BBC begins TV Transmissions
London The 30th of September 1929 AD
Though John Logie Baird has had a bad press in recent years, he was undoubtedly an engineering innovator of genius – in addition to his television project he did work on radar, and even eventually on transmitting colour and 3D images. It was Baird who developed a basic television system in the 1920s, first publicly demonstrated in January 1926 to the Royal Institution, and that same year the BBC began cooperating with him on an experimental basis, though it took some time to persuade the powers at the BBC that the work should be fully supported.
In March 1929 the BBC broadcast television signals through the 2LO London transmitter, but this was still an internal project – no equipment was owned outside the BBC to actually receive the signal.
By September 1929 receiving equipment, however limited in technological terms and numbers owned, was available, and after an agreement had finally been reached between Baird’s company and the BBC the first public broadcast was made on September 30 1929.
Made with a 30-line system, and broadcast through the Brookman’s Park regional station, what was sent out was far from the finished article – at first sound and vision were broadcast separately in alternate two-minute bursts. But the BBC had made its first public foray into the exciting world of television.
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Comment
From Tess on 6th January 2013
This is very informative, but i was wondering, do you know what the name or topic of the first public broadcast was?
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