Technology in Country Television, 1964

As television found its way into rural Australia in the 1960s, the design, construction and fitting out of the studios was often handled by specialist companies from overseas. When Denzil joined AMV4 Albury in 1963, construction of the studios had already started, under the direction of a British company.

Their “one size fits all” philosophy had omitted a number of features which Denzil, fresh from the experience of GTV9, regarded as essential. No provision had been made for scenery storage or dressing rooms for performers. Denzil insisted both these be added to the building, and then imported a truckload of second-hand scenery from GTV9. He also arranged installation of a cyclorama in the bare-bones studio.

Videotape, which had been available at GTV9 since 1959, was still an exotic technology, out of reach of rural budgets. Consequently most non-live programming — feature films, sitcoms and advertisements — originated on 16mm film. News and sports reporting was filmed, processed in-house and aired via telecine. Local advertisers whose pockets did not stretch to filmed advertisements had to settle for a series of slides or flip cards shown in sequence, accompanied by a taped soundtrack.

The telecine room was fitted with 16mm French Debrie projectors, each operating through an optical multiplexer with a pair of slide projectors. In this photo Denzil points out a technical feature of the Debrie to AMV4 staff member Les Beard. Denzil regarded the Debrie as the Rolls Royce of projectors and was the proud owner of early model Debrie.