Nice thing I remember about it, you could have the sound without actually turning the TV on, and Reddiffusion did distribute radio as well as TV.

We had this for years and it was great however it took the TV set about 10 minutes to warm up.

The system we had in Worksop was initially on 405 lines for 3 channels and 625 lines for BBC2, Yorkshire and BBC1 moved to 625 lines at the end of 1969, but Anglia remained on 405 lines for a couple more years. The channel line up (as selected at the switch on the window frame) was A - Radio 4 (northern regional programmes normally, but occasionally the receiver at the head end would drift and we would get "Roundabout East Anglia" rather than "Today") B - Radio 2 (VHF version), C - Radio 1 (medium wave) day time, BBC 2 evening, D - Anglia (then ATV from June 1975), E - BBC 1 (Leeds version), F - Yorkshire, the remaining positions on the switch (G to L) were not connected.

Glad i found this. I always remember the grey rotary selector switch near my living room window, back in the 80's. It was never connected. A through to K if i remember.

@JamieNemeth

3 жыл бұрын

We still have it on the windowsill!

An early 1950 cable TV service in Gloucester was provided by an enterprising furniture retailer who spotted an opportunity. The normal BBC TV signal in parts of the low lying city was quite weak - the Sutton Coldfield transmitter was over 50 miles away - so cable provided a good solution for many viewers.

They transmitted radio channels originally along DC tram power cables.

@skylined5534

2 жыл бұрын

Genius stuff!

Redifussion and other cable systems, such as British Relay for example, had their origins in bringing firstly radio and then tv services by wire to areas where off air reception was initially poor or non existent. As the transmitter network was extended together with improvements in domestic receiving aerials and the television sets themselves the reason for their very existence was gone and thus with less subscribers needing to take their services the cable systems began to fall into disrepair and finally close down.

We had this in the new build houses 1950 in and around Workington, Cumbria the biggest problem with the system was if the majority of the customers on your loop were all watching the same channel (only 3 and 6/7 of radio stations) you'd end up with nothing but snow on the screen.

I still had the Rediffusion service when I lived in a Council Flat in Leicester in the 90's. Rediffusion was very common in flats and new build housing estates. Although by that time it was on its way out. I had two rotary dials on the wall. One for the TV and the second for the VCR. Sadly there was a lot of interference due to lack of maintenance. I remember the Rediffusion guy telling me that Diamond Cable (eventually NTL) would replace it all. Indeed while I was there I got TV via Diamond and high speed internet, and the Rediffusion service was then obsolete. Rediffusion was also an ITV contractor for the London region, eventually merging with ABC to become Thames TV.

We had it in Northampton, new build Development Corporation house (1980) where the council decreed that nobody could have an aerial and had to use this. It was a total pain; because the audio and video signals were separated you couldn't use video recorders or video games etc with it, at least if you wanted sound. Neither could you even use a TV remote control because the TV channel had to be changed by a physical rotary switch on the wall which selected between the cores on the cable. I can't remember precisely when my mum just got an aerial installed (long after I'd grown up and left home) but it was in the mid 90s when lots of other people on the estate had already ignored the Council rule and got aerials. By that time anyway the company had been bought by the infamous Maxwell Communications and run down to a skeleton operation. Anyway, it was a pretty crap system. Something you didn't mention in your video is that it started off as distribution of radio rather than television, which made sense since the consumer then didn't need to afford a whole wireless set; instead with Redifusion they were just supplied with a box with a speaker in it and volume control, much cheaper back in the 1920s when a wireless was an expensive item.

@scivids1999

8 жыл бұрын

Interesting. Yep, failed to mention that it started off as simply an audio system.

@johnhepworth1531

7 жыл бұрын

The system had an audio feed that only needed to be connected to a speaker but it isn't correct that Audio and video were totally separated, they were combined in the main HF signal. Rediffusion supplied a UHF upconverter called an inverter by them, to customers with aerial sets. When they converted their networks to carry a pay TV service in 1984, they brought out a box called a translator, that enabled cable sets to work on an aerial. They fitted aerials for their cable customers with a translator box. When the network had been converted, they sent a sales team out to sell the pay service, which consisted of Sky Channel, a pop music channel, a women's channel and a film channel called TEN, The Entertainment Network. Just as the networks were completed, BET, the parent company, suddenly decided they didn't want to continue in business. Robert Maxwell bought the cable networks, Granada bought the TV rental contracts and both Rediffusion and Thorn EMI who jointly owned Thames TV decided to dispose of it. The IBA would only allow it to become a PLC after refusing to allow it to be sold to Carlton communications. I was working for Rediffusion at that time And I remember well, the morning the manager came in and told us that the company was being broken up and sold off in bits. They had a factory in Bishop Auckland where they made TV sets, which became a Sanyo microwave oven factory. Rediffusion had also only just completed a large refurbishment programme on their first range of colour TVs, fitting the chassis' into new cabinets with an overhaul, a tuner fitted and a new tube.It must have cost a fortune to do and when Granada bought the rentals, they withdrew all of these sets and gave the customers Sets that Granada were familiar with. The sets were sold to an ex rental TV wholesaler for next to nothing because he sold them to dealers for £20 each. I bought and sold loads of them. BET also owned Biffa waste services and that was sold off too.

@Tigither

6 жыл бұрын

John Hepworth Pay TV, do you mean equipment, channels or both? Sorry, I'm 56, and some long term memories upped and buggered off a while back. I remember our neighbour who I babysat for at 16, had a rental PAYG money box attached to feed it with 50p pieces, lol. Hope it's not just channels but if so can't have been expensive with the full package containing about 7 channels.🤔😀

@wisteela

5 жыл бұрын

@@johnhepworth1531 Great amount of info. Interesting stuff.

@skylined5534

2 жыл бұрын

You say it was crap but at inception and for a few years after it was a great idea.

My second job was working for Rediffusion in Exeter.1963.

I really need to do more searching round for remaining stuff here in Mansfield.

Here in Leeds it was British Relay. I believe they later merged into the same company. The cables were run along the eaves of houses rather than strung between chimneystacks, but otherwise it was a similar setup with the rotary controls and repeater boxes. Despite being iut of use since the early-mid 1980s, there's still a LOT of surviving infrastructure visible, especially in the older parts of the city (Armley, Beeston, Harehills / Chapeltown, etc.)

I remember Rediffusion cable in Reading area. They used to rent out Viewing Terminals its like a TV monitor without a tuner all your TV and radio channels were on a selector box by the window sill.we had BBC 1, BBC2 and ITV Southern and ITV London plus Starview movie channel by Rediffusion. when we uprgraded our TV to teletext we had the converter box for a while then it all changed overnight everyone had to be moved on to Aerial system so they can free up the channels for Satellite tv thats how i remember as a child of 1970 to 1989

I remember Starview on BHE late 70s, early 80s, British Cable TV late 80s, Sky Channel, MTV, Screensport!

Rediffusion (pronounced 'red' as in ready, not 'read' as in reed organ, was preceded by British Relay, which was founded in Gloucester. It was the world's first cable television and radio service. It was founded in 1928 to send wired radio services but became operational as a wired (cable) TV service in 1951. You may find this video enlightening: kzread.info/dash/bejne/nqh9kpulhNitms4.html

@taffyjock1

4 жыл бұрын

Wrong kzread.info/dash/bejne/iJmJ27GPm8LdeZc.html

I think there might actually be one of the cables hanging between our house and our neighbour's house, I don't know how long it has been there but our area have been using the local relay transmitter for as long as I have lived here.

they had a network where i currently live, called the station i live in ash surrey, still have the connection in my house

Didn't Rediffusion provide cable television to Jersey in the Channel Islands? I read that they commenced cable provision of BBC Television in 1954, a year before the BBC opened their own Les Platons transmitter in Jersey. Also in 1958 they apparently began providing Southern Television (ITV) to Jersey, four years before the Channel Islands got their own ITV franchise Channel Television.

It just takes u back in time

Is it pronounced, Reed or Red? Cos everyone around here, (Notts,) pronounced it Red? Anyone know?

@wisteela

5 жыл бұрын

That's got me thinking now, and I'm in Mansfield!

@duncanparsons

5 жыл бұрын

I always though of it as 're-diffusion', and as such with a long 'e' But then, I'm a Southerner..!

@duncanparsons

4 жыл бұрын

@Anthony Stafford Ha! Not posh, but, as advertised, a Southerner. I always took it that it was the diffusion of a signal that was done again, as in re-use. Complicated business, pronunciation. If someone gets their job back, they are reinstated, but those Moose-like animals are Reindeer..

@Mitch.Davidson

4 жыл бұрын

I’m from notts too and I’ve only ever heard anyone pronounce it red

Hmmm was it coax?

@scivids1999

8 жыл бұрын

+Knuckles the Echidna Nope, basically telephone cable just with more cores!

Pretty primitive ! But that's a English thing only. I remember in the US we had cable and Pay tv as early of 1957 or even before + color tv.

Chinese english rediffusion computer

1st!!!!

@scivids1999

8 жыл бұрын

+tom smith Good good.