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Graphic Design Department at Yorkshire Television

Images from 1987. (August 2013)

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BL
bluecortina
noggin posted:
Mr-Stabby posted:
Oh wow, is that an early Acorn Archimedes in one of those shots? You tended to see them in schools mostly. But I had one at home. For the time, those machines really could do everything! I remember all sorts of peripherals from graphics tablets to microscopes being plugged into those.


Yep - one of the things that the BBC ensured with the BBC Micros (both the original and the Archimedes - some models of which were also BBC branded) was that they could be Genlocked (which meant they could be synced to a studio's timing reference and thus used as a graphics source or in-vision without problems)

The Archimedes (and later Risc PCs I think) were used for on-screen graphics on a number of UK shows - Mastermind and Who Wants to be a Millionaire for example. BBC Micros were used on Gardeners World as well as for in-vision displays in 80s Doctor Who (and both BBC Micros and Archimedes were used for CBBC idents)

The only other domestic micro that was as flexible was the Amiga ISTR.


We used 4 four BBC micros on each of the four main outgoing networking circuits - used them to type up simple messages. I seem to recall each micro had an separate genlockable video card associated with it, and they shared a single switchable keyboard.
BA
bilky asko
noggin posted:
Mr-Stabby posted:
Oh wow, is that an early Acorn Archimedes in one of those shots? You tended to see them in schools mostly. But I had one at home. For the time, those machines really could do everything! I remember all sorts of peripherals from graphics tablets to microscopes being plugged into those.


Yep - one of the things that the BBC ensured with the BBC Micros (both the original and the Archimedes - some models of which were also BBC branded)

The one in the photo has a BBC branded keyboard - you can tell by the red function keys.
DO
dosxuk
bilky asko posted:
noggin posted:
Mr-Stabby posted:
Oh wow, is that an early Acorn Archimedes in one of those shots? You tended to see them in schools mostly. But I had one at home. For the time, those machines really could do everything! I remember all sorts of peripherals from graphics tablets to microscopes being plugged into those.


Yep - one of the things that the BBC ensured with the BBC Micros (both the original and the Archimedes - some models of which were also BBC branded)

The one in the photo has a BBC branded keyboard - you can tell by the red function keys.


I'm pretty sure the whole Archimedes range had red function keys. Certainly all of them at my schools did.
MS
Mr-Stabby
I recall for some reason the A3010 having green function keys, even though the A3000 and A3020 after it had red.

I distinctly remember the old BBC Computer Literacy Project owl logo being on the keyboards right up until the last of the Archimedes line

http://cdn4.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net//images/bbcmicro-350-100.jpg

noggin: very interesting stuff. Did the genlock ability require a separate board, or was there actually a port on the standard machines to do this? For some reason, even though I only got into studio work many years later, I remember hearing the term 'genlock' a lot earlier on.
BA
bilky asko
dosxuk posted:
bilky asko posted:
noggin posted:
Mr-Stabby posted:
Oh wow, is that an early Acorn Archimedes in one of those shots? You tended to see them in schools mostly. But I had one at home. For the time, those machines really could do everything! I remember all sorts of peripherals from graphics tablets to microscopes being plugged into those.


Yep - one of the things that the BBC ensured with the BBC Micros (both the original and the Archimedes - some models of which were also BBC branded)

The one in the photo has a BBC branded keyboard - you can tell by the red function keys.


I'm pretty sure the whole Archimedes range had red function keys. Certainly all of them at my schools did.

Nope, only the A300 range, the A3000, and the A3020 had red keys and BBC branding. As previously mentioned, the A3010 had green function keys and no BBC branding (as it was aimed at the home market); the A4000, A5000, the A400 series, and the A500 series all had grey keys and no BBC branding.

Of course, there is nothing stopping someone taking a BBC branded keyboard and using it on a later model.

EDIT: a bit more research has revealed that the A3000 was the last BBC branded Acorn machine (released in 1989), and the first to lose the Archimedes name (despite being considered part of the Archimedes range).
Last edited by bilky asko on 25 August 2013 4:16pm - 3 times in total
MS
Mr-Stabby
In fact I completely forgot that I uploaded my A3000 intro video onto YouTube many moons ago and it's still there. You're right about the naming. In this video they seem to call it the BBC A3000 'Learning Curve'. Though the Archimedes logo is still in use.

Hosted by BBC Micro Live's Fred Harris no less Very Happy

NG
noggin Founding member
dosxuk posted:
bilky asko posted:
noggin posted:
Mr-Stabby posted:
Oh wow, is that an early Acorn Archimedes in one of those shots? You tended to see them in schools mostly. But I had one at home. For the time, those machines really could do everything! I remember all sorts of peripherals from graphics tablets to microscopes being plugged into those.


Yep - one of the things that the BBC ensured with the BBC Micros (both the original and the Archimedes - some models of which were also BBC branded)

The one in the photo has a BBC branded keyboard - you can tell by the red function keys.


I'm pretty sure the whole Archimedes range had red function keys. Certainly all of them at my schools did.


No - only certain models in the range were BBC Micro branded and had red function keys. (In the original range the A305 and A310 were BBC branded but the A410 and A440 weren't - and had grey function keys)
NG
noggin Founding member
Mr-Stabby posted:

noggin: very interesting stuff. Did the genlock ability require a separate board, or was there actually a port on the standard machines to do this? For some reason, even though I only got into studio work many years later, I remember hearing the term 'genlock' a lot earlier on.


It required a Podule on the Archimedes range, but the podule was possible because the original design (and podule backplane) had the right signals exposed.

The original BBC Micro needed some hardware mods - but these were relatively straight forward. The un-used Reset button hole (which was never populated on any BBC Micro AFAIK) or Econet port was usually used to add a second BNC connector to take the Black and Burst that you were genlocking to as an input. The BNC Composite output was used (with the chroma subcarrier enabled - either with a jumper or a small capacitor depending on the board release ISTR) to feed the studio kit.
CW
cwathen Founding member
noggin posted:
The BNC Composite output was used (with the chroma subcarrier enabled - either with a jumper or a small capacitor depending on the board release ISTR) to feed the studio kit.

ISTR that only very early boards required a capacitor connected between the emitter of one transistor and the base of another to enable chroma. Most boards had a jumper provided for the purpose.

Were any other mods needed to get a decent quality of output? I never did the chroma mod myself as I used an RGB monitor with my beeb but I thought it was generally accepted that the circuitry to get composite colour was only there in order to feed the RF modulator with a colour signal for TV use (which would always look crap anyway due to it's nature) and was not designed to be used directly? From what I've heard hacking the board to get luma+chroma out of the composite port resulted in a dirty picture with a lot of colour bleeding which is why by design it was a monochrome output.
TH
Thinker
lobster posted:
Did Yorkshire TV make any stings or graphics like that for network or was it all just used locally or for their own productions?


Network promotion was shared between the big five, which meant some of the ITV-branded graphics in the montage above were made to be seen across the network.

The ITV logo below was part of a graphics package designed by Graham Smith, who can be seen on the left in the image on the top of my original post.

http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/images/itv1/itv1_images/1980s/itv_promo1980s1.jpg

sda| posted:
Nice find - and an Archimedes too! There's a similar pic of the design dept in the early 70s on the excellent Memories of YTV website - http://memoriesofytv.weebly.com/people.html


http://memoriesofytv.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/2/9/13298379/6758959_orig.jpg

Thanks for that one! They must have moved at some point, the 70s office looks a lot more spacious.
DA
David
Vaguely on topic, what computers were used to play Breakout on some episodes of 3-2-1? Was it even Breakout or was it a clone?

Example...
http://youtu.be/Nxq4JOy0AMs?t=15m52s
NG
noggin Founding member
cwathen posted:
noggin posted:
The BNC Composite output was used (with the chroma subcarrier enabled - either with a jumper or a small capacitor depending on the board release ISTR) to feed the studio kit.

ISTR that only very early boards required a capacitor connected between the emitter of one transistor and the base of another to enable chroma. Most boards had a jumper provided for the purpose.

Were any other mods needed to get a decent quality of output? I never did the chroma mod myself as I used an RGB monitor with my beeb but I thought it was generally accepted that the circuitry to get composite colour was only there in order to feed the RF modulator with a colour signal for TV use (which would always look crap anyway due to it's nature) and was not designed to be used directly? From what I've heard hacking the board to get luma+chroma out of the composite port resulted in a dirty picture with a lot of colour bleeding which is why by design it was a monochrome output.


I think it was more that the composite output was really aimed at monochrome (green, amber and B&W) screens which would have had nasty colour crawl from the subcarrier if it were present (so it wasn't by default), and the RGB output was aimed at colour monitors.

Composite colour, with subcarrier, was useful for broadcast - and for non-RGB monitors. I doubt the sc/H was particularly great - but I think the chroma was alright for the 80s.

These days it would just be bunged through a decoder and a synchroniser (and an upconverter come to that) with no need for a genlock - how times change.

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