- Title: UK: History of Visnews
- Date: 1st January 1964
- Summary: Congo Violence / Beatles off plane / Zanzibar revolution / Cyprus conflict / Burst dam in USA / Rocket launch
- Embargoed: 16th January 1964 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Communications,Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVAB4A4BM5VEMJD8NMPG5WA7YBIK
- Story Text: Commentary: Pictures tell the news -- and Visnews gets the pictures. (9)
All over the world
Television has become one of the most important means of communication. It touches the people more intimately than any other medium. As its influence has spread, the demand for news in pictures has grown. Indeed, television has itself stimulated interest in news. (26)
More and more, people want to see what's happening in the troubled world in which they live. It is the duty of organisations like Visnews to show the world to them. (35) And as television has spread its influence over the world -- so has Visnews. ...(PAUSE 2 SECS) ... Like television it began life here in Britain - and from Britain it has encompassed the globe, ??? beginning which the major countries of the Visnews is the strongest agency in Asia, and it's the only one to reach Peking.... It serves the Muslim world, and in Europe it has pushed aside the Iron Curtain. -- It's the only newsfilm agency serving all the countries of Eastern Europe, and in the West only Austria and Portugal are missing. (57) ...In the Middle East and ??? Visnews is the ??? supplies of newsfilm. ...And we are now making inroads into the territories of Latin America an area where we have not been very strong. We aim to cover the south as we cover the North. (66 1/2)
How is it done -- this business of covering the world? First, we have the co-operation of our owning partners. One of them, the Rank Organisation, houses our headquarters in London. ... Another, the BBC, is not only our biggest single subscriber, but also the source of much of our newsfilm from the United Kingdom. We have a special relationship with the newsroom at Alexandra Palade. (86)
We have another partner in Fleet Street. Visnews relies heavily on the Reuter news service and Reuter communications. Every day these in immensing co-operation and joint: ation ??? the two ??? (94 1/2)
From Toronto and Montreal another partner transmits Visnews film to a network that spans more than 5 thousand miles. (100 1/2)
And from the newsrooms and cutting rooms of the CBC somes more film for the Visnews service. (107)
The fifth owning partner is the Australian Broadcasting Commission, which has its headquarters in Sydney. It, too, puts Visnews film into the homes of millions, and the cream of its own coverage of Australasian news is shipped to Visnews centres in London and Singapore for syndication as part of the Visnews service.
Outside the family of owning partners, perhaps our most important association is with NBC of America. NBC gives Visnews its largest national audience, and access to the resources of the largest television news organisations in the world. (140)
In the main newsroom in New York, a Visnews assistant editor from London helps on NBC unit operate a full-scale syndication service of newsfilm from all parts of the Western hemisphere. (148).
Another main Visnews centre is in Singapore. Working jointly with ABC, our office Our office there organises coverage of South East Asia, and runs a syndication service which supplies regional newsfilm to subscribers in the area, as well as feeding the main Visnews service in London. (160)
Tokyo -- capital of a country that has more television sets than Britain. Visnews has an office there to look after its subscribers and organise coverage for its service. (170)
Peking -- one of the most inaccessible of modern capitals. But Visnews is there. Peking Television uses our newsfilm, and in exchange we are able to send newsfilm from China all over the world. (178)
Wherever news breaks hundreds of Visnews cameramen (staff and stringers) are ready to capture it on film. Here In India - Prem Prakash. (184 1/2)
In Rome -- somewhere in the throng -- Renato Serbolonghi. (190)
In West Germany -- Rudi Heimann. .... He runs a Visnews desk in the Reuter bureau in Bonn. (195)
In Lagos, Walter Marten has set up a Visnews office for West Africa. This ???, is on Reuter premises (199 1/2)
Beirut, where Freddy Boyat covers the newsbreaks of the Middle East. (207)
Paris is an organising centre for France and French-speaking Africa. Pierre Rihouet is one of our cameramen there. (213)
London cameramen -- Bill McConville among them -- travel the world. (216 1/2)
It's a far cry from the BCINA of 1957, when a small staff laid the foundations of today's thriving organisation. But many can recall the old days -- the old laboratories, for instance. ... ... There always seemed to be workmen about the place -- extending the old building, adapting it to its new job, reshaping it to take new equipment. (233)
Many remember the new top story going on the main office building. ... PAUSE 2 SECS ... Many have good reason to remember! (243)
But despite the monsoon and the racket of building, the daily routine went on -- and the service grew. (252 1/2)
And still the development goes on. This year, for ??? our engineer has built a new printer which greatly expands the capacity of our laboratories. (260)
The old viewing theatre has been gutted and is being rebuilt to house the Visnews film library (266)
Many recall with affection the first clip of newsfilm sold by Visnews to an outside customer. Ironically, the customer for Makarios's return from exile was ITN. (274)
Many remember with pride how Visnews cameramen won the first Britannica awards. ... (PAUSE 2 SECS) ...
That year the honours went to Bill McConville and Bob Turner. Others were successful in later years, and these are some of the award-winning pictures. .... The aftermath of the Agadir earthquake. (287)
Riots in Trafalgar Square. (294)
Aerobatics by the famous Black Arrows. (302 1/2)
Anti-fascist riots in the East End of London. (310)
Such news stories are all in the day's work for the main news room in London. Here an Assistant Editor presides over a central news desk which controls the day's operations. From this desk, Visnews keeps in touch with the world. (322)
BRING UP SOF AT 322
SOF ENDS AT 342.
In Nairobi, cameraman Ray Robinson carries out the assignment, (P) and ships the undeveloped film on the first available flight. A few hours later, it's in London, where a Visnews despatch rider waits to collect it and other shipments. (35 1/2)
At Visnews headquarters, the routine goes on round the clock. Despatch riders arrived day and night with shipments of film. ... (PAUSE 2 SECS) ... And in the traffic department each package is booked in, while a check is kept on the progress of shipments from all parts of the world. (363)
Documentation done, the undeveloped film is rushed to the laboratories for processing -- on high speed machines that make the negative available for screening within a few minutes, screening within a few minutes. (372 1/2)
Film is screened in the theatre all day long. Here the film is selected for the Visnews service. Among those who watch the "rushes", is the film editor, and his is the next job. Working to instructions, he edits the film to produce a rounded story of the required length and content.
The edited negative then goes to the grading room in the laboratories. The process here ensures that the prints that finally roll off the printers are of a quality best suited to television transmission. (403 1/2)
While the film is being edited and printed, sub-editors are busy writing "dope-sheets" and commentaries. Full information on content and news background accompanies every clip of film in the Visnews service, and these scripts are translated into French and German. ... Pictures are universal, but the English language is not. (417)
Multiple prints of a news clip come into the film traffic department in one roll. This is broken down into single prints, and each print is married with its script and packed. (4261/2)
The boxes then go into the despatch department, where the contents are checked and ??? and ?? documentation and completed. (433)
Shipping air freight is a complicated operation -- a job for the expert. And in a business like Visnews the shipping department is a vital part of the operation. (443 1/2)
When the day's selection of ships is ready for shipment; there aren't many countries of the world left out.
For the despatch rider then comes the reverse journey to the airport. He works to a tight schedule; he must leave the Visnews office as late as possible so as to carry the latest possible film, yet he must allow sufficient time for the air cargo department to get the shipments on the chosen flights. (463)
But already the jet plane is too slow. Important stories may be transmitted to subscribers over the Eurovision network this is the familiar symbol that introduces our film - and we were begun to use ??? satellites ... A for cry, indeed, from those days when Visnews had 3 subscribers. See how they grew each year ... First to seven ... Then twelve ... Then a big jump to 27 ... Thirty-three ... Forty Four ... Fifty-eight last year - and now nearly seventy. (490).
There's another side to Visnews. ... When the syndication operation is over, the original copies of the film clips are collected and placed in the Visnews library. There each film is thoroughly documented and indexed so that it can be traced easily and rapidly. The library not only provides background film for the Visnews service, but also does good business by selling film to customers in many countries. (506 1/2)
The library vaults contain well over 20 million ??? of historic film dating back to before the turn of the century. ...(3) The vaults are a veritable treasure trove and here are some of the gems. ... Picadilly 50 years ago. ... (520)
The Wright brothers at work. (522)
British Royalty more than half a century ago. (529)
Coming up-to-date, a Royal wedding was one of the highlights of the past 12 months. (541 1/2)
The wedding of two Russian astronauts was another. (547)
The glamour of a beauty contest. (551)....
The tragedy of assassination. (557)
The thrills of the 1964 Winter Olympics. (567)
Violence in the Congo. (575)
A social phenomenon in Britain. (582)
Revolution in Zanzibar. (588)
Conflict in Cyprus. (596)
And some of the most dramatic pictures ever captured on film -- the break-up of a dam in the United States. (605)
Finally, -- the familiar scene of a rocket being launched. Today modern technology ??? into ??? and wish it, Visnews prepares itself for the world-wide distribution of ??? news in the ??? age. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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