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November 17, 1936
BBC EXPLAINS WHY IT USES TWO TELEVISION SYSTEMS
Admitting that television is still in an experimental stage, Sir Noel Ashbridge, Controller of Engineering for the British Broadcasting Corporation, explained this week why BBC is using two different systems of transmission in its regular television service launched this month in London.
Writing in the current issue of Wo ridRadio , BBC journal, Sir Noel said:
"On Monday, November 2, at 3 o'clock, the new London Television Station at Alexandra Palace began transmitting regular programs for the first time. It cannot be said, however, that television was seen for the first time by the public on this occasion, because during Radiolympia, in August, demonstrations from the Alexandra Palace were seen by some 100,000 visitors to the exhibition. Since October 1, the station has been trans¬ mitting on an experimental basis mainly for the benefit of the trade, but November 2 marked by far the most important step in the development of the interesting extension of our service, and the programs will be planned for reception by the public as part of the BBC service, and not merely as demonstrations or experi¬ ments.
"Readers of Wo rl aRadio, particularly those with techni¬ cal inclinations, may be inclined to ask why in this case we are using two different systems; and it may be of interest, therefore, to explain the conditions under which the service is operated.
"If we compare television with ordinary broadcasting, we find there are a number of technical differences, but the most important is that in the case of television, the design of the receiver is inevitably bound up with the system of transmission in use. Thus, if an engineer is setting out to design a system for transmitting television, he begins by selecting what he con¬ siders to be the right number of lines and the right number of pictures per second, and the best method of synchronizing the receiver with the transmitter. Of course, these three factors mi^ht be kept fixed while other variations were made which would not affect the receiver, but so far as most existing systems are concerned, the design of the receiver is determined by these transmitting conditions. Now, when we come to consider ordinary broadcasting, this is not the case. There are, perhaps, two dozen different makes of transmitter working on the continent of Europe, and yet except for considerations of the finer degrees of quality of reproduction there is no means of knowing which system is in use when listening on any make of receiver.
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