RCA TK-42 in Australia broadcasting Pakenham races on ATV-0 1967

[Aussie Bloke]

G'day all.

Flipping through more of those RCA Broadcast News mags downloaded from http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...ange-Guide.htm I have found an excellent article on Australia's first experimental colour broadcast which was ATV-0's coverage of the Pakenham horse races on 15th June 1967 using a RCA TK-42 4 tube vidicon/IO colour camera , the article can be found in issue 138 on page 32 http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...BC-138-com.pdf . I have known about this experimental colourcast for some years but had very little info on it until seeing that article.

The article states that the RCA TK-42 was brought to Australia for demonstration purposes as part of the week long National Convention of the Institute of Radio and Electronics Engineers and was brought to ATV-0 for evaluation purposes. On the day of the Pakenham horse races one of ATV-0's B&W cameras conked out (I assume a TK-60) and for that reason the TK-42 was used to fill the gap and at the same time put to a live broadcast test to show its versatility in producing good colour pictures. The race was broadcasted live to viewers all over Melbourne and wherever else around that can get ATV-0 reception in B&W and in colour to the OB van and in ATV-0 studios via closed circuit link. The results were very stunning and the technicians/reporters were very impressed with the great colours made from the camera despite the weather being very rainy that day.

The article also has some great photos of the TK-42 in action including a colour photo of it at the race course.

It's amazing to find some great articles in these mags on RCA cameras used in Australia and this article along with the QTQ-9 article are some of the highlights I've found in those mags!

[NewVista]

Their home viewers had to watch it in Black & White
Even a poor country like the Philippines had Color 9-years before Australia
When various countries got Color: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelin...n_in_countries

[old_tv_nut]

Thanks for ferreting out this issue.

I also note the extensive spread [edit - no pun intended] on the production of Kraft Foods commercials in Canada. it is hard to find such material. The same practice of live (not film) commercials for Kraft was followed in the U.S., and the pictures were always the most perfect color of any broadcast.

[Aussie Bloke]

Originally Posted by NewVista

Their home viewers had to watch it in Black & White
Even a poor country like the Philippines had Color 9-years before Australia
When various countries got Color: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelin...n_in_countries

Well Philippines got colour even before most European countries too by a year or two. I was surprised they had colour in 1966, I guess their government was passionate about bringing colour to their country a hell of a lot more than Australia's slow crusty old conservative procrastinative curmudgeonous government! Here's a fact for a laugh, we didn't even get FM radio till 1974 let alone colour TV!!!

[Electronic M]

It appears that the only countries to have color before 1965 aside from the USA were Mexico (1963) and Japan(1960) which I find surprising. NTSC works, and worked well so one would think some other countries would have joined in before then too, and that some country would have been in the game before 1960.

[Sandy G]

A lot of it was European chauvinistic nationalism-And the thought that they could come up w/a better system than Never Twice the Same Color.

[Electronic M]

Well ya know men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and them Europeans come from Europa.

[Sandy G]

Well, they DID come up w/2 different systems-PAL & Secam. Whether they were really any BETTER than NTSC is debatable-But at least they DIDN'T have to use the dirty American system...Apparently, that was ESPECIALLY important to Ze French, to whom anything/everything American is "Merde'"...

[Aussie Bloke]

From my understanding of what I've learned about the PAL and the NTSC colour standard:

NTSC suffered from colour phase errors (at least in the early years) which the received image on the telly would come up the wrong colours so you would have to adjust the hue control on the TV to get the colours right

PAL system developed overcame that problem by a phase alternating line system which converted hue errors into luminance errors e.g. a rich red would appear to be a lighter red instead of another colour which is less of a nuisance than getting a hue error

That was the main advantage PAL had over NTSC.

Another advantage was the PAL system used 625 lines whereas NTSC used 525 lines, hence a higher resolution/detailed picture. Watching DVDs of both standards I can clearly see the difference in resolution between the two pictures and I admit PAL pictures do look more detailed for that reason.

The advantage NTSC had over PAL however was the scan rate being 60 fields/sec whereas PAL was 50 fields/sec, hence a more smoother fluid motion picture. I however find it hard to tell the difference in fluidity of a NTSC picture to a PAL picture when viewing DVDs of both standards.

More details on the PAL and NTSC and SECAM systems can be viewed on Wikipedia:
PAL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL
NTSC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC
SECAM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SECAM
I haven't touched on SECAM as I am not heaps familiar with how it works opposed to the other two.

Now from memory from what I read, Australia chose to adopt the PAL system in 1968 likely be for the above advantages of the PAL and colour television was meant to start here in 1972. Unfortunately for whatever reason (probably slow to change conservativism of the government) the official introduction of colour on all networks didn't start till the 1st March 1975.

Anyways to my opinion both systems had their advantages and disadvantages, I think NTSC should of stepped up their line resolution to 625 lines and I think PAL should of stepped up the field rate to 60 fields/sec then there would of been equality between the 2 systems, though that would of cause a big hassle in having to modify all equipment at all TV stations so hence once a standard was set it has to stick! I do say PAL's method of converting colour hue errors into luminance errors will be superior over NTSC's hue error problem as seeing less saturated colours is less annoying and preferred to seeing green faces, blue grass and purple bananas.

[NewVista]

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke

.. I think PAL should of stepped up the field rate to 60 fields/sec ..

They did in Brazil (world's only 525/60 PAL ?) They were sold this Pig in a Poke by German industry advisors . Hint: Don't devise a unique system, think compatibility, economy of scale)

[NewVista]

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke

PAL's method of converting colour hue errors into luminance errors will be superior over NTSC's hue error problem as seeing less saturated colours is less annoying and preferred to seeing green faces, blue grass and purple bananas.

First PAL sets , S-Pal, produced "Venetian blinds" with Dif Phase errors , later PAL-D solved this but lost half vert chroma resolution in the process.

Early NTSC subject to Diff phase in Hi-Lvl Mod transmitters & microwave links. By early 1960s, these problems solved

Australia should have adopted SMPTE 525/60 in the late 1940s with corresponding channel assignments that didn't violate the FM band (stupid) & color in the early 1960s (Japan,Canada, Philippines)--Compatibility with Asia (manufacturing) Pacific Rim/US .

Many countries in caribbean, Americas - some European colonies - chose NTSC for convenience, economy of scale, compatibility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC and a dozen or so have 50hz power http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_p...ound_the_world (not a problem for 525/60)

[NewVista]

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke

... Unfortunately for whatever reason (probably slow to change conservativism of the government) the official introduction of colour on all networks didn't start till the 1st March 1975....

.

Philippines:
Adopts majority Pacific Rim TV standard

with channels located outside of FM band

Gets to watch Color TV from mid sixties

Yes to US bases, but No to Vietnam War

Australia:
Assigns unnecessary 7mhz channels in FM band

No Hi Fi radio until late Twentieth century

No Color TV until late Twentieth century

But Govt says Yes to Deadly Vietnam War

[Telecolor 3007]

You didn't get F.M. (U.S.W.) radio in Australia 'till 1974? In Romania we had F.M. since 1963 (some say even earlyer). But we have to wait for colour television untill 1983, because of "Hello, hello, stay calm in your pleices".

[NewVista]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

[No] F.M. radio in Australia 'till 1974? In Romania we had F.M. since 1963 ".

Was it Romania where they killed leader & wife after fall of dictatorship?

[Geebax]

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke

Here's a fact for a laugh, we didn't even get FM radio till 1974 let alone colour TV!!!

Actually, we had FM radio in Melbourne from 1948, it was situated at the end of the Jolimont railway yards on Brunton Avenue, and the tower was only pulled down when the land was redeveloped for units.

Geoff