Posted on 11/02/2011 7:43:36 AM PDT by Cardhu
An event to celebrate 75 years since the BBC's first regular high-definition television broadcast is to be held at the venue where it took place.
The broadcast was made from Alexandra Palace in north London on 2 November, 1936.
A series of free activities will be staged at the venue - nicknamed Ally Pally - on Saturday and Sunday to mark the anniversary.
Visitors will be able to tour studios that were leased by the BBC until 1981.
The term high-definition was used in the 1930s to compare with earlier systems that were based on mechanical systems of as few as 30 lines of resolution.
It has once again been adopted since the 1990s to describe a new generation of televisions that have resolution substantially higher than that of standard-definition television.
'Momentous' anniversary
Alexandra Palace became the BBC's primary base for television broadcasts until the 1950s.
However, during the Second World War, television equipment was commandeered for defence purposes and the Alexandra Palace transmitter was re-tuned to defend London from Nazi bombers.
Over the years landmark programmes such as Muffin the Mule, The Grove Family and Open University content were made there.
Alexandra Park & Palace Trust chairman Matt Cooke said: "The BBC's place in the history of Alexandra Palace was sealed when the first public service broadcast in the world was made from the building in 1936."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
In 1936 they did not know what to call it - Radiovision, Seeing by Wireless, Distant Electric Vision or Phototelegraphy.
They finally settled on calling it "Television"
A word that was half Latin and half Greek. - No good can come of it. - C P Scott .
“High Definition” in those days meant 441 lines, 25 frames per second, black and white, positive modulation.
By contrast the analog system we just ended ran on 525 lines, 30 frames per second, NTSC color, negative modulation.
Britain eventually went to 625 lines in PAL color. The government decreed that all of the old 441 line transmitters would be shut-off by the end of 1969.
The last one signed off on January 3, 1985!
I use to live near there.
A lot older than that! That's just television - the British Broadcasting Company (as it then was) began radio broadcasts in 1922.
The headline says “...celebrate 75 years of television”
Actually they had several tests before that but this was the first public TV broadcast in the world for those that bought the first TV sets.
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