NZBS Plans for Royal Tour

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 743, 9 October 1953, Page 6

NZBS Plans for Royal Tour

N the morning of December () 23 the NZBS will embark on the biggest and most important operation in its historybroadcasting the 40-day tour of New Zealand by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. As the liner Gothic and its cruiser escort Black Prince steam. down Rangitoto Channel, radio observers at vantage points on the Auckland waterfront will begin the task of describing ‘to thousands of listeners the scene of Royal progress -a scene which will become familiar in the weeks that follow. As many broadcasts as possible during these 40 days will be made "live"direct from the scene to ee listening public. Descriptions of the Royal drives through the cities and towns of New Zealand, public welcomes, and the great variety of local functions will be broadcast by carefully-briefed observers, who will be in constant touch through headphones with a producer and production technician in: the studio. Such a technique will be used for the first time for outside broadcasts in New Zealand. It should ensure that. the change-over from observer to observer goes smoothly, and that each observer knows what is g0ing on before the Queen comes within his own arc of vision. Because of this aim to get the spontaneity and actuality of "live" broadcasts on every possible occasion, extra precautions have had to be taken against circuit failures and other technical emergencies. Whereas normally one or two relay lines only are used between a relay point and the studio. in these relays three or four will be used. For the first day in Auckland upwerds of 50 lines will be in use from various observation points. NZBS engineers have worked for months in close

co-operation with their opposite numbers in the Post Office, who have had to bring many new circuits into use for them. The supreme example of the need for precautions on the technical side is the Queen’s. Christmas Broadcast, which will be madé at 9.0 p.m, on Christmas Day from Government House in Auckland. Although this historic broadcast will take plece for the first time outside of England, the Queen’s message to the Commonwealth will still go straight on the air as she speaks it. The broadcast will) be relayed through New Zealand by the NZBS, and every major shortwave transmitter in the country, both broadeast end radio telephone, wil! beam it overseas. It will be picked up by the ABC Shortwave Service and rebroadcast by the’ high-powered shortwave stations of Radio Australia on a world-wide basis. The BBC will pick up these broadcasts for use on their own short-wave and Home services; and to safeguard against interference the speech will be transmitted over the direct New Zealand-London radio-tele-phone transmitter at Himatangi, and over two Navy transmitters at Waiouru. Other radio telephone channels will be used if required by other Commonwealth countries. At Government House in Auckland all facilities will be duplicated, including microphones, amplifiers, and lines to the studios; and a stand-by power plant will be ready in case a power failure occurs during the _ broadcast. Two lines will carry the broadcast to Wellington, each by a different route, so that if one set of wires should be put out of action by any mishap, the other will still be open. The monitoring station at Quartz Hill will also pick up the broadcast from 1YA, It will act as a supplementary channel to the Radio New Zealand short-wave transmitters

which have the all-im-portant task of sending the broadcast on to Sydney. The chief hazard for listeners outside New Zealand, and one over which there is no control, is the chance of interference during transmission to Australia. This has been _ safeguarded agai‘nst by choosing the transmission frequencies with the greatest care. The widest possible coverage will be given to the tour by the NZBS. No part of New Zealand that is visited by the Queen will be left out. Elaborate use of toll circuits will be made to link with the nearest radio station, the smaller towns and places thats the Queen wil! visit. An intricate schedule of staff movements has been worked out to ensure that the teams of observers and their technical assistants are in the right place at the right time. Even in towns and cities with

their own radio stations local broadcasting teams will be strengthened by observers and technicians from other centres. It is more than a year since plans for covering the Royal Tour were first discussed within the NZBS. For the past five months the planning has been intensively developed. Some time ago two of the planners-Cooper Marsha!l. for the administrative side, and Norman Johnston for the technical side-visited

every stop on the Queen’s itinerary. They picked out suitable observation points and began work on local technical problems. The planners have been able to take advantage of the experience of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during the Royal Tour there in 1951. Gilbert Strinceer, Administrative Assistant to the Director of the NZBS, who was abroad recently on an Imperial Relations Trust bursary, visited Canada on his way home and learnt something of the techniques used by the CBC. Canadian methods have proved a_ useful guide, and have helped to ensure that no possible way of giving the fullest and most efficient coverage has been left out, But in its broad’ plan and in detail the NZBS coverage will be the product of New Zealand brains and téamwork. The key men in the coverage will be the radio observers, who have already been rehearsed in the kind of job they wil] have to do in December and. January. They will equip thernselves with the background information that will be necessary if thei; commentaries are to be in some degree informed) reflections on the New Zealand scene rather than bare recitals of events. The Queen and the Duke will Le making a jouruey of discovery through New Zealand, and the aim will be to convey something of ghis sense of discovery to listevers as the Royal party visits the towns and provinces and the farms and factories of the nation. Broadcasts will not, of course, be confined to commentaries end speeches alone. A variety of programmes will be broadcast, including midday and evening reports of events. with selections from actuality relays. But the main task. as the tour advances from day to day, scene to scene, and event to event, will be to bring its reality instantly to listeners everywhere.