Date : Sat, 18 Jul 1998 15:35:52 +0100
From : "Alan Brown" <awb@...>
Subject: Re: age asks about broadcast of BBC software over radio
I only got a vague recollection of software being broadcast like this. I can
remember a similar thing being broadcast on TV. Towards the end of the TV
programme a round dot appeared in one of the corners of the screen. When
this appeared you stuck your receiver on top of it, the broadcast consisted
of black and white ( binary ) flashes which were decoded by your BBC B
computer.
You could buy a kit of parts or a ready build receiver. The kit comprised of
a rubber cup hook type sucker through which you bored a hole to allow some
kind of diode to view the TV screen to which it was attached. The whole
thing was attached by a couple of wires to the user port. I can't remember
where you got the software to drive the thing, it might have come with the
kit.
They used to broadcast simple graphic programs, usually saying things like "
see you next week ". As you might imagine it was a short lived experiment
which although it worked served no useful purpose, just like most of the
computing I do. If you were a really hi-tech household you switched on you
Betamax video recorder and taped the whole show in case you missed the live
data feed.
Didn't " Uncle " Mac broadcast sound data burst on his TV shows for the BBC
B. Whatever happened to him?
Alan
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Schmidt <robert@...>
To: gmulcaster@... <gmulcaster@...>
Cc: bbc-micro@... <bbc-micro@...>
Date: 15 July 1998 10:00
Subject: [BBC-Micro] Re: age asks about broadcast of BBC software over radio
>Hi, Glenn!
>
>Yours are interesting questions! I am afraid I had no experience with
>this broadcasted software, but maybe somebody on the BBC micro mailing
>list did. I've sent a copy of this reply to the list.
>
>
>Glenn Mulcaster wrote:
>>
>> Hi Robert
>>
>> My name is Glenn Mulcaster, a technology journalist with the Age
>> newspaper in Melbourne.
>> I've been looking at the BBC Lives page. Great resource.
>> I am writing an article about the introduction of digital radio, which
>> will be able to offer music or software downloads with multi-channel
>> broadcasting.
>> However, I note from your page that the BBC Radio 4 programme, The Chip
>> Shop, broadcast software data that could be taped on a cassette for
>> uploading on the BBC micro.
>> I would like to email somebody who actually taped that broadcast to ask
>> them when it happened and what the software typically was, what was the
>> announcement before and after and who managed the radio show when it
>> happened.
>> I don't think many people realise how close the so-called future of this
>> software/recorded music delivery mechanism is to one of this early
>> experiments in the PC revolution.
>> Did you tape this software?
>> I am particularly interested to know whether the sound quality over an
>> analog radio signal is sufficient to reproduce it?
>> How long did a broadcast typically last?
>> What size of files were transmitted?
>> Was it a one-off event, or was it a regular time slot?
>> What did it sound like? It must have been confusing to listeners tuning
>> in their dial in the middle of the broadcast?
>> Also, what happened to BBC Software, the software development arm of the
>> BBC?
>>
>> I hope you can help me .
>>
>> Regards
>> Glenn Mulcaster
>> Email: gmulcaster@...
>> Ph 61 3 9601 2068; Ph 61 3 9601 2960
>
>--
>Robert Schmidt <robert@...> Software Engineer
>Technoguide AS: http://www.technoguide.no
>Tel: +47 22510463 Fax: +47 22734749
>Private: http://www.nvg.unit.no/~rsc
>Tel: +47 22606076
>
> jeg lukker et oye og ser halvt
> jeg lukker begge og ser alt -- seigmen
>