Rhodesia Television

Operating in a country under United Nations International Sanctions from 1965, which prevented free trade with the major broadcast manufacturers of the world, RTV electronic engineers had to be particularly resourceful in an ever-challenging battle to keep the station on air. This led to constant sanction busting by the directors to ensure that vital equipment could be replaced and that a good stock of spares and consumables could be maintained.[6] The resources available to the programme producers and their crews of camera, lighting and sound operators, in order to produce regular weekly productions, were minimal to say the least.

The station initially operated ‘live-to-air’ as it had no facility for videotape recording. Imported light entertainment and documentary content[7] was sourced from 16mm film and broadcast live from Rank Telecine units. As a result, in the early years, viewers were familiar with seeing the caption 'Please Do Not Adjust Your Set. Normal Programming Will Be Resumed As Soon As Possible' when the 'technical gremlins' upset the broadcast flow.

A small group of programme Producers and their Director/Vision Mixers organised weekly and sometimes daily studio productions. Transmissions opened at 17:00 and ran until just after the late-night news. The British national anthem would be broadcast at station opening and again at closedown.

The studio production crew most often consisted of three cameramen, a single audio operator and two African floor managers. There was also the small set design and creation team in the props area. On occasion, the station would host a broadcast from the Prime Minister, other government ministers, or foreign dignitaries, whereupon the studio staff would turn up in jackets and ties in stark contrast to the regular shorts and tee shirts.

As this was live TV, the crew would sometimes build a set at one end of the studio, in absolute silence, in readiness for an upcoming programme, whilst another completely unrelated live programme would be playing out at the opposite end of the studio. Pressures became even more complicated with the addition of live commercial breaks from the same studio area.

Based around a single studio and a small news and continuity announce booth, each studio was equipped with a complement of tungsten luminaires suspended from an overhead lighting grid and controlled by a small board of analogue dimmers. These luminaires included 2kw fresnel spot / key lights, 1kw 'scoop' fill lights and backlighting from banks of 5 Par38 type lamps. Microphones were connected on wall-mounted or multi-core terminated stageboxes. The latter being bulky (clumsy but indestructible) Philips connector strips.

Early monochrome cameras were mounted on three wheeled dollies, but these cameras were later replaced with RCA or Bosch monochrome cameras with image orthicon tubes, mounted on gas powered studio pedestals. The oldest camera was usually designated as Camera 3, with its turret of fixed focus lenses, delegated to holding wide shots and for shooting the caption stands. Cameras 1 and 2 had more useful zoom lenses, so were at the heart of programme production. These old cameras often ran very hot and were often operated with both side covers left open in an effort to assist with cooling. There was a mobile video monitor used not only for lighting reference, but also to provide a location for the studio countdown clock.

Audio foldback and talkback monitors were overhead above the lighting grid. There were caption stands for each camera to hold title captions, photographic images for news and simple commercial-designed images.

The cyclorama did not have an 'infinity curve' until the mid-1970s and was painted a basic pale blue, which equated to a mid to light tone grey for the monochrome cameras. On the unused studio wall were racks for camera and audio cables, as well as double-glazed viewing windows to connect the technical areas visually with the studio floor.

One single room held production, vision mixing and audio mixing areas, with no partition. All cues were verbal although intercoms connected both video and audio desks with Studio, VT (video tape) and Telecine areas, as well as with the Master Control suite next door. Camera direction from the control room, in the very early days, was via a radio transmitter up in the lighting grid and with cheap domestic medium wave transistor radios strapped to the heads of the crew members. This system was replaced by cabled 'Cans' which plugged directly into the camera, receiving its signal from the multi-cored camera cable. Each camera was also able to talkback directly to the director if necessary.

The early vision mixing desks were rudimentary and home-built, in front of an array of wall-mounted CRT monitors. New vision mixing consoles were installed progressively, that could also provide basic dissolves and keying functions.

A Studer 12-channel stereo audio mixer was added to the sound mixing suite in 1972. This controlled a wrap-around console incorporating: two EMT broadcast turntables, two Ampex quarter-inch full-track tape recorder / players, and two Spot Master cartridge players for instant playback of theme music and stings. Microphones were mostly AKG D202 and Beyer M 201, with bulky RCA Lavalieres. A couple of AKG C414 and one Neumann U87 mic was added for higher quality use. There was only one handheld VHF Telefunken wireless microphone. This had a 50 cm long flexible antenna cable that would often be ripped off accidentally during transmission, causing an explosive cacophony of white noise.

Telecine content was upgraded with the coming of the videotape era in 1975, using man-sized RCA Quad video machines that consumed 10½" spools of 2" magnetic tape. These were still monochrome machines, but enabled advertisements to be inserted at will – lengthy pre-roll times permitting. These huge machines, operated by dedicated 'VT Girls', were the workhorses for recording of entire TV and current affairs programmes. As there was no post-production editing available on the Quad machines, all content had to be pre-compiled from the studio floor and control room.

Under the guise of RBC TV in 1976 the station joined the 'video cassette' era when Sony Umatic 'low band' recorders, cameras and an edit suite were installed. This in turn progressed to the 'high band' Umatic recorders and edit suite. In 1979 / 1980 the station took delivery of its first Sony 1-inch 'C Spool' edit suite – and the earliest content was shot and produced in colour, though still broadcast in monochrome. RTV was one of very few stations worldwide still broadcasting in black and white.

There were two Rank telecine units, each comprising: 16mm projector (optical and magnetic sound), 35mm slide carousels and epidiascope (for caption cards), transferring to video cameras. These units fed imagery to both the studio and transmission control areas, so both must always liaise closely to gain their use.

The VT room had four of the aforementioned Quad recorders where two girls usually operated and cued tapes for recordings or transmission. This room was heavily air conditioned to keep the machines cool and so it also housed the archive / main store for videotaped content. Contained also within this technical area were the camera control units or 'CCUs', where a duty engineer would manage the video signals from studio and telecine cameras.

A small group of studio newsreaders, location news reporters, film cameramen, office editors/scriptwriters and a duty director handled the day’s latest events. Monochrome film, shot on 16mm cameras (Auricon, Bolex, Arriflex) would be developed on site in the station's film-processing laboratory and left in negative form. This was cut/edited by the director, and broadcast in this state by reversing the Black and White scanned imagery in telecine. This was a cheap but effective method. Such films were always mute in the early days, so commercial mood music would be played off acetate or vinyl discs to match the action or emotion. Music library discs were few and far between, so this music became very overused. At a later stage when the film department progressed to CP-16 cameras, the 16mm film also included a side-stripe magnetic audio track. In the final period before the advent of location video cameras and recorders, there was a period where 16mm 'reversal film' was shot for local content.

Like Salisbury, the station initially operated ‘live-to-air’ as it initially had no facility for videotape recording. Imported light entertainment and docua mentary content was shared with the Salisbury studio and broadcast a day or two or week later.

A small group of 6 programme Producer / Directors were responsible for local, weekly and sometimes daily studio productions. using a mix of 8 camera / audio operators and 3 floor managers.

Like all Montrose offices the newsroom was very small, perhaps 4,5m x 3m. Furnishings were basic. A desk for the news editor (Head of News) and a 'shelf desk' on an opposite wall used by two sub-editors/reporters/later bulletin directors. A film cameraman was responsible for processing and editing news film on an Intercine editing table. All local film was shot on 16mm negative which was converted to positive electronically, before transmission. Cameras used included a motor-driven Bolex, two clockwork Bolexes, and an Auricon sound camera which took 400' foot magnetic stripe film spools. It is probably safe to say that all programme producer/directors cut their teeth on studio news bulletins, of which a little more later.

All material was collated for use in three daily bulletins, being, 6pm headlines, a 7.45pm main bulletin and late news headlines. With the exception of lead stories, collation was as much as possible primed to geographical areas of the world to attempt to introduce a smoother 'flow' to the bulletin.

Other newsroom productions included a five-days-a-week 30-minute current affairs programme, The Tenth Hour, produced by the head of news and a weekly five-to-seven minute 'Crimecheck', produced in cooperation with the police.

Equipment in the newsroom was as basic as it could be: 3 x Olivetti manual typewriters, 2 x foot-pedal operated dictaphones, linked to a telephone to the Salisbury newsroom, 1 x 16mm projector to throw images onto a wall to enable checking/timing of daily footage, 1 x large filing cabinet containing 9" x 12" camera cards featuring images of most newsmakers and 2 x smaller cabinets holding slides and "opaques" (4" x 3" images of same). By the mid 70s electric typewriters and a telex machine had made the dictaphone system redundant.

Newsgathering From the early 60s up until about 1971, news was gathered and compiled in the following ways: 1. All the 'read to camera' stories and others not immediately available to Bulawayo were read over the telephone by someone in the Salisbury newsroom and recorded on to a dictaphone. 2. The duty sub would transcribe these stories on to (Byo) news format script paper, via a set of headphones. 3. Local stories were sourced over the telephone and/or filmed on location with the cameraman and the sub/reporter. 4. International film footage was obtained via Visnews and UPITN in London and was collected daily at the Bulawayo airport.

The main bulletin was read from the studio, using two newsreaders in front of a stylised map of the world. Two cameras were required. The headlines' bulletins were presented from a tiny news 'booth', just off the main corridor, which encompassed a fixed position camera, a desk and an AKG microphone. There was no autocue although some readers liked to write out the headlines and tape it just under the lens being used.

Visual resources The two reporter/subs were trained to direct studio bulletins. Two studio cameras, two cameramen, a floor manager and camcards. From telecine, film, slides, opaques, epidiascope images. VT inserts were introduced in the mid 70s and by 1979 a Sony ENG camera with shoulder pack was being utilised along with a new edit suite adjacent to a now downsized newsroom.

Audio resources A mixing console took feeds from studio mics, two vinyl turntables, an Ampex reel to reel tape machine and a single cassette player. The audio operator also had feeds from Sound on Film which might include spoken reports, Natural Sound on Film against which the studios would provide voice-over, and when film was silent, the newsroom would provide library music discs to be played against the film action, to lend mood.

Commercial Television Commercial Division RTV Bulawayo

International Television held the commercial marketing rights for the Bulawayo station until ITV’s dissolution and takeover by Commercial Television, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rhodesia Television. The Bulawayo office was located in the city and was staffed by a small staff with a Manager, secretarial staff and a sales/copywriter. Most of the clients in Bulawayo were sourced from local retailers and manufacturers. The rate card structure of the Bulawayo station was identical to Salisbury with the same rules and time segments with rates adjusted pro rata based on the smaller viewing population in the Bulawayo transmission area. The production of advertising magazines (Ad Mags/Market Place) and other commercial spots was undertaken in the Bulawayo studio using RTV staff. Breakfast Television was pioneered in Bulawayo as an experiment. A live programme hosted by John Aldridge was on air for 5 hours once a week on a Saturday morning. However, the advertising support did not warrant a continuation or an extension of this service and it was eventually abandoned.

The Bulawayo crew managed the first live outside broadcast in Rhodesia. It was a broadcast from the Rhodesian Grand Prix from the old Bulawayo airport (Brady Barracks). Achieved on a monochrome low-resolution surveillance camera and one Shibaden video recorder, the tiny camera was fitted with a very limited zoom lens that was operated with a small handle underneath, which also acted as the focus pull.

The camera was mounted on a luggage trolley “borrowed” from the Bulawayo train station. This was all hauled up three floors, onto the top of the old airfield control tower. The pictures were fed by cable from the camera down to the recorder (housed in the back of a Ford Taunus station wagon.) This had a transmitter and roof-mounted dish. With line of sight to the new microwave tower at the Bulawayo post office in Main Street, the signal was then sent into the studio in Montrose.

In the morning during practice, the cars were filmed going around from the bottom corner into the main straight. This 16mm film was made into a loop and used for fill during transmission. The luggage trolley/camera dolly caught the cars going up the main straight, whilst being pushed across the tower platform of around 4m. The presenter, Peter Rollason, stood out of the shot alongside the camera with a mic doing his commentary and would walk into the shot when required. The trolley was then pulled back again as the cars went down the back straight and onto the long corner sections all the way around and down to the corner at the bottom of the main straight. Here, the director back in the studio, cut to the film loop whilst the trolley was moved back to first position and all the cables were unwound. History does not relate if anyone noticed the loop of the same cars going around the bottom corner every lap.

Showing the OB Van in Umtali in the livery of RBC TV

The Salisbury crew also took their studio cameras out on outside broadcasts from time to time. Unique to Salisbury Studios, was an Isuzu panel truck that had been converted as a mobile control vehicle for sound, vision and engineering. The annual Opening of Parliament was always covered along with important international games of rugby or cricket, the ballroom-dancing championships and the annual Trade Fair held in Bulawayo.

The unit was reliant on external 3-phase power, so it was never able to go off the grid too far. During the independence war, the Station produced an annual variety show, initially called the "Mayor's Christmas Cheer Show" to raise funds to assist various local charities. In later years these grew into the "Bless 'em All Troopie Shows" alternating annually from Salisbury and Bulawayo studios. The final Troopie Show was a nationwide tour over a two-week period. The variety of challenges thrown up by these recording venues would tax the fundamentally simple OB Van and its crew to its limits.