HiFi Writer Blog

On the most recent Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast the normal ‘Science or Fiction’ segment was run by Richard Saunders, the famous Australian skeptic, known for amongst other things The Skeptic Zone podcast. His first science or fiction question was:

Although Mainstream professional television was launched in Australia in 1956, it was not until 1975 that Australian TV networks switched from broadcasting in B/W to colour.

This reminded me of an early episode of home entertainment wishful thinking on my own part. If you haven’t listened to the episode yet, well to spoil this part of the show, this claim in correct. Colour television was highly anticipated in Australia. My own parents got in early and spent a fast sum of money on a 26 inch colour set, in advance of the official switch on.

As it happened, trials were being conducted, but we didn’t know on which programs the trials were being conducted. No web in those days of course.

I remember us gathered around the TV one day, peering at a TV show, and wondering whether it was in colour or not. We bumped up the ‘Colour’ control (basically, the saturation control) to its max, and sure enough there were some low level but perceptible colours on the screen. They were random, swirling noise, to be sure, but they were colour.

Still we weren’t sure.

Of course, all we really needed to do was drag our gaze from the TV for a moment and look at the real world, note what real colour looks like, then look back at the TV!

Happily, things were resolved within a day or so. With the colour control still maxed out, one morning Sesame Street came on. That really was in colour — bright, powerful and horribly oversaturated colour, thanks to the setting of the control. We bumped it rapidly back down to something sensible, and that soon put it all in perspective.