[DaveCraddock]

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke

Hi all. Been sort of finding out clues of Australia's colour television history.

Generally colour broadcasts didn't start over here until 19th October 1974 and the official colour open day was 1st March 1975. We were practically the last developed country to get colour no thanks to those tightarse bureaucratic dickheads! We were suppose to get colour in 1972.

But during the 60s and early 70s there were colour experimentations happening, and with research dating as early as 1965 from the facts I've come across.

According to this article http://www.ben.com.au/articles/47/0c028547.asp in 1965 the Powerhouse museum in Sydney demonstrated colour television using an EMI Type 204 3 vidicon tube camera which can be seen on the site http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/coll...se/?irn=249192 . I'm unsure of what TV was used to display the colour. The format is based on the NTSC system.

One of my mates also found this photo on the State Library Of Victoria website http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/hwtports/0...hp004692.shtml which has really intrigued me. It's what looks to be a RCA TK-40 camera as it has no vents. Anyhow I'm curious to find out if this is an Australian photo and if it is I would like to know more about this and the camera itself.

On 15th June 1967 Australian station ATV-0 borrowed RCA TK-42 cameras from Channel 9 in USA to do an experimental colourcast of the Pakenham horse races. You can see one of the cameras on this page http://www.oldradio.com/archives/har...tk42(atvo).jpg and reference from this site http://televisionau.siv.net.au/sixties.htm . This cast was done in NTSC.

In 1968 the government announces that Australia will adopt the PAL system instead of NTSC. That same year there was some sort of expo in Melbourne which had a colour television demonstration and Channel 7 did a colour demo showing what PAL colour television was like which fortunately was recorded on colour videotape and exists and I happen to have a copy of some of the footage which involves a young boy singing which I think he might be from the show "Young Talent Time", this footage was featured on a Young Talent Time DVD compilation.

During the early 1970s particularly during the 1974 period the studios were converting to colour many shows were recorded in colour but transmitted in B&W until 19th October that year.

Anyways thought I'd share this info with you guys.

Cheers
Troy

Colour television was first shown in Australia n 1963 when EMI Broadcast division received four EMI 204 colour cameras. These were the three vidicon version, which were in fact three 201 cameras in one case.
The first showing was at the Sydney Showgrounds when there was a small studio with two cameras and about 6-8 extremely large and heavy monitors around the showgrounds fed with an RGB feed. Afterwards one camera was installed in to the mediacal department of the University of New South Wales where experimental heart surgery was being conducted and another one went to the Museum of Applied Arts in Sydney.
How do I know all this, well I was the EMI Broadcast Technical Manager and the only one who handled the colour equipment. The other two cameras I cannot talk about as I transferred to EMI New Zealand just after Easter 1964 when they were still in the Homebush labs.