Monday, July 21, 2008

Give a man a fish......




“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” -unknown author
Broadcasting here would not be what it is today if not for the continual upgrading and development of knowledge and skills. In the early days of broadcasting BBC was the place where the company turned to. Many chiefs and staff went to a place in Evesham called Wood Norton for training. The BBTraining Centre built before the war was the centre for broadcast training world-wide for many broadcast stations.. I was there a couple of times and very impressed by the high quality of training there. When SBC introduced colour TelevsionI remembered two BBC experts came to Singapore with their families and spent a number of years here. John Kirkus taught Colour TV Engineering and Alan Bermingham Lighting Techniques. Many engineers and studio crew had fond memories of these two experts. In the late 70s RTS shared training facilities with Telecoms in a place called the Telecentre at no 1 Hillcrest Road (later on called the Singapore Telecom Academy). We used to run about twenty courses –engineering as well as studio operations to teach studio and OB crews how to use cameras, sound and lighting equipment creatively. On January 84 SBC opened a 3-storey Training School , fully equipped with studios ,post production suites,dance studio etc to cater for training for drama artistes, producers, script writers, dancers etc….running in parallel with the engineering and operations training at the Telecentre. Some years later the Broadcast arm at the Telecentre closed down and was integrated with SBC Training School on Caldecott Hilll……
Share with us if you have more info and the other places you have gone for broadcast training besides the BBC (which I believe included NHK, Japan and in Germany as well) email: tay.philip@gmail.com


The above picture of BBC Training Centre Wood Norton, Evesham is by courtesy of Mike Baker. You can contac him at http://www.bakerlite.co.uk/

The picture shows me receiving a graduation certificate in London from Lord Thomson. The training was for Colour TV Engineering at Thomson Training College in Newton Mearnes North of River Cyde Glasgow. Had a terrific time there with other international students.

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