Mendlesham Archives - ITV 1963 | Transdiffusion presentation

East Anglia

itv1963part3 3 — Anglia House, in the heart of the City of Norwich

Under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, Anglia Television provides television programmes in East Anglia throughout the week.

Head Office: Anglia House, Norwich, NOR 07A, Norfolk
NORWICH 28366
London Office: Brook House, 113 Park Lane, W.1.
HYDe Park 8331
Northern Sales Office: 132 Royal Exchange, Manchester 2
BLACKFRIARS 8575


    ITA      Channel   Vision     Sound    Opening Date   Population  ITA Homes
Transmitter          Frequency  Frequency                   000's       000's
                        Mc/s       Mc/s

Mendlesham      11    204.74325   201.23   27th Oct 1959    2,550        460

Directors

The Marquess Townshend of Raynham (Chairman); A Buxton, MC, L Scott, J Woolf (Executive Directors); D Albery; Sir Robert Bignold DL, JP; WO Copeman CBE, JP; G Daniel; Sir Peter Greenwell, Bt; Miss A Richards CBE

Officers

M Norman (Chief Executive); AJ Gorard (Company Secretary/Chief Accountant); TAH Marshall (Technical Controller); A Clifford (Controller of Local Programmes); P Holmans (Controller of Programme Planning); J Margetson (Sales Controller)

Religious Advisers

Rev AR Freeman (Church of England); Rev AR Manley (Roman Catholic); Rev EF Jones (Free Church)

Education Advisers

Glyn Daniel MA, PhD, FSA; Miss Audrey Richards CBE, MA, PhD

School Liaison Officer

Paul Johnson MA

Staff

Anglia Television employs a staff of just under 340, with many more under contract for particular programmes.

Visits to Studios

A limited number of tickets are available for audiences at certain shows, the maximum capacity of Studio A being 200. Applications, enclosing stamped addressed envelopes, should be made to: “Audiences”, Public Relations Department, Anglia Television, Anglia House, Norwich, NOR 07A, Norfolk. No audiences are admitted to drama productions or to “About Anglia”.

Enquiries

General enquiries from the public should be made to the Public Relations Department in Norwich; enquiries by artistes’ agents to the Contracts Department, Norwich. Press enquiries should be made to the “Press Officer” at either the Norwich or London offices.

Submission of Scripts

Material required: 30-, 60- and 90-minute plays in script form. Outlines of ideas are not acceptable unless submitted by authors who have had previous experience in television writing. All submissins should be addressed to: The Drama Department, which is located at the London office.

Programme Journal

TV Times publishes a separate edition for the Anglia Television Area which gives details of the available programmes.

Studios

ANGLIA HOUSE, Norwich, Norfolk (Norwich 28366). Anglia Television headquarters are situated in the centre of the City of Norwich and include Anglia House (the production and administrative centre), Cereal House (Accounts Department) and Golden Ball Yard (Storage Facilities). These premises comprise a total floor area of 63,000 sq. ft.

Anglia House contains four production studios as follows: Studio A, 52′ × 62′ (3,224 sq. ft.); Studio B, 25′ × 41′ (1,031 sq. ft.); Studio C, 18′ × 13′ (231 sq. ft.); Studio D, 9′ × 6′ (54 sq. ft.). The two main production studios are equipped with Pye 4½-in. Mark V Camera Channels and comprehensive sound and lighting equipment.

Telecine

Four channels of Rank Cintel Flying Spot Telecine, each capable of handling 16-mm. or 35-mm. material with all classes of married and unmarried sound. Two channels are also capable of handling slides.

Outside Broadcasts

An Outside Broadcast Unit is available equipped with two Pye 4½-in. Mark V Camera Channels and an Ampex VTR machine.

Videotape Recording

In addition to the Mobile VTR machine, which is also operable in conjunction with studio facilities at Anglia House, a further static Ampex VTR machine is in Anglia House, Norwich.

Film Department

The Anglia Television Film Department consists of one Feature Sound Film unit, one Feature Silent Film Unit, one News Sound Film Unit and one News Silent Film Unit.

The Anglia Television Natural History Film Unit

The Unit, which is based in London, was formed in 1959 to concentrate exclusively on the production of natural history programmes. It has travelled extensively obtaining information for Survival productions and has been associated with two of the World Wildlife Fund’s most important rescue operations.

Programmes

In addition to a wide variety of local programmes designed to cater for the interests of the East Anglian community, Anglia drama and natural history productions are transmitted on the ITV network. Anglia productions include: News and News Magazines: Anglia News, About Anglia, Town and Country Review, Anglia Weather Service. Talks, Discussions and Documentaries: Look To Tomorrow, Arena, Now You’re Talking, Cambridge Union Debates, Tavern Talk. The Arts: What? Where? When? Science and Natural History: Survival, Countryman, Living With Animals. Farming: Farming Diary. Religion: Food For Thought, Church Services, Epilogue. Children: Afternoon Club, Just The Job, Top of the Class. Adult Education: Cambridge Lectures (Once A Kingdom). Plays and Drama: contributions to the Play of the Week and Television Playhouse series, Thirty Minute Theatre. Light Entertainment and Music: Music Match, I Packed My Bag. Sport: Match of the Week.

News Coverage

Two permanently attached film units consisting of approximately 100 correspondents, 25 free-lance cameramen, news room production staff and copy takers present news coverage every night of the week, and, in addition, a regular late-night local news summary. Weather forecasts by Anglia’s own meteorologists are broadcast every night.

Population within measured contours: Primary 1.22 mn, Secondary 0.96 mn, Fringe 0.37 mn. Total 2.55 mn.
Channel: Band III Channel 11 (horizontally polarised)
Vision Carrier Frequency: Nominal 204.75 Mc/s. Actual 204.74325 Mc/s
Sound Carrier Frequency: Nominal 201.25 Mc/s. Actual 201.23 Mc/s
Effective Radiated Power: Vision 200 kw maximum. Sound 50 kw maximum.
Power of Transmitters: Vision (peak white) 2 x 5 kW. Sound (carrier) 2 x 1.25 kW
Heights above sea level: Site 200 ft. Mean aerial 1,150 ft.
Location: 1° 6′ 32″ E, 52° 14′ 3″ N.

Mendlesham (Channel 11)

Company: Anglia Television

The geographically large but not densely populated area of East Anglia which this station is designed to serve is of unusual interest to the technical planner. It is largely flat and circular in shape, with a diameter of about eighty miles. At first sight it seems to present an almost ideal case for service by an uncomplicated high-power station located at the geographical centre, radiating its power omnidirectionally. As so often happens, the simple approach could not be applied. The possibility of causing interference to West German viewers in the established service area of the Langenberg station and to French viewers of the Amiens station demanded that the power radiated over a prescribed south-easterly arc must not exceed about 15 kW. Other complications included the need to prevent interference in the service area of Chillerton Down, which uses the same channel, and the need to observe the principle that ITA and BBC stations should be adjacently sited.

Thus, to secure adequate service to the coastal areas of Suffolk and Essex, the site for the station had to be displaced well to the south-east of the geographical centre of the required service area and, incidentally, far from the BBC Norwich Band I station which serves much of the same general area. The Television Advisory Committee confirmed the Authority’s conclusion that adjacent siting could not be followed in this instance and that the best site for the ITA station was at Mendlesham, about fifteen miles north-west of Ipswich. The towns of Ipswich, Colchester, Felixstowe and Harwich would then be close enough to the station to be well served, despite the relatively low power radiated in their direction.

To compensate for the displacement of the station from the natural geographical centre it was necessary for the power radiated towards the west and north to approach 200 kW. Again, because of the very low height of the Mendlesham site, 210 ft. above sea level, a 1,ooo ft. mast was considered technically appropriate. This was the highest television mast to be constructed in Europe and the first of five of the same height subsequently used at other ITA stations. The building of the station began early in 1959, and after some corrective adjustments to the aerial power-feeding networks the station began programme service on 27th October 1959.