Link Electronics Ltd

Link Electronics Ltd. was a major UK industrial and broadcast television equipment manufacturer and systems integrator in the 1970s and 1980s. Link were mainly known for their range of broadcast television cameras, but were also a major manufacturer of Outside Broadcast (OB) vehicles, including the famous BBC "Type 5". Link also produced a wide range of ancillary studio equipment, such as distribution amplifiers, measuring sets and test signal generators.^[1]

Cameras

Link started as an industrial camera manufacturer but soon moved into broadcast equipment when the BBC approached them to develop a successor to the commercially successful EMI 2001, when EMI's own design for the 2001's successor, the 2005, failed to meet expected standards when launched around 1975. The poor performance of this camera considering its development cost led to EMI exiting the broadcast camera industry. A similar fate befell Link around 10–15 years later upon the release of the Link 130 (further down this page).^[2]

Type 109

The Type 109 was a broadcast quality Black and White camera mainly used as a caption scanner or simple tele-cine.^[3]

Type 100

The Link-NEC 100 was the companion camera to the Type 130 and designed in conjunction with NEC. ^[4]

Type 110/111

The 110 was Links' first attempt at a colour broadcast camera and around 200 cameras were manufactured. Styling was based on the famous EMI 2001 colour camera but at an economical price, including what some claim to be a very flimsy casing that was not of rugged design.

The camera consisted of a closed body and an internal lens from a range of manufacturers, like the EMI 2001, leading to similar claims that the design was "boxy". The camera was capable of both studio and outside broadcast use and found its way into TC6, TC8 and several presentation studios at Television Centre, BBC Lime Grove, BBC Bristol, the Open university studio in Milton Keynes, BBC Wood Norton Training Centre, Thames Television's Euston Road studios (with RCA TK-47s at Teddington) and onto several BBC outside broadcast vehicles. The 110 was seen as a good, cheap, modern option which was lightweight to carry compared to the much older and heavier EMI 2001 camera. ^{[5] [6]}

Type 125

The Link 125 camera was purchased in quantity by the BBC and deployed to most of the studios at Television Centre, Pebble Mill in Birmingham and several other BBC studios. It was also the camera of choice at Limehouse Television. The 125 also found its way to many international broadcasters. ITV company Television South (TVS) used the model in their Maidstone studios, which were used by those studios when they were sold off as an independent studio facility following the loss of TVS' franchise at the end of 1992.

The 125 was a well thought out and well-built studio and Outside Broadcast (OB) camera developed from the Link 120 portable camera system. It also contained a comprehensive communications system and used a camera control unit (CCU) based around the 110's but updated with auto black, white, iris and centering functions. The BBC preferred to use a mid range Schneider-Kreuznach lens as it gave good zoom angles. Some believed it produced one of the best images for a pickup tube camera, others believed it could never match the quality of the EMI 2001. Many BBC users felt that the image was soft and not easy to focus, it also produced an unusual image effect that formed the shape of a 'teardrop'.

^{[7] [8]}

Type 130

The 130 was designed in the mid 1980s as a high tech modern camera with aspirations of quality and high tech design through the use of microprocessors for full auto setup. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that there were several hardware and/or software errors made during the design and manufacture of this model, which seriously affected the manufacturer's reputation with their broadcast customer base, much in the same way the 2005 had done for EMI around 15 years before.

This was compounded by competition from high quality camera systems from the Japanese manufacturers including Sony, Ikegami and Hitachi and by the Dutch manufacture Philips. Also at this time RCA had started to use CCDs in their cameras which produced what was considered a superior picture to the then prevailing technology of camera pickup tubes, which necessitated not so many regular adjustments in their setup procedures.

In the mid-1980s the BBC was designing the Type 6 Scanner and had chosen the Link 100 and 130 and had several camera channels for testing. At the same time prototypes had also been sent to Israel, Sweden and Australia. Unfortunately as the camera suffered from poor design and many software bugs many (that would leave the camera's automatic lineup software switched on and the cue light causing picture interference), the BBC engineering department felt that these faults wouldn't be fixed quickly and opted for Thomson Cameras. As a result, this act allegedly caused the final collapse of Link who were declared bankrupt, after investing many hundreds of thousands of pounds in the development of the camera only for the poor design not being rectified in the design or prototype stages giving Link a poor reputation after several technically and commercially successful models.

There are several units in private collections and until the early 2000s several casings were to be seen at the UK National Media Museum in Bradford as part of a public display. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

Studio Equipment

Link produced a full range of sync pulse generators, colour bar generators, video distribution amps and various other pieces of industrial and broadcast television equipment.

Outside Broadcast Vehicles

PYE TVT had supplied the BBC with its Television OB vehicles from the mid 1960s until the early 1980s. When the Type 5 was being designed Link offered a design that provided a full facility unit with unto 8 cameras (although BBC Outside Broadcasts chose the Philips LDK-5, not a Link camera) at least 20 were supplied to the BBC and 5 to ITV and foreign customers. One Type 5 (London 6) was donated to the Science Museum. ^{[12] [13]}

Quantel-Link

Following its bankruptcy, UK digital broadcast equipment manufacture Quantel, famous for the 'Paintbox' graphics system, acquired the company and used it to develop a facilities integration and design company known as Quantel-Link. This company continued to design and manufacture outside broadcast vehicles to many national broadcasters including the BBC (Type 6, 7 and 8), YTE in Finland as well as companies in France, Germany and other European Broadcasters.

External links

• BBC Tech Ops History Site
• Museum of the Broadcast Television Camera
• The website of Martin Kempton on London television studios contains much on the industries use of various cameras over the decades, including the Link 110 and 125.

References