​                       Technical Services: 1960 to 1991 

 

In 1960 this section ran the two in-house cinemas, a closed circuit television service, a film editing room and film storage/archives at Beaconsfield Studios. The Head of Technical Services was Jim Baird who was ex-Crown Film Unit. 
 
The cinemas were known as the Preview Cinema that had 100 seats. It was equipped with 35mm and 16mm projectors together with a feed from the closed circuit television system. The lay out of the cinema was such that it was long and narrow. In order to comfortably watch those films destined for transmission by television stations, six television monitors hung from the ceiling on each side of the seating area. The cinema provided an excellent screening facility. 
 
The second cinema, the Production Cinema, had seats for about 60 people with similar viewing facilities. In addition it provided, at the rear of the cinema a facility for a script to read as a film, still in production, was being screened. 
 
The closed circuit system consisted of a telecine system that could run a feed of a film both to the cinemas and to the offices of a number of senior staff as required. 
 
The “editing room” was equipped to provide facilities for checking and repairing the condition of damaged prints. It could also be used for checking prints from a laboratory that were suspect. A senior member of the technical services staff was responsible for quality control of distribution prints. 
 
At the start of the 1960s the Film Division archive and of the Crown Film Unit, that is the negatives and master prints of all films, were stored at Beaconsfield Studios on the outskirts of London in conditions that were far from desirable. Later in the 1960s purpose built storage vaults were  created at a site at Hayes in Middlesex. The were a huge improvement on the vaults at Beaconsfield and included special vaults for the storage of inflammable nitrate film. 
 
These services were to evolve through the decade of the 1960s as the volume of production increased especially with the growth of the Overseas Television production. It was also to change to accommodate the arrival of videotape particularly with the use of video cassettes in different formats for distribution. 
 
During the mid1980s Technical Services became involved with mounting a series of conferences for Departments that utilised audio -visual presentations. That is the use of banks of computer controlled slide projectors. Such presentations often involved the construction of sets with built in screens together with a podium. 
 
The COI Annual report for 1989 noted Technical Services and Conferences Section (note change of title) helped to organise 36 events during the year further enhancing COI’s growing reputation as the government conference experts. In financial terms the turnover of the section had increased by around 30%. 
 
A new conference client was the Building Research Establishment with a project involving seven individual conferences to launch a new BRE commercial service in the regions. 
 
These conferences were held across the country with COI supplying everything from a pack away stage to comprehensive presentation equipment and conference support facilities and personnel. 
 
Other events included a high-level AIDS symposium for the Department of Health. It organised the Australia– United Kingdom Trade and Investment Conference for the DTI. An awareness raising and public participation workshop on sustainable development for the Department of the Environment and the CS CE London Information Forum for the FCO, that was noteworthy not least because it ran for nearly a month. COI also organised the second anniversary of the Action for Cities initiative relaying the Prime Minister’s speech live by closed-circuit television from Bradford to 6 other locations around the country. 
 
COI technical experts were active on a number of fronts. Following the advent of the televising of the proceedings of the House of Commons they set up a new service to provide departments with live and uninterrupted coverage from the House while it is in session. Pictures are sent from the House of Commons via sound and vision circuits to COI where a sophisticated distribution system feeds the receiving feeds the receiving departments with the required transmission.  
 
Hire of equipment with or without a technician to operate it, was another area of expansion for Technical Services.  The range of equipment available is comprehensive, anything from a simple video tape recorder through to an elaborate video wall. In 1988 a video wall  was installed and maintained by COI technical staff at Offshore Oil and energy related exhibitions in United States, Jakarta, Dubai ,Rio de Janeiro and Aberdeen. 
 
Around 25% of Technical Services television income came from its tele-cine operations, duplicating videos and slides for home and overseas television and for areas of non-broadcast distribution such as COI  CFL Vision. The increased activity in this area resulted in a more efficient use of staff and equipment and lower unit costs. 
 
 
The  Annual Report for 1990 to 1991 recorded a further increase in activity noting that Technical Services and Conferences covered some 41 conferences and seminars during the year. They included major events such as the Home Office world drugs summit in April and two NATO conferences for foreign ministers and heads of government. 
 
The NATO summit at Lancaster house proved a massive logistical and  organisational challenge. Tight security added to the problems and electricity substations were set up to meet the huge demand for extra power supplies. Conference Unit arranged the accreditation of 1500 media representatives as well as the provision of telephone, Fax lines and links. Technical Services organised closed-circuit television links throughout the media centre at Lancaster House to the Queen Elisabeth Hall conference centre. It arranged the necessary facilities so that hundreds of transmissions could be made during the conference. 
 
Technical challenges were posed by the World Drugs Summit as two sessions ran concurrently one the cocaine threat and another on drug demand reduction. COI technicians had to relay CCTV pictures from both throughout the media Centre for the media to follow on interpretation headsets. 
 
COI installed over half a million pounds worth of video projection equipment in the Queen Elizabeth 2 Conference Centre for the event. 
 
Technical services turnover increased by about 20% to £4.5 million with major clients providing much of the additional business. The unit used its extensive quality control and duplication facilities to produce more than 60,000 video cassettes during the year. It also continued to carry out direct transmissions to satellites and main broadcast circuits. Further income growth was generated by the provision of special presentation  services to Departments. 
 
The amount of change and level of growth during the period 1960 to the 1990s is a mirror of the way the Film Division as a whole grew and changed.