Monday, July 20, 2009

July 1969. Let's remember

At the Warradale Primary School 40 years ago this morning our Headmaster (Mr Munday, I think) told the assembly that any of us who wanted to could go home immediately and watch the planned moon walk.

The students who stayed watched in the school Library.

I walked home with my two younger sisters, and we turned on the TV.

I actually think I was out of the loungeroom in the kitchen when it happened.

But here's what did happen:





A guy who was in the ABC Sydney television control room that day tells me that they didn't have a direct Aussie-style (PAL) feed they could broadcast. The signals were in the US NTSC format. So they put a camera in front of their one NTSC monitor and put what they captured to air - all four Australian stations took it.

There was a problem - the unorthodox method of broadcasting the vision meant that it was going to air after the sound. So they rigged up two audio tape recorders, recorded the sound on one and spooled the tape along to the other a few feet away where it was played back. They got the distance and the delay about right.

I am sure there are many more such stories.

More details: The Television broadcasts