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-   -   Updates on Smith Kline French colour TV OB van in Australia (http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=267944)

Aussie Bloke 10-24-2016 07:07 AM

Updates on Smith Kline French colour TV OB van in Australia
 
4 Attachment(s)
G'day all.

Back in 2012 I posted a thread detailing on the Smith Kline French colour TV OB in Australia during the 60s and 70s http://videokarma.org/showthread.php...ighlight=kline . Since then I have found a lot more information on this colour TV unit in Australia and it's last known whereabouts.

Starting from the beginning, the SKL OB truck arrived in Australia around I guess September 1960, there's an article from The Canberra Times dated 5th August 1960 detailing the OB truck being hoisted onto the SS Dunedin Star at Royal Victoria Docks to be shipped to Australia for a 3 month demonstration tour in Australia.

Next I found an excellent 3 page article on the SKL colour TV unit downunder in the October 1960 edition of Radio, TV & Hobbies magazine detailing it's use for medical demonstrations on a projected colour television display.

Whilst the colour TV OB unit was intended for a 3 month demonstration, it somehow ended up making permanent residence in Australia as it was used for medical lecture purposes in hospitals throughout the 60s, attached is a pic of the camera in use at St Vincent hospital 1965 and an article from the Western Herald 14th March 1969 detailing of it's use at the Amoco Centre for post mortems and parasite problems in sheep.

Then in 1971 according to the attached article in The Monash Reporter (5th April 1971) the colour TV OB unit was given to Monash University in Melbourne Victoria and was renamed to "Monash University Mobile Television Unit No.2". The colour TV unit was kept at Monash Uni up until November 1976 when it was finally donated to the Victorian Museum Of Applied Science (now Museum Victoria) according to the attached article from The Monash Reporter (4th November 1976).

After that it is unclear of whether the camera still resides at the museum in storage or not but I intend to try and find out, I really hope it does still survive and I can one day get to see it in person!

Aussie Bloke 10-24-2016 07:09 AM

5 Attachment(s)
Here's the other lot of images

Electronic M 10-24-2016 08:26 AM

Nice work researching that.

Interesting that there was a french firm calling themselves SKL...There was an SKL (Spencer Kennedy Labs) in the states too. They made lab grade wide band RF amps that (though initially for radar) had some market in CATV systems, and in the case of my SKL amp, used by TV makers (Zenith) for test equipment.

old_tv_nut 10-24-2016 02:44 PM

Thanks for pursuing this. I hope you do get to see it, and take some photos.

Telecruiser 10-24-2016 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke (Post 3172310)
G'day all.

After that it is unclear of whether the camera still resides at the museum in storage or not but I intend to try and find out, I really hope it does still survive and I can one day get to see it in person!

The camera certainly looks like an RCA TK-41.

Aussie Bloke 10-25-2016 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telecruiser (Post 3172347)
The camera certainly looks like an RCA TK-41.

The camera is actually a British Marconi BD848 http://www.tvcameramuseum.org/marconi/bd848/bd848p1.htm which is pretty much Marconi's version of the RCA TK-41 and uses three 3" IO tubes.

Telecruiser 10-25-2016 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke (Post 3172357)
The camera is actually a British Marconi BD848 http://www.tvcameramuseum.org/marconi/bd848/bd848p1.htm which is pretty much Marconi's version of the RCA TK-41 and uses three 3" IO tubes.

Yes, it is a pretty good clone of the TK-41! Now that I've had a closer look, it has a couple of major improvements. The viewfinder on the Marconi version can be tilted down, which would be much more comfortable for camera operators who are less than 6" 6" tall. It also looks like it has just one camera cable, rather than three for the TK-41. I've seen one of these at the National Media Museum in the UK, but never had an "up close and personal" experience with one. It would make a great addition to the collection at the Texas Museum of Broadcasting & Communications. www.txmbc.org


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