Dear, ...........,
Hello, On completion of my training on TV Programme Technical Operations, I
reported to TV Centre Srinagar in mid 1973 as a Senior Engineering Assistant.
With me, other Engineering and Programme Staff who had also trained with me
joined. The Engineering staff came from almost all parts of the country. We had
an Engineer from Kerala, a couple of Engineers from Lucknow, an Engineer from Kolkata,
and a couple of them from Delhi and so on. I had the advantage of being the
only local engineering staff at that level. Also, because we had already
trained together, we knew each other quite well. Because of my performance during
the training, I was held in good esteem by the programme and engineering staff.
Just when we landed at the TV Station, it was still under installation. The
systems were in the final stages and installation team had not handed over the
set up. At that time, there was a brilliant Engineer, Mr. K.L.Wadhawan as
Installation Engineer. In Charge. He was already nominated to be the Engineer
in Charge of the TV Station after being handed over for normal operation. On
our joining, he assigned us to different areas. I was assigned Master Control
Room (MCR in short). At that time, one Mr. Chatterjee was the person from the
Installation group who was looking after the MCR. He was very eager to return
to Delhi. Mr. Wadhawan promised to relieve him on condition that he would train
me to take over MCR in two days. Mr. Chatterjee asked me to study the setup and
get all clarifications within two days. I worked very hard for those two days.
I studied drawings and got clarification on all points where I needed guidance.
During these two days, he created some system errors and faults and asked me to
make the system work. He even altered some wiring. I was able to make the
system operational in no time every time I was asked to rectify. He was pleased
and took me to Mr. Wadhawan. Mr. Wadhawan asked me whether Mr. Chatterjee could
be relieved on my guarantee. I was confident enough and I took the responsibility.
Mr. Chatterjee would always speak highly to everyone in Delhi about me.
Unfortunately, he died a few years later from some ailment. He was soft spoken
and knowledgeable. I respected him and meet him whenever I would visit him at
Doordarshan Kendra New Delhi.
TV first came to India in the year 1959. That year there was an
international exhibition in Delhi. German company Bosch operated a big stall
and exhibited TV Cameras and monitors and other studio systems in the
exhibition. The stall was hugely popular. At the end of the exhibition, the
German company gifted all the systems and equipment to India. They also loaned
some engineers to do the installation at Delhi. A few engineers were also
invited to Germany for imparting training on TV Technology and the system. Mr.
K.L.Wadhawan was one of them. A number of rooms on the 5th floor of
a building known as Akashwani Building were got vacated and a small room
converted into a TV Studio. The equipment and other related services were accommodated
in other rooms on this floor. The transmission started with a half hour programme
for Farmers. The was known as “Krishi Darshan”. Then some programmes for school
education were started during the day. The progress of programme expansion was
slow. Pakistan meanwhile started installation of TV Studio and transmitter
centres in their country in mid 1960’s. They put up the transmitters near the
border towns. Some resourceful persons in the border states in India imported
TV Sets from abroad and would mount special “Yagi” antennas and boosters over
their roofs to pick up the Pakistan TV signal. Those days it would be a common
site to see people orienting their antennas repeatedly to obtain as clear
signal as possible. Even though the picture reception quality would be very
poor, their dramas started getting popular. The Indian border area public would
also get to see propaganda TV programmes telecast mainly to brain wash the
Indian public. People in Punjab, Kashmir and Rajasthan border areas were in their
sights. India Government was alarmed. It was then that it started planning to
counter the propaganda. Immediately it ordered two ten kilowatt transmitters
from NEC Japan. One was put up at
Amritsar and the other one at Srinagar. These started working around 1969.
These transmitters would carry TV Delhi programmes. The programmes would be
routed first from Delhi to Amritsar and Srinagar through dedicated
microwave/broadband links. This helped to some extent wean the Indian audiences
away from the Pakistani TV Channels and also to beam programmes to Pakistani
viewers. Simultaneously our government decided to start setting up of TV Studio
complexes in the country. Two were to come up in first phase, one at Mumbai and
the other one at Srinagar. The Government of India signed a pact with Bosch
Germany to provide the technology and equipment. BEL (Bharat Electronics
Limited, Bangalore) were selected to start manufacturing and assembling the
broadcast equipment. Mumbai TV Studio was equipped with Bosch Germany
manufactured equipment. Srinagar was equipped with the equipment on Bosch
design manufactured by BEL Bangalore.
No comments:
Post a Comment