IBA Engineering Announcements

That's right. In the 1980s I worked for Sony Broadcast's quality assurance dept. (Sony Broadcast was of course founded and managed by many IBA 'alumni' during that era)

We had to ensure all equipment sold to the ITV comanies complied with the IBA COP (and in fact
that was used as the basis for all EBU/Euro broadcasters we sold to). Back then engineers from the relevant
broadcaster would often attend in person to carry out detailed acceptance testing, usually cameras and VTRs. The Beeb were with us for weeks accepting kit to be used for the 1986 Commonwealth games.

The IBA never involved themselves directly, though they did have loan equipment supplied from time to time, and there were many informal meetings (Basingstoke to Crawley Ct is a quick and pleasant drive !)

Yes - it was entirely usual for the BBC to send engineers to evaluate the cameras they had bought to the manufacturer, and check they met the required spec. Presumably because there was more variation between individual cameras back then, and also you needed to confirm the claimed performance was actually delivered by the units you purchased. At that time different broadcasters had different specs which manufacturers sometimes had to do custom modifications to properly meet.

That would include the BBC camera matrix spec no doubt!!

I once had the pleasure of 'doing' the acceptance testing of a Sony DVS8000C. The pleasure bit being a nice lunch and evening meal.

There wasn't much around in those days in the way of performance specs to test the mixer against - digital was very new. I did quite a bit of research before arriving at Basingstoke, I remember there was some very helpful paperwork from TVS. Nice bit of kit (apart from that dreadful 'super mix' function - who the heck thought of that).

Oh, indeed yes !

Speaking of the IBA, this may be extremely off-topic and perhaps even Metropol territory but there's still road signs featuring the IBA and old, old BBC logos on motorways around these parts.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.0238273,-3.7586361,3a,15y,297.5h,89.31t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s0o3rIP2FuNTprLMEs4cetw!2e0!5s20150601T000000!7i13312!8i6656

Carry on.

I'm very pleased to see this thread has remained at the top of the forum and I've much enjoyed everyone's input. Thank you. Returning to topic slightly, when did the programme move to Channel Four and was it still originated from Crawley Court or did they feed it to Channel 4 presentation?

Certainly the final episode to go out on ITV, the week before TV-am was extended to 9.25, implied it was simulcast on ITV, C4 and S4C

Which, thanks to Transdiffusion, you can see here:

I suspect it was still played out from Crawley Court until 1989, when C4 started their own morning programmes. I do recall it being repeated from 1984 at 12:15hrs, but that ceased when C4 took over ITV Schools progs in 1987.

From 1989 it was shown at 05:45hrs, quite possibly the IBA played it out to C4 the previous afternoon.

The programme completely ceased with the demise of the IBA in 1990.

The programme link from Crawley Court went as an SHF link via Crabwood Farm, (a British Gas site near Winchester), and then into BT's distribution network, I think entering it at Thornhill (Southampton's 'BT Tower') The Crabwood site was also used a a mid point for the IBA's experimental digital link between Crawley Court and Chillerton Down on the IOW during the 80s.

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/features/ibadigitallink/iba-digital-link.gif

The SHF dish on the roof of Crawley Court building was still there when I visited a couple of years ago

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/gallerypage.php?txid=1177&pageid=1850