Demise of School TVs...

[paolo]

Originally Posted by Aerodyne

By appointment to... was DER!

Wow! Thanks for that, Tony. It's amazing what little snippets of information the brain retains. I think the TV at my school was a Baird of some kind. The strongest memory I have is of the teacher constantly fiddling with the volume and colour controls during the countdown clock seeking the perfect display.

Funny what habits you pick up

[G0MEM Michael]

School TV.. luxury!!.. we where lucky just to have a blackboard and chalk.

The TV we had at school. I think it was the 27inch B/W DER with wooden doors on a high trolley, was that it had vertical linearity problem. I remember the seeing the 1 minute countdown clock before the programmes started, been distinctly egg shaped. Also I remember taxi radios would always break-through when tuned to ITV.

The year I left school, they finally got colour TV. Philips G11s I think, along with a JVC HR3300EK piano-key VHS. This was a big deal at the time.

[G0MEM Michael]

^^^^^

As an addition to my previous comment. 31 years later I find myself back at school. What a difference! Internet, A/V projectors which work, even with guest laptops, DVDs, CDs, Konka colour TV.

...it's still good to see a blackboard been used though.

[Danny]

Hi all I wonder if some small country schools may still have the odd tv stuck under the stage or in the back of store cubbards ect ?. A nice idea and may be worth checking up on you old school !.Danny

[mickash]

The last specialised TVs used in schools in this county were produced by Decca.

The CS 2640 and 2645 range were introduced about 1972. These used the solid state 40 and 45 chassis and included both off air and line monitors.

The PZ 1005 and 1090 were introduced about 1978 and used the 100 series chassis. The cabinet of the 1005 overhung the screen by about 3" to minimise glare on the tube. The 1090 had a black fabric hood which was brought into position when the doors were opened to fully guard against screen glare.

All the above sets had isolated chassis (compulsory for use in schools) and had a range of AV connectors on a rear panel.

The TVs in the pictures are fitted with Unicol stands which saw widespread professional use.

After the Deccas, replacement TVs were standard domestic types, usually Grundigs. Most standard TVs by then were isolated and fitted with SCART sockets.

Traditional TVs are now a rarity in schools as most classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards.


Michael.

[ianj]

That last photo of the Decca with doors was my schools set, with a Philips reel to reel vtr underneath it. Could have been a el3400 as it was huge and noisy-the reels ran quite fast on it. It had to live behind the stage to be plugged in to the aeriel I remember to record, or watch live.We watched a series called Civilisation and a very boring series about a mixed race couple having a baby. Sometimes we watched Dr Who on it. I remember watching a repeat of the story with Jon Pertwee called The Sea Devils on it one year after we came back after Christmas. Our Teacher was Dr Who-mad! We loved it!

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
I've just come back from our local tip and in the telly recycling cage there is an immaculate polished wooden cased Philips colour TV from the 70s/80s I'd guess. It's about a 22" screen and has slider controls and a six channel tuner, but the odd thing is that there is a lockable perspex door over the controls thus rendering it tamper resistant. There's DIN sockets on the front and the fine tuners are inside a plastic panel on the side. I'm wondering if this was a school's telly? Maybe for classroom use rather than assembly hall due to it's small screen size. I couldn't read the model no. 'cos of the other junk lying against it. I could have nabbed it, but I haven't got the room and old colour tellies aren't really my thing. Just curious, really.
Cheers, Pete

[Colourstar]

At primary school around 1977 we had what I now know was a Pye CT205 on the inevitable high trolley stand (and yes we used to 'ride' it along the corridor!) My main memory of the set was that it appeared to produce a good BBC1 picture even without the aerial being plugged in! Typical programmes of the day were 'Watch', 'Music Time' and 'Words and Pictures'... all preceded by the 'Follows shortly' caption slide and some moog music, which the Beeb seemed to love at the time...

1982 and my secondary school had a 70s Rediffusion colour set- the one with 4 sliders on the front and 6 rectangular channel buttons. When switched on, the picture used to come through with a sickly green tint, which faded to a normal hue within a minute or so.

Around 1985, when the 'computer room' became established, a motley selection of very second hand 20" single standard mono sets appeared; a Philips with flapping veneer on the top, a Bush TV183S which worked very well and a white cased GEC 'fineline' with the controls along the top. These sets were used with Sinclair ZX81 computers. There was also a 20" Decca Bradford, used with a sinclair spectrum. The convergence was none too good, so there were generally three 'cursors' in the bottom left of the screen- one red, one blue, one green! Eventually the ubiquitous Microvitec CUB computer monitor appeared and the Decca fell into disuse (and probably latterly into a skip along with it's monochrome colleagues)...

Steve J

[Hybrid tellies]

At our primary school we had a donated HMV 1910 donated to us by some kind soul, the local repair company kept this going for quite a few years but when this was scrapped it was repaced by a large school mono receiver from possibly Radio Rentals. I think it was a 24" 1500.

[AidanLunn]

I did originally send a PM to mickash (in response to one he sent me) saying that the selection of Decca schools sets he has posted don't match my description above.

I'm now convinced that the second set is the one I was talking about (thank you very much, mickash ), it's just that the angle of the photograph doesn't seem to show the angled supports for the "hood" very well.

[Sideband]

No TV in Primary school but in secondary school (1964 - 1970) there was a huge B/W set that was kept in the dining hall. During one of the moon landings, we were allowed to watch it as part of a physics lesson. Other than that it was just the usual schools programs. No idea what make it was but I know the tube was somewhat silvery and the sound could be temperamental. Probably long scrapped.....


SB

[davehills]

I can remember watching telly at junior school in the mid to late 70s.

It was a fairly big thing (26"?), colour, in a wooden cabinet with two hinged doors standing on two silver cylindrical metal legs. All the woodwork behind the doors was painted black; the outside of the cabinet was varnished.

For some reason I'm thinking Dynatron, possibly? Pretty sure it had a "By Royal Appointment" badge on it?

Then at secondary school in the 80s we had a generic colour TV, maybe GEC and a couple of philips VCRs (N1500 & N1700?)

We also had an old B&W Sony reel to reel VTR, with proper tape on spools! It was probably kept running due to a large library of existing tapes.

Also remember the School gramaphone-large, wooden with an oval grille!

[AndiiT]

Originally Posted by mickash

The last specialised TVs used in schools in this county were produced by Decca.

Hi,
If the Decca sets mentioned above were the last specialised TVs produced in this country and used in schools, would I be correct in thinking that the Thorn 9700, which was a schools modified version of the Thorn 9600 chassis, was produced prior to 1978?
I certainly recall repairing the Thorn 3700 (modified 3500) and 9700 schools televisions, in the North East educational area, till around 1985/86.

The Unicol stand shown in the picture with the Decca televisions was used extensively in Schools for televisions of many different types.
The Thorn ones that I mentioned were housed in large custom made cabinets and bolted directly to the stand.
With the advent of the TX10 for use in schools (which was only occasionally modified with a retrofit Audio/Video in/out PCB, but remained identical to the domestic model) a wooden sleeve with doors and a canopy was mounted on the stand, the set then being slid inside this.

Regards
Andrew

[mickash]

Hi Andrew,

Sorry for any confusion. The Deccas were the last dedicated schools TVs used in my area (county not country)
Previous sets were Thorn monos as shown in early posts in the thread. Anything after the Decca sets were standard domestic TVs (also using Unicol stands which were often transferred from scrapped Deccas)

The last schools Decca I repaired was a PZ1005, in 1996 I think. It had a s/c spark gap capacitor on the tube base. (How can I remember that?!) Anything more costly would probably have meant the end for the set!
The weakest point on this range of sets was the tuning drawer which used rivets to connect the carbon tracks. Loose rivets resulted in tuning drift and would often again mean the set would be replaced.

I'm not sure of the date for the Thorn 9700 but I would guess it would be around the mid to late 70s.

Many county LEAs ran an audio visual department responsible for supplying and maintaining AV equipment in schools. Other counties contracted the work out often to rental companies like DER who would often supply Thorn based sets.
Later on, schools were free to make their own arrangements for TV provision which resulted in a wide variety of sets being used and the end of the specialised Schools TV.

Michael.

[AndiiT]

Apologies from me too, I should have read County and not Country

Here in the Teesside area the LEA used a dedicated repair team for most of the schools audio/visual equipment leaving the television repair part to one of the local Thorn rental companies, in our case DER.
Latterly, as the dedicated sets were replaced by domestic ones, such as the TX10 I mentioned previously, and the Philips style VCRs were updated with Ferguson 3V29s, or similar, DER took on the servicing of both the televisions and video recorders.

The Philips 1500 VCRs, remembered by some from their own schools, that have been mentioned elsewhere in this thread will have almost certainly been the Thorn 8200 or 8201 baseband versions of the original Philips models, a picture of one can be seen halfway down the page here

The 8200 VCR accepted (and produced) separate Luma and Chroma signals, whilst the 8201 accepted and provided a composite signal. If an 8200 was used with any of the Thorn colour models, which only provided means for composite connections and "add on" adapter unit had to be fitted between the video connections of the television and VCR - I only ever saw one of these in use, does anyone else remember them?

I also seem to recall that the rental funding of schools televisions was a bit of a conundrum, in our area the Primary schools and sixth form colleges were allowed funding for one colour television whilst the Secondary schools were only allowed funding for a monochrome television, an upgrade to colour or any extra units being funded directly from the schools own budget.

Regards
Andrew

[ianhumph]

Hi all! Just Joined, (very first post!) and felt I HAD to put in a request..! In my High School which I attended (sparingly!) from 1981-86, aside from a suprisingly small (for the era) array of colour sets, I recall seeing quite a number of 22" (or thereabouts) monochrome Decca's- single standard 625 IIRC (valve maybe?) As mentioned elsewhere on this forum, these had the BIG wooden cabinets with long, tall chunky legs, castors, black viewing hood and a platform below to carry an optional Sony CV2000(?) open-reel video recorder.

I can only recall ever seeing one off-air programme on one of these Sonys (featuring plenty of tape drop-out and various other symptoms of wear and tear!) during 1st year Geography- in the 'Viewing Room'. (Also in said place there also dwelled a large (26"?) Decca colour set - its white cabineted top projected out to form a screen from possible daylight glare and the controls had a lockable door, which MUST have been designed with kids of our ilk in mind- the set offered an atrocious picture- shame; anyhow..) This particular episode was a documentary on Flint and its 13th Century castle- the school being located in this historic town. The opportunity of watching ANY 'video' were, in those days pretty much next to nil- well, almost.) Fairly sure that they were the only brand of TV supplied to the school overall.

Although.... a mention of Dynatron in a prior post seems to strike chord in the dark recesses of my memory bank. I've scoured the net (with no joy whatsoever I'm afraid to say..) for a glimpse of something fitting the description of these mono sets; which gave to my young eyes an incredibly sharp and satisfying picture. The year I left, I had the priveledge of spending a good hour or so (with just a couple of other kids and a teacher who'd only recently completed his training) watching a bit of afternoon telly on one of these sets: 'Looks Familiar' on ITV was one thing I oddly still recall (presented by either Roy Hudd or Denis Norden.) The set in our own form room towards the end of my schooldays would occasionally get switched on (without prior permission) by a fellow pupil during the end of lunch breaks and whenever we would have our (at one point seemingly regular) coffee-hours (was THIS during the dinnertime? Not too sure. Quite likely!)

After all this droning piffle (sorry..), my request is this- if anybody has a picture (or two) of the aforementioned set (no info on model numbers-sorry again..) could they please post them, as I won't (can't.. shan't..) rest until I see one again. Other members must be slightly curious also! And don't you think it's a little odd that these ever so ubiquitous (at one time- in our school at least) creatures were still in use in 1986?? (Am I mad or just plain sad..?)

Thanks Guys. You know it makes sense!! All the Very Best. Ian.

[mattCRT]

I remember the Ferguson Videostars on metal trollies. I cant remember what the VCR's were, but I remember that they never worked!
I suppose I remember what brand the TV was because I certainly wasnt concentrating on the welsh video we were meant to be watching!

[System A]

Hi everyone, I've been clearing some stuff from my dad"s garage as the roof is leaking. I have managed to save my 24" BRC 1400 schools receiver. It was very damp when I got to it, however it is now dried out.
Today I thought I would fire it up. It hasn't been switched on for about 15 years so I brought it up on the variac. It slowly warmed up and produced a frame collapse with good sound.
I obtained it 20 years ago from our local junior school. It has a tall tubular stand with big wheels fitted. At some time in it"s life it was pushed over and had to have a new CRT fitted. It has baseband video sockets.
I will post some more pictures of it when I sort the frame out.
Regards, Gary.

[HamishBoxer]

Thats the one Gary that i used to install and service back in my D.E.R days.

David

[Stuart R]

Wow! That one looks familiar to me as well but can't remember from which school. I was fascinated by the telly at primary school in the mid 70s and would have quite liked to have taken it home. But to a small child like me, it looked far too tall to get out the school hall doorway so I knew there was no chance! I definitely recognise the cabinet with the add-on neon (maybe you'd shut the doors if making a recording via the rear sockets) but also remember our TV having a white mask around the screen, every other TV I'd seen before (and since) had a black one. I do remember as an annoying 6 year old, taking my Dad's copy of "Correcting Television Picture Faults" to school and suggesting to the teachers some cures for the frequent picture troubles.

At junior school, a new set was delivered in time to watch the space shuttle launch. I was very disappointed to see it was still a black and white one as the old primary school had recently upgraded to colour and a VHS recorder!