Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> History >> Avenue House - Equipment Department - D&ED http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1163560388 Message started by Redders on Nov 15^th, 2006, 3:14am

Title: Avenue House - Equipment Department - D&ED
Post by Redders on Nov 15^th, 2006, 3:14am

As a former member of staff of AH / ED; could anyone tell me if all the work we did has been recorded on any BBC site, as it would appear that as per usual in the UK, engineering is a dirty word and I passioinately feel that the men and women who worked in that Department, deserve some recognition.

For instance I remember the time a OB vehicle was put in the car park at the back of the building to show off HDTV, which from memory was being marketed by Sony. Letter box format. Now this is a good ooh 15-20 years ago. But as per usual it failed to get any interest at that time and was put on the back burner.

Also, what about ETD Woodnorton as well and the great people there, in the print unit ? is there anything that records what was done there?

Hope to hear from someone soon. All the best Pete :)

Title: Re: Avenue House - Equipment Department - D&ED
Post by zaentzpantz on Jul 17^th, 2009, 4:06pm

I worked at Avenue House, as a pre-university trainee. The induction interview was in the bosses office, I can't remember his name but he looked like Fred Emney and smoked cigars.
He had the awful habit of starting a sentence, waffling for an extremely long time and then forgetting what he was trying to say, so he would then start another sentence which would end up the same etc etc. I sat in his office for 45 minutes and actually fell asleep while he was talking to me, not for long but just like when you nod off on the motorway late at night and then you awake with a start!
I worked for Sony Broadcast when they demonstrated the NHK-HDTV system. It was analogue, very expensive, uncompressed of course, and absolutely stunning. It never got off the ground as it was too expensive and it showed up the flaws in studios, nail heads, paint daubs etc, it was that good. You could walk up to the monitor and scrutinise every detail on the screen, much much sharper than today's compressed HDTV.

Title: Re: Avenue House - Equipment Department - D&ED
Post by Bill Jenkin on Aug 11^th, 2009, 11:03pm

There is some information on the bbceng.info website
http://www.bbceng.info/Equipment/ed_top.htm