late partner for the countryside pavilion at the 1951 Festival of Britain.

I saw this photo of an OB in 1954. I think the camera is a Pye though I'm sure that Brian Summers will ID it properly. When I saw the photo in the museum I thought the lens might be an early zoom but this photo shows pretty clearly that it's a turret.

The monitor is interesting. I'm pretty sure it's a Pye D16T modified for use as a monitor. The BBC certainly used these sets as monitors and they are shown in at least 2 photos that I know of (Dimbleby in Calais and control room at 1948 Olympics). This is the first time I have seen the back of one in this role.

[beamcurrent]

I have this picture from another source, on the side at the bottom the monitor is marked "London BBC Tel OBs" and the camera is a Marconi MkII 3 inch image orthicon.

[ppppenguin]

Thanks for the camera ID. What are all the connections to the monitor? At most I'd expect mains and looped video.

[beamcurrent]

Hard to tell but I would guess the mains is looped as well as the video on to a second monitor?

Brian

[Geordie McBoyne]

Hi Jeffrey,  It's a modified Pye D16 alright.  Here's a picture of an unmodified set.

The D16 was an ideal set for modification as a baseband monitor. Fully isolated chassis which can be earthed. These sets always displayed very bright pictures from the MW22-7 CRT.

So was the D16 modified by the BBC or specially made for the BBC by Pye?

Geordie McBoyne.