Outside the box - Cover story

It is 70 years since the BBC staged in 1937 the very first tv outside broadcast (OB) in the UK when King George VI was crowned. This combined tv and radio broadcast was followed a month later by live tennis from Wimbledon, an amazing feat given that the whole technology was in its total infancy. World War II intervened and developments stopped. Yet by 8 June 1946, tv returned as the BBC prepared for arguably the most joyful OB it has ever staged when it deployed cameras in the Mall and Trafalgar Square for the VE Day parade. But the most significant OB in tv history took place on 2 June 1953: the Queen’s Coronation. For the first time, viewers outnumbered listeners –7.8million watched in their homes, 10.4m watched in other people’s homes, with another 1.5m in cinemas, halls and pubs. The audience of nearly 20m people was huge – even by today’s standards – and many were watching tv for the first time. The Coronation is credited with kick starting the UK’s tv service, both the creation of the national transmission network and persuading millions to buy sets. The national coverage was, in large part, thanks to the BBC’s acquisition at the end of the war of 100 redundant military transmitters, which it converted for sound and picture transmission. The average human lifetime is around 70 years, but this is, effectively, many generations for tv technology, such have been the advances. Since those far off days, outside broadcasting, like all tv, has been transformed beyond recognition: the move to colour, satellite broadcasting, the switch to digital and now high definition.