ITV and Channel Four Nicam

The IBA started their work on Nicam much later than the BBC,
but introduced programme service much sooner.
Initially, only 2 main stations and dependant relays carried Nicam,
Crystal Palace in London and Emley Moor in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Television decided that as they had little stereo material they
would try a processor to generate a stereo signal from a mono source.
It was quite sophisticated, if the incoming audio became stereo, the processor
automatically went into by-pass mode.

I remember watching "The James Whale Radio Show"
and the processor was "working overtime"
as both mono and stereo material was used in the show.
The trouble was, if the viewer was listening to YTV sound on a Hi-Fi system,
the results were appalling. If there was dialogue, the speaker appeared to be
the width of the sound stage, which in my case, was 7ft.
The effect was described by a viewer in a complaint to the IBA
as being "a digital drainpipe".
Thankfully, YTV decided to discontinue the use of the processor.

As late as 1995, the effect could still be heard
on the opening and closing music to Granada Tv's "Coronation Street".
I guess, since that's the most famous signature tune on British television
Granada didn't want to change or re-record the tune,
but did want it to sound like stereo.

All images below are jpeg files and the videos are MPEG 1 format

The IBA announce on Engineering Information the start of Nicam tests, 1989.
Click HERE for the audio Thanks to Howard Pitfield for this clip	Click HERE for the audio
Engineering Announcements was the first programme on either Independant Television and Channel Four in stereo
Sadly, the first engineering information in stereo, was marred by a poor sound circuit to Yorkshire. A short extract can be heard HERE A demonstration was shown in that first programme. Click HERE to view it in full. File Size 1.86MB It's has a 'futuristic' look, which was inspired by the feature film "2001". A very well made video.
The tests consisted of music, tones and announcements
Two of the announcements can be heard HERE and HERE Extracts of the music can be heard HERE HERE HERE HERE and HERE The tone sequence is HERE
Yorkshire Tv's expeiments with pseudo stereo sound can be heard HERE, the left channel is HERE and the right channel is HERE
The first stereo test by Yorkshire Tv was a musical programme about Jerome Kern, hosted by Robin Ray. The opening music is HERE and the stereo version of the Yorkshire Tv ident that preceded it is HERE The period before, during the ad breaks and after the programme, the Nicam channel was silent.
Programme service started on the 11th September 1989
The IBA announce the start of the service, click HERE for the audio The first official programme on Channel Four was a documentary on Matisse. Click HERE for the introduction.

All the images on this page are from the IBA programme "Engineering Information".

Early BBC NICAM test

Index