[720p/50p] Channel 4 | closedown with NICAM stereo test broadcasts | 6th March 1990

© CHANNEL FOUR TELEVISION 1990

A slightly late way to mark 4,700 subscribers! If you're after the IBA NICAM stereo tests, they're from 15:30 to 35:35.

Unfortunately this was recorded on a plain old mono VCR (so we don't hear sound channel 2) as NICAM stereo VCRs were still very expensive and geographical NICAM stereo coverage was still quite underdeveloped as only a few transmitters in the country were broadcasting IBA (ITV/C4) NICAM stereo at this time. (For the BBC, the only NICAM stereo transmitter they had at this time was Crystal Palace, until they started to re-engineer transmitters for NICAM starting in late 1990/early 1991).

It took until around 1994/95 for all ITV and Channel 4 transmitters to be converted. It took until 2002(!) for the BBC to convert all their transmitters to NICAM. Given Digital Terrestrial was established and well on its way to overtaking analogue TV by then, one wonders what was the point of the BBC continuing to re-engineer analogue transmitters for NICAM when other forms of digital stereo sound (of a different coding system from NICAM) were available on Digital Terrestrial, cable and satellite from late 1998?

End of The True Glory
C4 slide: Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush
C4 trailer: Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
C4 clock (01:47am): closing announcement
C4 closedown ident
Black and silence
IBA:CH4 ETP-1 test card with EBU stereo tone
Black and silence
IBA Channel 4 NICAM dual language tests
Black and silence
IBA:CH4 ETP-1 test card with EBU stereo tone (it stayed on this for another 40 minutes until the end of the tape).