Phonovision

Phonovision is a proof of concept format and experiment for recording a mechanical television signal on phonograph records. The format was developed in the late 1920s in London by Scottish television pioneer John Logie Baird. The objective was not simply to record video, but to record it synchronously, as Baird intended playback from an inexpensive playback device, which he called a "Phonovisor".^[1]

Technical information

The process involved mechanically linking the television scanning mechanism, a Nipkow disk, and the record-mastering turntable. The video signal from the Nipkow disc scanner was amplified and connected to the cutting stylus of the turntable. Baird had to make a number of compromises to get the process to work, among them using a picture rate of only 4 frames per second. Unlike Baird's other experiments (including stereoscopy, colour and infra-red night-vision), there is no evidence of a public demonstration of playback of pictures. The results were considered a failure at the time, and Baird moved on leaving behind several discs in the hands of museums and favoured company members.

Despite its technical problems, Phonovision remains the very earliest means ever invented of recording a television signal. In a sense, it can be seen as the progenitor of other disc-based systems, such as the European TelDec system of the early 1970s and RCA's capacitance-based discs, known as SelectaVision.

History

Baird-like modern televisor image of replica "Stooky Bill" puppet head similar to the one used by J. L. Baird in his early TV experiments. His images would probably have been of comparable quality.

An equivalent system was marketed by Cairns and Morrison Ltd of London under the name Silvatone from 1930, with at least one early recording of transmitted television still in existence from April 1933.^[2]

The earliest surviving Phonovision disc depicts one of the "Stooky Bill" dummy heads which Baird employed for tests, and was recorded on September 20, 1927. The earliest recording of a human face is of Wally Fowlkes, and was made on January 10, 1928. On March 28, 1928, a recording of "Miss Pounsford" was made which is, in many ways, the best of the experimental discs. In the 1990s, her relatives identified Mabel Pounsford as the early TV star.

From 1982, Scottish image processing expert Donald F. McLean developed software to capture and restore the video recorded on the Phonovision discs. Analysis of the recordings by McLean revealed that serious problems had occurred during the making of the recordings, due mostly to the mechanical linkage that was necessary to allow simple playback. The problems were largely corrected by software, and the resultant images give us a far better image quality than what would have been seen in Baird's laboratories at the time.

External links

• World's Earliest Television Recordings - Restored!

References