World's first live transmission of ice hockey from the Harringay Arena

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on July 9, 2009 at 11:54

FASCINATING!

I believe that in the early days, cables were run up from studios in central London to the TV station and mast at AP, possibly before BBC studios A and B went live.

Perhaps the ice hockey match broadcasst also used cables through the streets or via the drains?

This is the sort of thing that our council was once really and rightly proud of.

So much so, that the symbol for our entire Borough is the Zig-Zag Logo, representing the radiating signal being broadcast over a wide radius from the hill at Muswell. The world's first television regular broadcast, from the worlds first dedicated TV mast, from the world's first purpose-built studios. Facts that the local council should today be broadcasting to the world.

The symbol of our Borough can still be seen on letterheads, signage, vehicles and buildings. It's biggest most splended version sits in the Civic Centre, behind the dias, directly behind the chair of the Mayor.

How times change.

In recent years, this logo was re-worked (rogered) by someone in the council. Today it is bent, twisted and ugly. One councillor said it looked like a squashed spider found behind a bookcase. Good analogy. The council's former Ministeress for Propaganda may know who was responsible for this outrage and why.

The distortion of our Borough's logo, so that it no longer evenly radiates waves, came shortly before Haringey Council most recent attempt to sell of this piece of national and nternational history, to their favoured property developer. They knowingly connived in what would have been the inevitable destruction of the first TV studios in the world, which gave rise to our Borough's logo. This council knows no shame.

Was the ugly twisting of the logo an attempt to reduce the association of our Borough with one of the most important events in popular culture, in world history?

Coincidence, or what?


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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on July 9, 2009 at 15:46

Note the shield on the Coat of Arms for the London Borough of Haringey ...

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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on July 9, 2009 at 15:55

Clive we've had this discussion here on HOL before.. the world's first 'regular' TV service and World's first 'dedicated' TV Mast are both 'weasel words'.

Fact is, the Germans had a TV service up and running before the British.. They only broadcast to TV shop type community buildings (in line with Nazi thinking) and therefore it wasn't a home TV service like the BBC started. Even so, it was TV...

The other 'cop-out' is the on Blue Plaque The word world's first 'High Definition' service is used..

Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on July 9, 2009 at 16:56

This hasn't been a discussion but I think you have made similar assertions about weasel words and cop outs before and you must think your claims are the last word on the subject. "Dedicated", "high-definition" (for the time), "regular" and public – these are not cop-outs or "weasel" words, they are descriptive words.

I'm sure that the German propaganda minister Joesph Goebbels would be delighted with your sentiments (it is of course irrelevant that the "TV service" that you point to, controlled by the propaganda ministry, was deployed only in halls – staffed by SA brown shirts? – to disseminate Nazi ideology).

I'm surprised you haven't pointed out that the Eiffel tower in Paris was used during the German occupation to broadcast test patterns etc. These transmissions were picked up on the south coast of England and caused some alarm, I think amongst radar operators. All while Alexandra Palace public tv broadcasting was closed for the duration of the war.

The Germans have contributed a great deal to television, especially to colour TV. We all have reason to be grateful to Telefunken GmbH for the development of Phase Alternation Line colour. Better known as PAL, it was the system chosen by almost all countries that came to relatively late to colour TV and superior to the American NTSC and French SECAM.

As you may know, there were trial transmissions from studios in central London even earlier than AP, before The Television Committee gave the go-ahead for BBC studios A and B to be built at Alexandra Palace. Trials and testing also went on in other places and other countries. What was intended at AP was not experimental: it was to be a permanent facility, for the public and at (relatively) high definition.

Regular broadcasting from AP began on 2 October 1936.

The Americans, Russians and Germans were all working on television during the 1930s. But there is nothing to compare with the achievement which came together at Alexandra Palace for regular, public, high-definition transmission. These are not weasel words: these are watershed words.

AP is widely regarded as the birthplace of television, in the sense we know it today, and not in an experimental laboratory sense. That the local council chooses to ignore this almost entirely, does not change the facts. It is all the more remarkable that these purpose-built studios and the purpose-built tower (mast normally has wires) still survive to this day.

This is something that Haringey Council has been justifiably proud of in the past. If the studios are so unimportant would they be better demolished?

Permalink Reply by StephenBln on July 9, 2009 at 17:18

Nothing like adding a bit of gorey Nazi stuff to do something down- is there..!

It doesn't matter whether it was Nazi of not - the Germans had their service up and running first.

Nowt can change that.. whether high definition, low definition middle definition, brown or red, white and blue..

AP is widely regarded as the birthplace of television, in the sense we know it today, and not in an experimental laboratory sense.

For Britain and the U.K., but not the world..

Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on July 9, 2009 at 17:53

THE NAZI CONNECTION – I'm trying to demonstrate some objectivity here by crediting Germany with major contributions in the development of colour television (Telefunken: not a British company!).

I believe in credit where its due and I think you underestimate the achievement made at the top of our local hill, in post-depression Britain and against much opposition, including Lord Reith of the BBC.

Nothing like adding a bit of gorey Nazi stuff to do something down- is there..

Who first mentioned Nazi's in this connection? But I will go further.

Much immensely valuable scientific research performed in Germany (into smoking and lung cancer), was wrongly ignored for decades elsewhere, for no better reason than because it was performed in the period of the National Socialist regime and was possibly commissioned by Hitler himself.

That research was almost certainly the first in the world to make this link on a scientific basis and was no less valuable because it was done in Nazi Germany. Prejudice can seriously damage your health.

For Britain and the U.K., but not the world.

There are claims made elsewhere in the world to be the birthplace of television. Some have more validity than others. Here's another birthplace of television in America that you might also enjoy contrasting with Alexandra Palace.

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Permalink Reply by John D on July 9, 2009 at 19:47

Clive, it's much more likely that the Ice Hockey was sent back to AP by radio link. It wouldn't be worth putting in cables when AP is line-of-sight from the Arena. The BBC had a radio link truck quite early on, converted from a fire brigade vehicle with the aerials on the end of the extending ladders.

Permalink Reply by John D on July 9, 2009 at 20:15

Regular broadcasting from AP began on 2 October 1936.

2nd NOVEMBER 1936 actually :)

The German TV service at that time was on 180 lines and " High Definition " was described as anything of 220 lines or more. So BBC was first. The Germans later went to 440 lines.

The Berlin TV transmissions were from an already-existing radio tower so AP was probably the first "dedicated " TV tower.