IBA Engineering Announcements - 22 October 1985 'The Test Card'

ALL SOURCE MATERIAL ARE CONVERTED AS RECORDED/DUBBED/ORIGINALLY RECEIVED
IBA Engineering Announcements - 22 October 1985 'The Test Card'
These recordings are from original IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) RoT tapes.
Twitter: / the_iba_archive
Digitally converted from VHS by Liam Mustapha
This video/channel is non-profit and is for archival purposes only.

[@robertcomer2767]

By god, ITV's 30th anniversary would be something to be proud of - can't be said of its upcoming 70th in 2025.

[@blueswingdown]

timestamps 0:04 Opening titles 0:54 John Lovell and Pat Hawker on ITV's 30th anniversary/testcards 4:34 Trade Transmissions 5:24 Special Announcements 7:40 New Relays (ITV and Channel 4) 8:27 New Relays (Channel 4 only) 8:50 Independent Local Radio News 10:09 Address to write to 10:32 "Next Tuesday 9.15 & 12.15" 10:43 Latest 10:54 Fade to black 11:06 Test card and music

[@stephenholmes1036]

Pat Hawker knew his stuff

[@brucedanton3669]

Thank you for this look into Test Cards-most interesting. Of course, they only mention ITV and Channel 4 (not S4C?) at the time, not BBC1 or BBC2 neither as it would have been then in 1985. I guess this is because they were the IBA then, not the BBC at the time. However, Test Card F was really on the BBC as far as I know, where as Channel 4 showed only ETP1 at the time. By then too, both BBC channels mainly showed Pages From Ceefax with music during downtime in the daytime, ITV ran a full service and Channel 4 as it says here alternated between ETP1 and either Oracle or 4-Tel pages. Well done of course too!!

[@brucedanton3669]

Although of course, Ceefax on BBC and Oracle on ITV and sometimes also 4 Tel pages on Channel 4 were really all Teletext pages as such on the old analogue service as it was then (compared to today's digital one that is). At least until the end of 1992, because as we know, from January 1993 onwards BBC Ceefax continued but Oracle and 4-Tel became the generic Teletext service as the ITC by then had awarded them the contract to do so at the time. Teletext continued until 2009, and Ceefax until 2012 when the last analogue service was of course switched off. It's a shame that digital now only offers the BBC Red Button Text service on their channels, whereas on the other channels there is now nothing at all to replace it. Oh well!!

[@brucedanton3669]

I remember too at one time-in the 1970s and 80s I think there was also a service called Prestel which I think was run by the Post Office at the time. As far as I know, it ran for a number of years before being closed down by them, presumably because it was not that popular. Thank you!!

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Test Card F and its predecessors were originally used by both BBC and ITV equally. Both of them also used the Test Card G (a mildly tweaked version of that Phillips PM5544 t testcard). ITV also used colour bars, especially for the final 5 minutes or so before programming began ETP1 was the first exclusively ITV testcard in 1979 - in the Thames area that would come on at 0900h and switch to colour bars with an extra red bar along the bottom at 0925h then at 0929 it would go black and silent for a minute until the blue screen and Perpetuum Mobile came on. There are plenty of screenshots of Test Card F on pre-1979 ITV test periods, often with really good quality classical music instead of the tone, much better than the tacky loungecore the BBC would play. Channel 4 was always ETP1 with its own little twist to the logo.

[@brucedanton3669]

@@kurtvanderbogarde8402 Yes indeed too you are so right there of course indeed!

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

@@brucedanton3669 I would love to some time see the jump from ETP1 to colour bars with red bottom (what is the technical name for that one?) with the tone suddently jumping higher, that we would have on Thames TV 1979-1982 about 5 min before Perpetuum Mobile. Or better still the jump from colour bars with no red bottom and the same tone as ETP1 to colour bars *with* the red bottom that we had for a few years earlier. Three year old me thought the red bottom thing was what actually made the higher tone - it would appear on the screen and the tone would jump from low to high but it seemed more fluid and natural a thing to happen than the jump from ETP1 to bars later on which was totally disorientating the first time you saw it.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

11:06 That bit of music appears in a disco segment in a 1981 episode of Tiswas featured in a VHS compilation, with Chris Tarrant, Lenny Henry and Houdi Elbow telling each other jokes on a dancefloor in a club somewhere on nearby Broad Street.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

It was this clip kzbin.info/www/bejne/laKsiq1rjKqUhbc and it replaced the original music, a Heatwave record.

[@zetametallic]

Whatever it is called I like it!

[@christopherhulse8385]

Quite amazing that the City of Southampton had to wait until 1986 to get ILR.

[@Robbiewa-bg4lu]

When the ITV strike was on in 1979 did Engineering Announcements still broadcast and was the ETP1 testcard shown when ITV would have normally closed down at night?

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

Yes, Engineering Announcements were shown. Not sure about ETP-1 but the equipment also generated the captions shown. Transmitters were likely off outside expected broadcast hours.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

ETP-1 was not shown at night except maybe for the first few mins after broadcast. It would come on at 0900h before the final preparations for TVam kicked into gear.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

When TV-am was due to launch in a few weeks, ETP would be on at about 6am and go to colour bars at about 0630h

[@JRTerrier24]

Isn’t this the 22nd October edition, considering they said next Tuesday (the 29th)…??

[@theibaarchive778]

Complete oversight! D'oh! Thanks for correcting me, the title has been updated to the correct date

[@JRTerrier24]

@@theibaarchive778 No worries, I hope you have the 8th/15th ones too. Absolutely love these, and I wasn’t born until 1988!!!

[@antster1983]

@@JRTerrier24 If he hasn't upload them, they're probably not on the tapes he's been supplied.

[@madmurdock100]

Pure TV gold

[@luisreyes1963]

Fascinating. 🤓

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

That's not how you spell Amlwch.

[@arthurvasey]

A lot of people often place a Y after a W in Welsh - either in written or spoken form - I remember a series called Interceptor with Annabelle Croft - one edition came from a place on the border of Shropshire and Wales and featured two places called Cwm Coynant and The Begwns - which Annabelle Croft pronounced as Quim Coynant and The Begwins! Also, Aislaby - while correctly spelt here - is pronounced ay-zal-by!