EMI 2001

EMI 2001

The EMI 2001 Broadcast studio camera was an early, very successful British made Plumbicon studio camera that included the lens within the body of the camera. Four 30mm tubes allowed one tube to be dedicated solely to producing a relatively high resolution monochrome signal, with the other three tubes providing red, green and blue signals. Even though semiconductors were used in most of the camera, the highly sensitive head amplifiers still used thermionic valves in the first generation of the design.

Integrating the lens within the body of the camera had both positive and negative effects. On the positive side, it meant the optical nodal point of the camera was close to the centre of gravity, which could make operation easier and more instinctive when used on movable camera mounts such as pedestals. The downside was that lens manufacturers were limited to which lenses they could adapt to fit to the camera. This made the 2001 less attractive for outside broadcasts.

The 2001 was both heavy and large. The pull-out handles at each corner needed four people to safely move the camera with the lens in place. It also required a separate remote camera control unit and the cable connecting the two was over 2 inches thick. The standard servo controlled studio zoom lens had a 5 to 50 degree horizontal angle of view, with a minimum focus distance of either 36 inches (J type) or 18 inches (K type)

First produced in 1966, by the early 1970s almost all of BBC Television's studios and many outside broadcast (OB) units were equipped with the 2001. Several ITV companies purchased or leased the camera including Thames, Yorkshire Television, ATV, Granada, HTV, Anglia and LWT. Independent outfits such as the early cable television stations Rediffusion Cablevision, Sheffield Cablevision and the educational television arm of the Inner London Education Authority also purchased the camera.

Although there was no predicted lifespan for the camera, the heavy hot-running four-tube design was considered somewhat outdated even when it was new, which contributed to the camera's near-total failure to sell to broadcasters outside the UK. Several ITV companies had begun replacing them in the late-1970s with the last commercial operator (Thames) phasing them out in 1986. However the BBC kept a number of such cameras in operation at their Elstree Studios until 1991; they were kept going by cannibalising identical cameras left behind by ATV when the BBC purchased Elstree from them.

The EMI 2000 (as it was originally called) that was originally tried and tested by the BBC in 1967 used 30 mm integral mesh lead-oxide vidicons (vidicons are the tubes made by RCA) They were re-released a year latter using Plumbicons (Plumbicon is the trade mark for Philips lead-oxide tubes) It also used a themionic valve for the first stage of the video head amplifier. Unfortunately, the BBC technicians were disappointed by the picture results produced by the original testing model supplied to them in 1967. So disappointed in fact that they hesitantly bought 17 Marconi Mk VIIs in order to commence colour broadcasting on BBC2 on 1 July 1967 as the redesigned and renamed EMI 2001 would not be ready for the colour launch date on BBC2. EMI re-released the renamed 2001 (now with the option of separate mesh tubes, either Plumbicon or Leddicon (tubes made by EEV) and solid state (FET) head amplifiers) in early 1968 and the BBC moved their Marconi Mk VIIs to the weather, news and presentation studios from TC7 and TC8 in Television Centre.

When sold abroad, the EMI 2001 was carried under the Thomson SA brand - hence "Thomson TH.T 2001". How this came about is unknown as EMI and Thomson SA did not have business links. The Thomson 2001's, like the EMI's, also used Plumbicons; however, due to a brochure which was printed in French, it was presumed that they used Vidicon tubes. But, apart from the silver viewfinder squares (instead of white) and the brand name change on the front and sides, the cameras were the same. In the United States, the cameras were marketed by International Video Corporation as the IVC/EMI 2001-B (four tubes), with another version, the IVC/EMI 2001-C, consisting of three tubes. Only one U.S. station is known to have purchased the 2001: WSNS-TV in Chicago, in the early years of its operation.