Much of this information was provided by Bob Mountfort.

Camera photos courtesy of UK Museum of the Broadcast Television Camera http://www.tvcameramuseum.org/

The early days

One of the first and major events in the life of the non-Broadcast use of television was in 1952 when the Marconi Television development team, many of whom became the core of CCTV division, achieved several firsts with a modified broadcast camera when they cooperated with the Admiralty and Siebe, Gorman and Co. Ltd., the specialists in underwater apparatus, to pool their respective skills and design equipment specifically for under-water work to build a special waterproof housing which was used in the successful search for the Royal Navy's sunken submarine the Affray.  Further information can be found here (video) and here (book) and two articles here and here.

This bore fruit in 1954 when the Marconi-Siebe, Gorman camera provided positive identification of pieces of the Comet aircraft which had mysteriously disintegrated in mid-air near the island of Elba in January of that year.

Sometime later the same team had a Marconi camera very near to the launch pad of one of the US space rockets with the pictures being relayed back to the UK.

My first CCTV experience was in the IDO when I made the installation drawings for a security system for Williamson's Diamond Mines who required a system to stop workers helping themselves.  That would have been around 1956/7.  The cameras were in two units, the camera head containing a simple lens and a Vidicon camera tube connected to a Camera Control Unit (CCU) via composite cables with coaxial, and control/power cables.  This configuration was used for many years.  The cameras for the diamond mine were not made by Marconi but were provided by RCA.  In all likelihood this would have because a low cost simple solution was specified.   

Industrial Television Division was spun off from Broadcast Division in 1959 and was originally based at Pottery Lane under the leadership of V.J.Cooper.  Later it was established in Basildon along with Aeronautical Division.  The Basildon factory was Marconi's most modern establishment using just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing processes.  CCTV was a poor relative.  I am not exactly sure where the CCTV equipment was manufactured most likely in Pottery Lane/Waterhouse Lane as the Basildon Factory was committed to the JIT system for large quantity production.  Equipment design and engineering took place in the Pottery Lane site.  Basildon sold and put systems together while Pottery/Waterhouse Lane provided the technical wizardry. 

I joined the CCTV Division in 1963 as an assistant to Mike Richmond in the Planning Department which was headed by Ted Peterson.  The divisional head was John Brace with Vic Prior as the Sales Manager and Ron Swindon as the Contracts Manager.  The Development team under Bill Hobbs was based in Waterhouse Lane.  As time progressed the CCTV Division grew and became Electro Optical Systems Division (EOSD) with the whole team being housed in Basildon.

The Products

In 1963 the main product was a valved camera and camera control unit (CCU), the V3020 (see photo).  The successor system was the V321 a Mil. spec. solid state camera and CCU.  The CCU was made in two versions a rack mounted CCU and a sealed cast aluminium unit.  The camera was housed in a stainless steel cylinder approximately 4 inches in diameter.  The front plate was cast aluminium with a threaded lens mount and sealed in the case with "O" rings.  The rear plate also in cast aluminium housed the camera multi-pin (37 pin) connector all sealed in the case with an "O" ring.  Threaded stainless steel rods connected the front and rear plates pulling them together to make a sealed unit.  This was the main work horse camera CCU combination used in industrial, security and some telecine applications.  Typical applications were; power station drum level monitoring, power station boiler interior viewing, (either enclosed in a water cooled, air purged housing or connected to an air cooled periscope), monitoring many aspects of steel making from furnace interior viewing to rolling mill monitoring, cement kiln and clinker cooler interior viewing, glass manufacturing tank monitoring plus other monitoring applications.  The V321 (see photo) was also used in security applications monitoring fences, entries and exits indoors and outdoors, traffic monitoring in the Dartford Tunnel and the first system monitoring the flyover on the M4.  The camera was used in daylight and at night time fitted either with standard vidicons or leddicon/plumbicon tubes operating with infrared lighting systems.  The V321 was also used on the Sao Paulo metro.

Marconi CCTV Division followed the V321 with the V322 (see photo) a single unit, self-contained camera. This came in two forms: the camera with a power cable in and a coaxial cable out carrying the video signal, and the studio camera complete with monitor and lens turret or the then current range of zoom lenses. This camera was aimed at the small educational studio market and non-hazardous applications where a single unit high resolution camera which is simple to install and maintain is called for.

Our studios were supplied with custom designed and manufactured wooden consoles. One of my favourite suppliers of studio consoles was a coffin maker working out of Boreham very nice people, high quality workmanship and good prices.  A typical configuration would comprise separate sound and video control consoles and a telecine bench some ten foot long.  The telecine system consisted of a camera mounted on a half inch thick, long aluminium plate. A field lens was mounted at the end of the plate and the camera lens focused on the field lens.  The whole was mounted a rotating table fitted in the middle of the bench.  A 35mm slide projector was fitted at one end of the bench and a 16mm cine projector at the other end. The camera assembly rotated to face either the 35mm or 16 mm projector.  Stops in the rotating plate ensured that the camera was accurately aligned to the projector.  Pictures from the projectors were projected on to the field lens and thus to the camera tube.  There was also an option to accommodate a third projector mounted at right angles to the bench. Not terribly sophisticated but it worked well.  Further information on the Marconi Education System can be found here.

Other applications

Other breakthroughs were in the use of optical glass fibre tubes relaying what a lens sees to the camera revealing the picture from concealed spaces.

We produced the "HeleTele" for use in Northern Ireland and security forces worldwide.  The television mount was mechanically stabilised and coupled with image stabilisation to take out vibration to produce a rock solid image.  Initial versions were fitted with the V321 camera which was later replaced with single tube colour cameras which aided in identification of suspect vehicles in Northern Ireland.  I recall a Puma Helicopter landing near the factory to have HeleTele fitted and then flying off to Brussels to monitor a developing security situation.

EOSD provided cameras in the nose of the Martel missile to guide it on to target, Sea Wolf and Rapier had television guidance versions provided by Marconi.

If you visit Duxford look at the Concorde.  On the left hand of the nose you will see a patch in the skin.  At one time during its trials concerns were raised that the variable geometry of the air intakes might ice up.  EOSD came to the rescue and a shortened version of the V321 camera was installed, where the patch now is, to observe what happens when Concorde flies into moisture at high altitude.  To perform the test a modified tanker aircraft flew in front of Concorde and pumped out gallons of water as they flew.  No icing was seen by the camera and the concerns were put aside.

Apart from the many industrial installations carried out by EOSD various systems were sold overseas.  We provided an educational TV studio to Nsukka University near Enugu in Nigeria.  The system was tested approved, packed up and shipped to Nigeria.  To the best of my knowledge it was never installed (I think David Beaumont was scheduled to do the install) but sat outside in its boxes at the mercy of the Nigerian climate.

Some anecdotes

Educational television  studios I was involved with were: Huddersfield Teacher Training College installed in a large room on the first floor of the Co-Op. Lancaster University where the control room was at the hub of the lecture theatres.  The theatres had the ubiquitous Rediffusion TV Monitors suspended from the ceiling displaying lecture material from the physics labs plus canned material.  The control room had one way glass so that we could see out but not be seen.  Surprising things you see!  Couple canoodling as if it were the back row of the cinema.  A young Mum breast feeding her baby . Oh to have had a privileged university education.  At St. John's Teacher Training College I was given a video tape recording taken from Yorkshire TV Studios of a well known interviewer interviewing a School for Strippers.  I recall Chris Copeman and I meeting with the top three executives of the Southern Area of Associated Portland Cement selling them a system for the newly built Northfleet Cement works (the largest cement producing plant in the world at the time).  We had an Ampex 1 inch VTR with us to show them pictures from other cement works.  Would you believe I got the tapes mixed up and left the interview tape in!  As it played I apologised profusely, sorry, sorry, that's the wrong tape. I'll stop it and play the proper one.  No, No, leave it.  Oh my word is that really ........??  It didn't do any harm and we got the contract.

Thinking of video recorders I do recall we participated in trials of a much specialised recorder that used clear 2 inch tape on which it recorded television pictures as holograms.  The trials were not successful and Ampex continued with magnetic tape.  All a bit beyond me, a thicky failed engineer but a good system designer and salesman.

In planning systems like all engineering projects you do site visits, make notes and at times dictate your report on a recorder to be transcribed by a typist.  For my visit to Heriott Watt University the transcribed report was meant to read, .... a camera installed in the Pharmaceutical Block but was typed as ....... in the farmers suitable flock!!

Things were not always pleasant. While surveying a private steel rolling mill where red hot bar moves backwards and forwards along the mill floor getting faster with every reduction in size, being caught by a worker in large tongs, turned round and fed into the rollers for further reduction in size.  Except this time the worker missed the bar and it went through his thigh.  The mill was stopped.  An ambulance called and the bar cut away either side of his leg with an acetylene torch.  I was told, "well the wound was cauterised"!! 

The hottest environment was at glass works where molten glass moves along a tank to be drawn out at the far end and cut into sheets.  The tanks are partially under floor level.  Burners blast alternatively in from either side with a pause in between each burn.  There are inspection holes along each side.  Great care has to be taken not to be near an inspection port when the burners on the other side blast.  Flames come out of those holes.  The worst one was an L shaped tank where we had to install the camera in the corner while the system was working. So very hot.  The longest we could be at the camera position was one minute. We wore heavy coats and gloves to get the job done.

I do have the unenviable record of setting a fire engine on fire!  Newcastle and Gateshead fire brigade bought a new Rolls Royce engined vehicle fitted with a Simons Snorkel lift.  The job was to fix a remote controlled camera on the cage and display pictures on a monitor in the body of the vehicle.  The camera cable had to flex and coil as the arm rose to its full height of 75 feet.  I had a special helical plastic tube made with the camera cable safely tucked inside.  It all worked fine in the labs.  The installation engineers took the equipment to Newcastle to fit it.  All done, the system was switched on.  Whoops, that old Marconi problem with the 4 pin Canon power connector.  Three pins connected but the BBC connection differs from the conventional wiring.  Our installation wireman connected the cable the BBC way.  But the power outlet was wired the other way.  Result a short circuit the moment we powered up the pan and tilt head and my beautiful helical tube melted as the cable burned.  Very embarrassing and a delay to the program.

A memorable and challenging installation was fitting cameras in the Dartford tunnel.  At that time there was just one tunnel with one lane in each direction.  Tankers had to queue up at the entrances to be escorted through by a lead Land Rover.  Working out the V321 camera positions was critical.  The tunnel has curves and slopes up and down.  All of the tunnel installation had to be done at night and before that I had to survey the whole thing.  Where to put the CCUs, how to power them and find the best route for the video coaxial cables.  One evening I had to survey the potential for running cable under the road.  There is quite a lot of room under the road to the bottom of the tube but not much of a walkway.  Off we go in a Land Rover.  Stop just in front of a manhole.  The lid is lifted and down you go torch in hand.  See you at the other end in an hour.  The lid is replaced.  It's COLD!!! and very draughty.  There are two large gas filled pipes running the whole length carrying high voltage power from one side of the Thames to the other.  And there are RATS and filth.  That was a very long hour. Next into the adits where we are to install the CCUs.  The power breaker box loosely mounted on a steel frame.  The voltage between mains earth and the frame is 50 volts!!  We never managed to change that.  What it did mean was that when the very low loss coaxial cable carrying the video to the control room had volts of hum on the signal.  Big problem.  In the end resolved by our planning engineers remembering old solutions, reading ancient tomes and even consulting a professor from Essex University and installing "humbuckers". (a term which a Google search today is related to guitars but some 37 years ago was an old remembered method of cancelling unwanted hum voltages, it worked.) Steam TV!!

Another interesting studio project was for Bangladesh television.  I was invited to visit to discuss a potential sale.  Vic Prior always assigned me to the most attractive destinations!  I was hosted by the Manager of GEC Bangladesh and housed in his deputy's villa while he was on leave.  A young smart Bangladeshi engineer was assigned from GEC to help me.  Meetings in Dacca (Dhaka) were most successful.  Finance for the project was taken from a Japanese government grant.  The customer wanted a small presentation studio housed in its transmitter building in Natur in the South of the country.  This was needed for times when the main program feed was lost.  The engineer and I flew down on a small local aircraft.  Looking down all you could see was water, then a tiny strip and we are down.  We stayed in the Transmitter manager's guest rooms.  The young engineer and I shared a room.  He kindly let have the bed near to the wall mounted air conditioner.  Seemed like a kindness at the time but all manner of insects came through the gaps in the wall around the AC across me and the bed.  I folded myself in the sheet to let the insects, cockroaches et al, cross over the sheet and drop off the other side.  Not a lot of sleep and for good measure it was Ramadan so my room mate was up at 3 am for breakfast, what could I do but join him.  On the technical side the customer wanted a spec for the studio camera that was different from our standard.   I took a flyer and undertook to meet their spec fitting a plumbicon, integrating the zoom lens into the camera housing all giving the camera more of a broadcast camera look.  I was not a popular guy when I arrived back in Basildon.  I dug my heels in designed the new housing for the camera and got it made under budget. Taraah!!  David Beaumont never forgave me for getting the contract as he had to do the installation in less than pleasant surroundings.

Other memories

Ted Peterson, my first boss at CCTV.  Ex Pye Television.  Originally from Poland.  Laconic, had a cat called Oscar.

Vic Prior. Sales manager, my last boss at EOSD.  Ex Ford Motors.  Very competitive driver, participated in rallying and hill climbs.  Leading "boy racer"

Bill Hobbs. Development Manager, Waterhouse Lane, later Divisional Manager.  Had the magic touch in solving technical problems.  Based on intuition rather than  scientific knowledge.

W.J.R. (Nobby) Clark. Senior Development Engineer, later Marconi Chief Scientist.  Brilliant Engineer.  Studied eccentric, known to attend meetings top brass in the US wearing his baggy green cardigan.  Extracting an alarm clock from one pocket and placing it on the table and his pipe, baccy and Swan Vestas from the other.  Great darts player.  My brother-in-law.

Input from Barry Pettican 

    In 1966 I was still a student, but one of my industrial experience periods was spent at Waterhouse Lane in the Closed Circuit Television Division. I was involved with development and test of part of the television guidance system for the Martel missile. I don’t think I ever met Terry Lewis but I did meet Ian Hunter.  Other engineers with whom I worked were Charles Richardson,“Nobby” Clarke, Roy Battye and Alan Sievewright. During the time I was at Waterhouse Lane a decision was made to move the entire department to Basildon. It was to be re named Marconi Electro Optical Systems Division. I believe that Terry Lewis had the job of addressing the assembled workforce in the Waterhouse Lane canteen. When GEC took over English Electric in 1969 the name changed  again to GEC Marconi Avionics 

    In the later 1960’s I was working in the Mechanical Engineering Research Lab. at Guy’s Farm Writtle. This was part of my long association with various stages of GWS 25 Seawolf, at that time a very new point defence system for the Royal Navy  The early version had a television system for tracking the target at very low levels. This was manually controlled by an operator whose job it was to keep a pair of cross wires aligned with the tracked object. This involved a lot of optimisation trials and interfacing with B.Ae. I again worked in a small team with some of the EOSD engineers I had met earlier. 

    Later versions of the television tracking system used  low light television and passive infra red to improve performance in conditions where ordinary daylight television did not do the job so well. 

    In one incident at night the system was used to good effect to detect body heat from a “man over board”. It saved his life by getting a reliable “image” before any other method.

    Later developments for flying platforms using television and/or infra red sensors require stabilisation. The basis of high performance three axis stabilisation for drones and manned helicopters used in military and civilian applications was initiated the 1980’s and 1990’s by Marconi Avionics with support from Marconi Research at Gt.Baddow. Modern technology makes these systems smaller and lighter than their predecessors. Although sadly a lot of the systems now in use are not from the Marconi stable there is no doubt that the basic technology still owes much to the earlier systems we were involved in at least to the turn of the century.