Caradon Hill Archives - ITV 1963 | Transdiffusion presentation

South-West England

Westward Diary visits the open-air Minack Theatre

Westward Television is the company which under agreement with the Independent Television Authority provides the television programmes in South-West England during the whole week.

Derry’s Cross, Plymouth.
PLYMOUTH 69311
4-7 Woodstock Street, New Bond Street, London W.1.
HYDe Park 8262


    ITA         Channel   Vision     Sound    Opening Date   Population ITA Homes
Transmitter             Frequency  Frequency                    000's      000's
                           Mc/s       Mc/s
Stockland Hill    8     194.74325  191.234    29th April 1961  }
                                                               } 1,601      294
Caradon Hill     10     209.74325  206.23     29th April 1961  }

Directors

Peter Cadbury (Chairman and Joint Managing Director); WH Cheevers (Joint Managing Director (Plymouth)); Sir John Carew Pole, Bart, DSO, TD, VL, JP and Sir George Hayter Hames, CBE, MA, DL, JP (Joint Vice-Chairmen); RP Baker, FCA, FRSA; W Brimacombe, OBE; Lady Browning; H Michael Chapman; Dr JW Cook, FRS; The Countess of Eldon, OBE; WA Hawkins, OBE, JP, FCA; Frank Hoare, CBE; Baynham Honri, FRPS, Hon FBKS; GH Lidstone; Emile Littler; Stephen Mitchell; Sir Godwin Michelmore, KBE, CB, MC, TD, DL, JP; The Lord Netherthorpe; Col E Palmer; Geoffrey Phillips (Sales Controller); The Hon J St Aubyn, DSC; Sir Clifford Tozer, JP; The Viscount Vaughan, MA.

Officers

G Bloomer (Executive Controller); T Singleton (Head of Planning and Presentation); HK Lewenhak (Head of Production); RR Miller (Company Secretary); GG Affleck (Chief Accountant).

Staff

Total number of staff is 206. Of this number 160 are at the Plymouth studios and the remainder at London.

Visits to Studios

Visits are permitted on a regular basis; applications must be made in writing to the Executive Controller. Applications for show tickets and contestant vacancies must be made in the first instance to the Executive Controller.

Programme Journal

Look Westward publishes details of the programmes available in the area.

Studios

STUDIO 1. 2,500 sq. ft. incorporating the latest type of lighting grid. Mole-Richardson telescopes operate from above, allowing suspension of lamps at any point in the studio and leaving the floor completely free of any lighting equipment. Lighting is controlled by a Strand Console with facilities for preset lighting plots. The studio equipment consists of three Marconi Mk. IV I.O. cameras, Vinten Pedestals, and a tracking dolly; Marconi minor sound mixer with 11 inputs, disc and tape reproducers; and an 8-channel Vision Mixer with special effects, etc.

STUDIO 2. 400 sq. ft. approx. with ample facilities for news, sports and interview-type programmes. Two Marconi Mk. IV I.O. cameras, mobile 8 channel sound and vision mixer which can be easily de-rigged for O.B. use. Additional facilities which are available for general use from time to time include B.P. (Back Projection).

TECHNICAL AREA AND MASTER CONTROL. The Master Control Room is a highly versatile and efficient unit comprising a small presentation studio in which a Marconi Vidicon and Zoom lens is mounted, and a control desk and monitors. Also in Master Control is the mater clock which provides the accurate impulses to synchronise all the step-seconds clocks in the technical areas. The personnel required to operate the M.C.R. are usually one Presentation Engineer and a Logging Clerk. Special effects, inlay, mixes, front projection and children’s live linking using the animated and celebrated rabbit, Gus Honeybun, are all produced in M.C.R.

Adjoining M.C.R. is the telecine and videotape recording area in which two flying spot and two Vidicon telecine channels are mounted. Two R.C.A. V.T.R. machines and a Pye caption scanner complete the programme source equipment, but the main pulse, video and sound distribution and switching equipment is also mounted in racks adjoining the telecine machines.

At one end of the technical area is the large maintenance workshop which is well equipped with test instruments and a technical store.

ATHENAEUM THEATRE. Adjacent to the studio block is a privately-owned theatre, permanently wired for TV, with seating accommodation for 300. This can be used as a studio in conjunction with the Control Rooms and all the basic facilities of Studio 1.

Film Department

All film is handled in Plymouth and a comprehensive film department includes facilities for making up commercials and feature films, processing and editing local film material, and preview theatre and library.

Technical Developments

33 mm. telecine projectors are being modified locally to run silent films at 16 frames per second. In connection with videotape recording, a frame and line phasing unit is being built to allow the insertion of tape recorded items into studio production.

Programmes

Westward takes the best of the network programmes, whilst those produced locally include Westward Diary,a topical magazine programme about the Westcountry which is transmitted three nights a week; News; Postscript, a news review of the week in the Westcountry; Conflict of Opinion, a weekly discussion programme; Westward Sports Desk, twice a week; Treasure Hunt, a weekly quiz; Home Town, inter-schools; Stars in the West, “pop review”; Faith for Life, a nightly religious talk.

News Coverage

Westward News covers an area stretching from the Isles of Scilly in the West through the whole of Cornwall and Devon to Weston-super-Mare in the north-east to Weymouth in the south-east. During a week 55 minutes of news bulletins are transmitted.

To cope with this output there is a permanent staff of four journalists in the News Department. Film, which occupies about half the bulletin, is shot by four freelance cine cameramen under contract to the Company and six other cameramen who do occasional work. The four main cameramen are based at Penzance, Lydford, Exeter and Taunton, thus being in line along the backbone of the region. The other six cameramen are based at Liskeard, Plymouth, Torquay, Chard, Weymouth and Bristol. News is provided by a total of 70 correspondents.

Stockland Hill (Channel 9) and Caradon Hill (Channel 12)

Propagation studies of the best method of covering the 150 mile long wedge-shaped area of Devon and Cornwall showed that it was not practical to serve it adequately from a single Band III station centrally situated on the heights of Dartmoor, adjacent to the BBC’s station at North Hessary Tor. Government agreement was obtained to build two stations, one in Cornwall and one in South Devon, another necessary departure from the principal of co-siting with the BBC Band I station.

High sites were found at Caradon Hill, near Launceston, for Cornwall; and at Stockland Hill, near Axminster, for Devon. Transmitting aerials with highly-directional lobes were engineered to give the desired grade of service to both areas while minimising interference with other ITA and Continental stations which use the same channels. Each station needed a 750 ft. mast to minimise “shadows” in this hilly terrain.

Stockland Hill

For Caradon Hill, the requirement was to give a service to the whole of Cornwall west of Dartmoor and reaching to the extremity of England at Land’s End. A power of 200 kW e.r.p. was beamed in this direction but to avoid interference in the service area of the Dublin station the power over an arc of 40° to the north-west had to be restricted to a mere 10 kW, while to the south the power had to be restricted to 25 kW to avoid interference in the service area of the Cherbourg station.

Studies showed that in order to cover Devon while not overlapping unnecessarily with the existing service area of St. Hilary, Stockland Hill should direct its maximum power in two lobes, one north-west towards Barnstaple and the other south-west towards Dartmouth. 100 kW was the maximum permissable radiated power but restriction to 10 kW eastwards was necessary to prevent interference in the London area, which also uses Channel 9. The shape of the aerial radiation pattern thus became that of a boomerang facing westwards

A subsidiary beam of about 5o kW directed south-east towards the island of Alderney was also desirable to ensure reliable reception of the Stockland Hill signal in the island, in order to relay the mainland programmes by Post Office microwave link to the Fremont Point station in Jersey for rebroadcasting in the Channel Islands. However, the service area of the existing French station at Bourges had to be protected and the power radiated towards Alderney was restricted to 20 kW. Fortunately, in practice, this power is just sufficient for the Stockland Hill signal to be received in Alderney, with a signal to noise ratio good enough for rebroadcasting from the Fremont Point station. Both stations went into service on 29th April 1961.

Tag: Caradon Hill

Westward Television