Inside the BBC's first Mobile Control Room

BBC MCR 1

Production Area SIS OB 7

Why  Outside Broadcasts?

The first 75 years of television broadcasting is a massive subject, so to see the history from one perspective makes the task of selecting material slightly easier. For me, while television studios have their own ‘magic’, it is the ability of television to ‘bring you live pictures’ from as many locations as the producers have imagination, which has pushed the technology and ingenuity to the limit and made some truly magnificent programmes. 

Nick Gilbey

Nick Gilbey in 1989

CTV's OB 11 One of CTV's latest Units

The website intends to record the development of television outside broadcasting in the UK through from it’s beginning in 1937 to the present day.

The birth of television must be one of the most important events of all time and it happened in a century when most of the people reading this will have been born. That is why it is so important for us to record as much about the early days of television as possible while it is still in living memory.

Much has been written about the inventions that have made television broadcasting possible. This website intends to record how the technology was used to ‘bring you live pictures’ from all parts of the UK and beyond – the equipment used and the techniques which were developed and the people who used it – from the Coronation Procession of King George VI, the first official BBC Outside Broadcast in 1937, which used three 405 line black and white cameras, to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, when the BBC deployed over 100 high definition colour cameras.

Camera Supervisor, Geoff Vian, operating a Sony 1500 camera

Many of the Photographs are from my own collection. But I am indebted to Andrew Browne for the use of  his photographs from his vast collection and  to Doug Kipling for his contributions. Also I would like to thank both Brian Summers and Jerry Clegg for the information they have given me and to Jerry for his proof reading skills. I would like to thank Richard Ellis whose book 'The Pye TVT Story' has been an invaluable source of information about the contribution Pye made to the broadcast television industry.

Nick Gilbey in 2013

2014