Milestones - 1960s

1960
The first prototype multi-standard converter used to convert to the American standard pictures of Princess Margaret's Wedding.

Demonstrations of pictures using different television line standards shown to a party from the GPO, headed by its Director General Sir Gordon Radley, as part of the Pilkington Committee deliberations to select the line standard for BBC 2.

Mullard stereophony system investigated.

LS5/1 studio monitoring loudspeaker put into service.

1961
Stockholm Conference on VHF/UHF planning. Detailed proposals for frequency allocations in Bands I, II, III, IV and V submitted by Research Department to the Conference via the Post Office.

Demonstrations of Zenith-GE stereophonic system.

1962
First transatlantic colour television link by satellite from Goonhilly Down to Andover, Maine, using Research Department slide scanner, 16th June.

UHF monochrome and colour television field trials from Crystal Palace to determine, among other things, the problems involved in transmitting more than one programme from the same site using the 625-line standard.

Experimental transmissions of the Zenith-GE stereophonic system on a single VHF channel from the Wrotham transmitter.

1963
NTSC, SECAM and PAL colour demonstrations to EBU and OIRT.

First proposals for electronic field-store standards converter made and patents filed.

1964
Line-store standards converter (625 to 405 lines) installed at Television Centre.

First studies into digital techniques for television.

Second anechoic chamber for acoustic tests (Free Field Room 2) brought into service.

1965
Sound-in-Syncs, a method of transmitting audio signals in the television signal line synchronising pulse period, first assessed.

Experimental PAL colour transmissions from Crystal Palace.

Introduction of linear matrixing techniques to improve colour reproduction in colour television cameras.

1966
625-line PAL colour television system adopted by the UK.

Colour pictures of the General Election relayed from Television Centre to the USA via the "Early Bird" satellite.

1967
BBC-2 transmits first regular colour television service in Europe beginning 2nd December.

Investigations into optical spatial filtering techniques in motion picture film printing.

Field-store standards converter made its operational debut.

1968
A new field store converter with advanced interpolation was introduced to convert 525/60 NTSC pictures from Mexico City Olympic Games via satellite to 625/50 PAL at Television Centre.

Proposals made for use of circular polarisation at VHF/FM transmitters.

Investigations into colour optical recording begin.

Proposals for automatic registration of colour television cameras made.

Linear matrices, which improve colour analysis, fitted to operational colour television cameras in studio TC7 at Television Centre.

1969
BBC-1 transmits full colour service from 15th November.