archive Page 1 of 1 L-R Jim Fisher, Ken Hankock, June Bronhill, Bill Catmul, Graham Foster, Jack Perry, Mary Hardy, Doug McKenzie, Athol Guy, Judith Durham, Bruce Woodley, Keith Potger, Rod Kirkham, John Symons, Panda Listner, Happy Hammond, Alf Potter, Jimmy Edwards, Geoff Owen-Taylor. Doug Elliot, Ian Turpie, Shirleen Clancy, Elaine McKenna, Mike Williamson, Syd Haylen, Bill Collins, Norman Spencer, Olivia Newton-John, Pat Carrol, Dick Jones, Hector Crawford, Johnathon Daly, John Gilby, Rowland Strong, Marlene Dietrich, Raymond Burr, Peter Doyle, Brendan McKenna, Ann Watt, Jean Hanger, Bob Crosby, Alf Spargo, Greame Fettling and Eric Scherer. file://E:\Channel 7 Days\Final PDF F&S Archive\Page 00.html 6/15/2009 Page 1 of 1 Channel 7 Days - A Memoir of John Symons time at HSV Channel 7, Melbourne, Australia 1960-1970 Page 01 Baird's first mechanical television Now a number of members have have sent photos including John put together a CD of photo's of the Gilby, Graham Fettling and my reunions, plus a collection of mother Nancy. Introduction These were very interesting times as all local programming was live- historical photos of the early days John Logie Baird My name is John to-air. I worked at the channel for Ex-channel 7 staff Symons. I was 10 years before starting my own member Harold Aspinall John Logie Baird was born on born in 1944, in a television production company sent a copy of the CD to August 13th, 1888, in Helensburgh, small country which I ran until I retired in 1997. I me. I was so inspired by Dunbarton, Scotland and died on town, Leongatha now live on the island of Bali in these old photos, June 14th, 1946. The television 130 km south east Indonesia. I decided to write a memoir of the pioneer created the first of Melbourne, period from my perspective. Photos televised pictures of Australia. Old Codgers were augmented by others from objects in motion In 1960 at the age of 16, I was In recent years one of the internet. We acknowledge (1924) the first lucky enough to get a job at HSV the old timers from the these suppliers of photographs. televised human face channel 7 in Melbourne. Television era, Mr Donald Smith Harold Aspinall, Russell Bourne, (1925) and a year later J.L. Baird in Australia was still in it's infancy, has formed a group Richard Bence, Dick McEwan, Dick he televised the first moving object only beginning in Melbourne in late called the OLD Jones, Graham Foster, Don Smith, image in London. The BBC started 1956, in time for the Melbourne CODGERS. Annually he organizes a David Perry, John Walters and broadcasting television on the Baird Olympic Games. reunion of people from the era. Wilma Gray. Also many others who 30-line system in 1929. file://C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\TZGYV9W4.htm 6/15/2009 Page 1 of 1 Channel 7 Days - A Memoir of John Symons time at HSV Channel 7, Melbourne, Australia 1960-1970 Page 02 In July 1930, the first British Play How it worked to a lamp, providing the two was transmitted, "The Man with the scanning wheels were in Tv in Australia Flower in his Mouth. " The world's synchronization the viewer would The engineering pioneer of first regular transmissions using the see an image. Australian Television was James electronic Marconi-EMI, 405 line As the subject varied from black to Hurbert Thomas Fisher, born 1911 system started in England in 1936. white so did the lamp, reproducing and died at the age of 81 in 1992. a picture. Later the thermonic He commenced camera tube was invented. studying at the The scanning University of wheel, consisted Adelaide in 1929 of 2 identical and in 1930 he scanning wheels joined the drilled to create a Postmaster scan of the Generals object. department (PMG) as a cadet engineer. After qualifying in 1930 he moved to Melbourne to work for the PMG Early ad for Baird Tv kits research laboratories. 20 years before the advent of television in The "Logies" Australia he avidly read overseas The annual Australian Television technical publications on the awards are called the "Logies" development of television. In 1937 in honour of to raise awareness of Tv, he wrote John Logie and presented a paper "Recent Baird. The name developments in Television" He was suggested gave a demonstration with a hand The Baird mechanical Tv by the "King" built system of his own design. Pre and first star of The picture information was W.W.II Mr Fisher presented many Australian picked up by a photo-electric The first television picture secret reports to the Australian Television, Graham Kennedy. valve, passed through an amplifier using Baird's scanner Government on the development file://C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\GYDN9NJG.htm 6/15/2009 archive Page 1 of 1 Channel 7 Days - A Memoir of John Symons time at HSV Channel 7, Melbourne, Australia 1960-1970 Page 03 of Tv overseas and it's possible the Federation of Australian roof level for easy maintenance. introduction to Australia. W.W.II Commercial Television Stations. The microwave dishes pointed interrupted Mr Fisher's research, he upwards to a "beam-bender" set at Building a Tv Station was redeployed to the secret 45 degrees, sending the signal on 1955 Mr Fisher was faced with the development of radar. After the to Mt Dandenong. formidable task of building a war there was pressure to adopt television station from ground up. A the British 405 line Tv standard. Mr transmitter had to be built at Mt Fisher put forward the radical Dandenong, studios had to be built proposal to introduce the much in South Melbourne, all in time for advanced 625 line system. He was the Melbourne Olympic Games in Demolition at Dorcas St successful and that system is still in late 1956. use today. Mr Fisher travelled to Europe and the US to study the latest developments in Television, returned to Australia to train many technicians and creative in the new medium. Two of his students were Hector and Dorothy Crawford. Mr Fisher left the PMG in 1954 and joined the Broadcast Control Board The tower under construction where he wrote the first technical The studio tower, clearly standards for the introduction of The Studios showing the "beam-bender" television to Australia. The Meanwhile an old paper store On top of the tower was a fully following year he was to join HSV7 owned by HSV7 owners, The motor controlled microwave dish Melbourne to become Chief Herald and Weekly Times was for receiving broadcasts from the engineer. He held the position until being partly demolished for the Outside Broadcast (OB) van. The his retirement in 1977. In 1986 the construction of the South location making broadcasts possible Tower base and Studio 1 Television Society of Australia Melbourne link tower. The South from most parts of the city, From the master control room the presented him with the Colin Melbourne tower had an unusual especially the inner-city VFL football motorized dish could be controlled, Bednal Award and in 1989 he was feature which allowed the grounds, making 7 the premier horizontally or vertically, the 2 large awarded the Paul Marlan Award by microwave transmitters to be at football channel. circular white dials in the .... file://E:\Channel 7 Days\Final PDF F&S Archive\Page 03.html 6/15/2009 archive Page 1 of 1 Channel 7 Days - A Memoir of John Symons time at HSV Channel 7, Melbourne, Australia 1960-1970 Page 04 picture below indicating the dish's source, 1 camera unit, but with compas position and asmuth. mechanical controls you could dissolve between a slide and film. Reel changes were done as in a cinema. Commercial were spliced into the film so the station could rely on just one of these machines for continuous program. The first video tape machines was not aquired until 1960. Master Control Test Transmissions Work at the transmitter site was Channel-7's OB Van arriving from England at Port Melbourne well advanced compared to the Studio site. At the transmitter a On Aug. 28 1944, in a little country telecine machine was installed and town 140km from Melbourne, 16mm films could be broadcast. Nancy Symons gave birth to a son, The telecine machine was a one John in the Stradbroke hospital, Leongatha. Simple 1 camera telecine Simple setup In 1960 the station only possessed 5 Marconi Mk 3 cameras, 2 telecine's and a vidicon caption camera. A far cry from the present day when stations own hundreds of cameras. The studio cameras were dismantled and taken out to Telecine machine Outside broadcasts (OB's) John at 18 months old file://E:\Channel 7 Days\Final PDF F&S Archive\Page 04.html 6/15/2009 archive Page 1 of 1 CHANNEL 7 DAYS - A Memoir of John Symons time at HSV Channel 7, Melbourne, Australia 1960-1970 Page 05 When I was about 12 and in Form At the High School, Mrs Daisy including "Music for the People", newsagent. From these magazines 1 at the Leongatha High, the first Bacon, the librarian, would paste the "Seekers, welcome home I learnt about how radio's and Tv's Australian Tv channels had started the daily news paper up on the concert" and the annual "Miss worked and taught myself to read test transmissions from Mt inside of the library windows, so Australia Ball" electronic circuits. For around 2 Dandenong, in the Melbourne they could be read from outside by years my mother took me to outskirts.