:-(
A former member
I have a news paper cutting about that
MA
Interesting. Well, putting aside that the BBC not Anglia/ITV screened Starsky and Hutch, it looks as if (if true) UK programmes were being recorded there, but I can't see how reliably. It was just about possible to receive Dover from Zeebrugge, (and that was Southern/TVS)
The TUC Conference coverage ? Really ?!
I have a news paper cutting about that
Interesting. Well, putting aside that the BBC not Anglia/ITV screened Starsky and Hutch, it looks as if (if true) UK programmes were being recorded there, but I can't see how reliably. It was just about possible to receive Dover from Zeebrugge, (and that was Southern/TVS)
The TUC Conference coverage ? Really ?!
TT
ttt
Weird - I am pretty sure a clock didn't exist for this package - is it possibly a fake?
It's real, I remember it
Here's a clip of it (complete with real world reception ghosting)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r55l5iLrTd8
If anyone can be bothered to scale up and overlay the electronic version of the 'rainbow' TVS clock, we'll probably find the clock faces exactly match, in which case I suspect they cropped the rainbow clock and luminance key'd onto a blue TVS slide
Or the clock itself only consisted of the clock face, and was keyed as-is on the old slide, and subsequently the electronic version above. Yorkshire did that with an array of different backdrops over many years, all with the same electronic clock.
JA
http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/images//itvsouth/tvs_images/continuity/tvs_continuity_1985e.jpg
Definitely the exact same clock.
CLOCK FROM TV ARK Facebook page: Who even know about this lost gem:
Definitely the exact same clock.
MA
Or the clock itself only consisted of the clock face, and was keyed as-is on the old slide, and subsequently the electronic version above. Yorkshire did that with an array of different backdrops over many years, all with the same electronic clock.
That's possible, but the 'blue' era clock face was never as sharp as it could have been, which makes me suspect a crop and key 'bodge up' using the rainbow clock.
The rainbow clock generator appeared 1983 ish, along with an electronic spinning fountain. I recall
seeing the generators being displayed at IBC 1984. I'm sure they were made by GEC McMichael, and were basically licensed designs from the BBC (based on their own home brew electronic clock and logo genies)
McMichael also made and sold a BBC design standards converter in the 80s
The remains of GEC McMichael ended up as Vistek, who were then bought in 2005 by ProBel, who then merged with Snell and Wilcox, who then (last year) merged with Quantel, to form SAM !
Or the clock itself only consisted of the clock face, and was keyed as-is on the old slide, and subsequently the electronic version above. Yorkshire did that with an array of different backdrops over many years, all with the same electronic clock.
That's possible, but the 'blue' era clock face was never as sharp as it could have been, which makes me suspect a crop and key 'bodge up' using the rainbow clock.
The rainbow clock generator appeared 1983 ish, along with an electronic spinning fountain. I recall
seeing the generators being displayed at IBC 1984. I'm sure they were made by GEC McMichael, and were basically licensed designs from the BBC (based on their own home brew electronic clock and logo genies)
McMichael also made and sold a BBC design standards converter in the 80s
The remains of GEC McMichael ended up as Vistek, who were then bought in 2005 by ProBel, who then merged with Snell and Wilcox, who then (last year) merged with Quantel, to form SAM !
TT
ttt
Looking at the above I would tend to agree actually, the TVS text at the bottom of the older clock certainly seems to be generated from the same device as the clock itself.
Given it's electronic though there surely would be no need to 'crop' out the unwanted bits -- they'd just be removed in firmware right?
The darker blue clock I wouldn't have thought would have been used for much longer though -- most ITV regions got rid of clock idents in the late 1980s, I'm guessing after 24-hour broadcasting made them unnecessary.
I wish I'd been recording more around this period, as Tyne Tees went through a few attempts to update their mechanical clock device in 1988-9; starting with changing the colours around, they then went through a few days of keying the clock over a blank slide matching the graphics of the time, and then there were a few occasions where they had what I would swear was an electronic device over the same slide. Then it disappeared, never to be seen again (although YTV used their clock in the North East for a brief period in 1996).
Given it's electronic though there surely would be no need to 'crop' out the unwanted bits -- they'd just be removed in firmware right?
The darker blue clock I wouldn't have thought would have been used for much longer though -- most ITV regions got rid of clock idents in the late 1980s, I'm guessing after 24-hour broadcasting made them unnecessary.
I wish I'd been recording more around this period, as Tyne Tees went through a few attempts to update their mechanical clock device in 1988-9; starting with changing the colours around, they then went through a few days of keying the clock over a blank slide matching the graphics of the time, and then there were a few occasions where they had what I would swear was an electronic device over the same slide. Then it disappeared, never to be seen again (although YTV used their clock in the North East for a brief period in 1996).
MA
Well, that would be the elegant way of doing it. Depends how 'hard coded' the firmware was ! This is early 80s tech remember
The darker blue clock I wouldn't have thought would have been used for much longer though -- most ITV regions got rid of clock idents in the late 1980s, I'm guessing after 24-hour broadcasting made them unnecessary.
That and News at Ten ceasing to start regularly at bang on 10, which started to happen around then
Looking at the above I would tend to agree actually, the TVS text at the bottom of the older clock certainly seems to be generated from the same device as the clock itself.
Given it's electronic though there surely would be no need to 'crop' out the unwanted bits -- they'd just be removed in firmware right?
Given it's electronic though there surely would be no need to 'crop' out the unwanted bits -- they'd just be removed in firmware right?
Well, that would be the elegant way of doing it. Depends how 'hard coded' the firmware was ! This is early 80s tech remember
The darker blue clock I wouldn't have thought would have been used for much longer though -- most ITV regions got rid of clock idents in the late 1980s, I'm guessing after 24-hour broadcasting made them unnecessary.
That and News at Ten ceasing to start regularly at bang on 10, which started to happen around then
:-(
A former member
Most of the northern itv stations kept thier clocks until the mid 90s. Further south you went m9re likley the clock went.
MA
I don't recall a Meridian clock (no pun....) or a Carlton one, or a Westcountry one, so definitely nothing post Jan 1993 in those regions
Most of the northern itv stations kept thier clocks until the mid 90s. Further south you went m9re likley the clock went.
I don't recall a Meridian clock (no pun....) or a Carlton one, or a Westcountry one, so definitely nothing post Jan 1993 in those regions
TT
ttt
Most of the northern itv stations kept thier clocks until the mid 90s. Further south you went m9re likley the clock went.
Really?
Define 'northern' -- it was only really YTV in Northern England that kept their clock past the late 1980s. Tyne Tees and Granada both got rid of theirs quite early on, as did Border I believe. Maybe the Scottish stations kept theirs, and UTV certainly did (they were still using a clock in early 2000).
Ironic really if it was the Northern stations still using clocks, as they were further away from London and hence were more likely to have their clock tick over to 10:00:01 before NAT started. That used to be something that annoyed me as a TTT viewer as it happened quite regularly. YTV seemed to run their clock half a second slow to get around the problem...
:-(
A former member
Were both right 
Northern ITV stations did have Clocks, Grampian, had one, STV used one until 96 , Anglia had one aswell,- flag look used until mid 90s. YTV until 1996. HTV had one until 1995,
Your right about Granada, I think that went wth Night time. Border a strange one. TVS, Central, LWT, Thames TSW plus all the new companies in 93 got rid of the clocks as you say. by the late 80s
Northern ITV stations did have Clocks, Grampian, had one, STV used one until 96 , Anglia had one aswell,- flag look used until mid 90s. YTV until 1996. HTV had one until 1995,
Your right about Granada, I think that went wth Night time. Border a strange one. TVS, Central, LWT, Thames TSW plus all the new companies in 93 got rid of the clocks as you say. by the late 80s
CR
Border stopped using theirs around 1991 and was hardly used after the ITV Ribbon relaunch