|
Archives |
|
Above: Welcome to The Main Event! A television monitor showing highlights of upcoming programmes enticed uninitiated members of the public to come inside...
Below: In the absence of Debbie Clarkson, it was left to Jenny Gray to organise the lads on Reception this year.
Below: An Ice Warrior handled security at the main entrance throughout the day;
"Your names aren't down, you're not coming in..."
We were pleased to feature a special display at The Main Event, titled What We Used To Watch. A comprehensive collection of both home and professional videotape formats used over several decades were on show, while our monitor screened a continuous tape loop of restored footage from many classic programmes and legendary performers, including Tony Hancock. All of this material was "missing" from official archives and had been recovered from the obsolete broadcast formats by expert Kaleidoscope engineeers. The CV2000 tapes were cleaned and re-cleaned, before being played-back on a broadcast TV monitor. The image was then filmed and transferred to modern videotape.
The CV2000 videotape was the earliest form of domestic video-recording. VHS would be its modern equivalent. Each reel-to-reel tape lasted around sixty minutes. This was the format used by Ray Galton to record many Steptoe and Son episodes which have since been restored and re-screened on BBC2.
The Philips 1500 cassette was released on the domestic VCR market in the early 1970s. It was replaced by the Philips 1700. The format was used frequently by TV companies to record viewing copies of programmes. Due to the widespread "junking" of master tapes from the archives, many items now only exist on this format including the BBC's untransmitted 1975 re-make of The Rag Trade, Toyah Willcox's first TV appearance in Second City Firsts and Frankie Howerd guest starring on Wednesday At Eight, which was one of the clips shown in our presentation here.
Betacam is a broadcast format which looks remarkably like Betamax, but contains a far superior tape. This format is favoured by satellite broadcasters such as UK Gold and Bravo, since it is relatively cheap. It is also used widely for editing purposes. It has been superceded by Digital Betacam which is regarded as the best storage medium currently available.
M2 Digital Videotape is one of many digital forms of videotape currently in use across the world. Channel 4 uses Digital5 (D5), wheras the BBC and Thames use D3. LWT uses D2. M2 is still favoured by UK Living, though it was primarily conceived for news-gathering purposes. The fragile tape has made it very unpopular in the industry.
The oldest surviving form of broadcast videotape is the two-inch width system. Originally designed for use in the 405-line TV system, it continued in use with the introduction of 625-lines. In the last five years, many old two-inch recordings have been transferred to digital formats.
Above Left and Below: Our special display, What We Used To Watch, proved very popular.
Below Left: Kaleidoscope's audience response team, Iain Badger and Vicky Perry.
Iain collected your feedback questionnaires throughout the day,
whilst Vicky was in charge of raising further funds for the RNLI.
As our regulars will know, Kaleidoscope takes your views very seriously in shaping how we run our events and other activities. Audience feedback is a major factor in deciding what programmes we include in the schedule every year and the same can be said of the guests we invite and the panels we stage. We like to think that we continually provide the best, and most enjoyable events possible for those who give us their valued support year after year. A lot of our visitors write to us or contact us via email after each event with their views and suggestions, and all of these ideas are discussed at the appropriate time with a view to the following year's activities.
Even more crucial to the feedback process is the event questionnaire which our visitors are encouraged to complete throughout the day. This gives us a uniform way in which we can collate everyone's responses and assess the most popular suggestions, as well as providing some idea of the types of people our events attract, by which we can decide whether or not we have the right emphasis and are hitting the right targets.
Our collaboration with our designated charity, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution is also a strong one and retains a high profile throughout the event. As our regulars will tell you, they're never allowed to forget that what we're doing is all for a worthy cause, with regular fund-raising collections taking place throughout the day!
Below: Rob Moss and Angela Kiernan both helped out for the first time this year.
With all the sitting down taken care of, the day of The Main Event arrived, and after a very late night and having had a horrendously small amount of sleep, I dragged myself out of bed and made my way to the Town Hall. Once there, I was given my timetable, and to my immense surprise, I was only required to be on duty for two hours. Having been a steward for the Doctor Who Appreciation Society's PanoptiCon event for the past few years, I was staggered at the idea of having more time off duty than on, although this did give me a chance to enjoy the day from more than one viewpoint, which was an added bonus. Unfortunately, duty called again just at the wrong moment, and it seems that I am destined never to know what Hartley, Pig and the rest of the Pipkins did once "Time" had been called.
In the end, however, I spent most of my time on the reception desk, and had a great time meeting people as they came in, and attempting to raise the profile of the various pieces of Kaleidoscope merchandise (still on sale, folks) and auction items, albeit with varying degrees of success. Does anyone want to buy a genuine BBC Axon tentacle?"
| [Back] |  |  | [Next] |
| Kaleidoscope - The Classic Television Organisation |
| [ Email Kaleidoscope ] [ Kaleidoscope Home Page ] [ The Main Event 1996 ] [ Archives Main Page ] |