The Joys of a Life 'OB'

Paul Whitehouse is a Wellington-based broadcast technical manager/engineer. He made the time to answer a few of our questions.

Were you drawn to the film and TV business as a kid?

From a small boy in the 60s I always had an interest in electrical things.

When I was a child, the valve radio was always on in the house – 2YA during the week and 2ZB on the weekend for the racing and sport. The family got a black-and-white television in the early 60s. The Philips test pattern was broadcast until 5.00pm when programming started. I was an avid viewer of both.

When I was about 9, my aunt, Prudence Gregory, head of woman’s programmes for the NZBC from 1965 to 1970, visited. She had with her a reel of two-inch video tape in a blue plastic tape box. It may have been the pilot of Pukemanu! (www.nzonscreen.com/title/pukemanu-1971)

When I was about 12 I went to Athletic Park with my father for the first time, and on entering the park from Adelaide Road I saw the NZBC WNTV-1’s Marconi black and white outside broadcast (OB) van. Strung along the back of the Millard stand were large black cables that connected the Marconi Mk4 cameras back to the OB van. On the roof of the van was a microwave tripod, dish and transmitter.

That sparked the curiosity and interest in television and particularly live television.

So how did you get into the business?

During my last year of college I applied to TV One for a technical trainee position.

In January 1977 I joined TV One as a trainee in the studios at the then-new Avalon Television Centre.

How did you train?

I was a technical trainee for three years. Training was a combination of on-the-job, correspondence, and numerous electronics and engineering block courses run by the Wellington Polytechnic and the Broadcasting Council of New Zealand (BCNZ), training school in Cuba Street Wellington. In 1980, I qualified as an electronics technician.

How long were you with TVNZ?

I was with TVNZ for 25 years, most of it in OB.

After qualifying, I moved from the studios to OB.

OB had a core crew of six people, two technical managers, three technicians and a rigger. We did all the driving, maintenance and housekeeping of the OB vehicles and equipment. When we did an OB, camera, sound, lighting and floor managers were rostered from the studios to form the OB crew.

Being in OB, I had a lot of freedom. I was able to maintain all the electronic equipment ranging from LDK5 colour cameras, audio and vision mixing desks, audio communication systems and microwave links and drive the million-dollar-plus Philips OB van. This OB van, renamed OBW1 was expanded from 6-camera to 12-camera capable after a re-build in 1988 and was retired in 2012.

What was the industry and work like when you started? What changes have you seen?

When I started, the TV industry was 99% State owned and controlled.

Colour television was only three years old. Colour was introduced in 1974 in time for the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

Competition started between the two State-owned television networks, TV One, was based at Avalon and Dunedin and TV2 (later South Pacific Television) was based in Auckland and Christchurch. The industry was making more local content television in the studios (Close to Home) and in hinterland with OB and film crews. Most of the OB programs (sport) were live.

On-screen personalities at TV One were Roger Gascoigne and at TV2 there was Andrew Shaw.

Technical personalities were Keith Catchpole (RIP) and Alan Pooley (RIP).

In 1980, TV One and South Pacific Television were merged to form Television New Zealand (TVNZ). The then Prime Minister Robert Muldoon didn’t like the two three-person crews (reporter, camera and sound using a 16mm film camera and audio mixer) turning up to his press conferences.

Also, Robert Muldoon was instrumental in moving TVNZ’s, TV1’s network news control and broadcasts from Avalon to Auckland’s TV2’s Shortland Street. He thought by moving the control to Auckland there wouldn’t be so much heat on the government!

This was the start of the downsizing of Avalon. The first real competition was in 1989 when TV3 launched and a year later Sky Network Television was launched. With the broadcasting industry now fully deregulated, more competition is coming from overseas via the internet.

Equipment has gotten smaller, more powerful, more reliable, readily available and cheaper. Terrestrial microwave linking has been replaced by satellite linking which is now being replaced by fibre optical cable which is now been installed into homes.

What are you doing post TVNZ?

I was made redundant in 2002. I formed a company Broadcast Technical Management Ltd. I contract my technical management and engineering skills back to the live television industry.

How do you see the future of the industry?

Not everything happens in Auckland, provided we don’t get any more large earthquakes. There is a lot of country south of the Bombay Hills.

Why wouldn’t you use the wonderful facilities at Stone Street Studios or Avalon Studios located in the easy-to-get-around Wellington region?

New media is expanding the television industry. There are more platforms and they require more content. The handbrake is nobody wants to pay the real costs to produce that high-quality content.

Career highlights?

There were three: Technical Management of the televising of The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King street parade and world premiere in December 2003; Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, November 2004; and The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey, world premiere.

Opinions:

1. The television network in NZ that owns the All Black Rugby rights is the premier television network of NZ. This was the NZBC, then TV One, then TVNZ and now Sky. By 2020, will the All Blacks rugby rights be owned by Facebook or Google or YouTube and the matches viewed via the internet?
2. All of Sky channels should be commercial free.

Sky derives its income from subscriptions. Free-to-air channels (TV1, TV2, TV3, Bravo, Choice etc.) derive their income from selling airtime to advertisers. With the increase in revenue, free-to-air channels would be able to bid for live sports and other programming rights.