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Technical Review | April-June 2012


250th Issue of the ABU Technical Review Down The Memory Lane


Noting that this issue of the ABU Technical Review is the 250th, we thought it would be a good idea to trace the origin and evolution of this notable publication which has served the broadcasting industry for the last 43 years.


Delving into our very well preserved records we found the first issue of the ABU Technical Review was published in March 1969. It comprised 62 printed pages. At that time the Union was known as the Asian Broadcasting Union. However over the years, the name of the journal, the ABU Technical Review has remained unchanged.


The first issue referred to the then ABU President, Mr Yoshinori Maeda, also the President of NHK. The two Vice-Presidents were Mr Gilbert Stringer, Director-General New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation and Mr Dol bin Ramli, Director Radio Malaysia. The Secretary-General was Sir Charles Moses, CBE. The Union was headquartered in the NHK Building in Tokyo and the Secretary-General’s office was in Sydney. The Editor of the Magazine was Mr V Balasubramaniam, Assistant to the Secretary-General.


The TR debuted in March 1969


The first technical article was provided by All India Radio on ‘Night- time Transmitting Antennae for Tropical Broadcasting’, containing field strength measurements and field strength curves. An article on an Electronic Television Standards Converter was provided by the BBC. This issue also furnished a description of the ABU activities in what were designated as Study Groups 4 and 5, the former dealing with Videotape Recording and the latter with International Programme Exchange.


An interesting feature in this issue was the Question Box, where members asked for possible technical solutions. One of the first questions was from RTM-Malaysia on setting up of three 300KWz Medium Wave transmitting stations. This issue also had reports on development in broadcasting in ABU member countries, CCIR (ITU) activities and features on developmental news and reviews of technical publications.


The first technical article by All India Radio (AIR)


It is interesting to note that, at that time, the Union had 22 Full


Members (all of which are current Members) and around 25 Associate Members.


Further on in time, the Chairman of the Technical Committee, Mr S S Aiyar, Chief Engineer of All India Radio, addressed the readers through the September 1969 issue. In that same issue there was a review of a book by Mr Friedrich P H Meier, on experience gained in colour film production for television. The writer of this piece had the privilege of being trained by Mr Meier in colour film processing, in 1975.


Radio Hong Kong’s Broadcasting Centre (1969)


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