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Old 7th Jul 2007, 7:07 pm   #14
Vectamart
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Ventnor, Isle of Wight, UK.
Posts: 141
Default Re: Humour in the TV trade.

Way back in 1973, I worked for a firm in Cirencester called Ettles & Bumford Ltd. One of their customers owned a very large Decca 25" CTV in a cabinet that was absolutely huge and it took 4 men to manhandle the set. One day, not long before I joined the firm, the set had to be brought into the workshop for repair. Given the size and weight of the set in question, this was quite an event in itself because the workshop was located two floors up and accessed via a rather narrow staircase.

Anyway, whilst the set was awaiting a spare part from the manufacturers, it was left on the floor of the workshop without its back on. One day, John S, who was the firm's office manager, was holding the fort single handedly and had to go up to the workshop to fetch something for a customer in the shop. He bent over to reach whatever he came up for and as he did so, he caught his rear end on the tube neck of the aforementioned Decca CTV.

When Ken, the service manager arrived back, a very embarrassed John S explained to Ken that he had accidentally caught his rear on the inside of the Decca and it made a strange sound like a pshhhhh! He said, "I hope it didn't do any damage, Ken!"

Well, needless to say, a new tube had to be ordered and fitted at the firm's expense which did not please Mr. Ettles at all!

The whole incident though was made worse by the fact that the set's owner was a perfectionist to such a degree that he had obtained a transparency of Test Card 'F' from the BBC, scaled to exactly fit the screen of a 25" CTV and he had always check the set of the test card on a daily basis. Whenever he perceived that the picture geometry was even slightly out, he would demand a service call.

The new tube eventually arrived and was fitted and the set soak-tested for several days and two Bedford Viva HA vans, each carrying two men, were despatched to deliver the Decca back to its owner. We all prayed that none of the picture settings would get disturbed on the journey!
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