Monoscope Camera Test Card

Contributed by The BBC Collection

Monoscope Camera Test Card

In the days before 24-hour TV, channels would often shut down for several hours a day. But this caused a problem for TV shops and engineers, who needed a signal to test their equipment.

Originally, this was literally a camera pointing at an image on a card, but the static image could burn itself into the camera. The invention of the monoscope camera allowed the test-card image to be built into a camera and broadcast without any problems.

The image is test card C, but the most famous is test card F - the little girl and the clown playing noughts and crosses - and a version of that was still being used in 2007 by Sky's HD service.

Comments are closed for this object

Comments

  • 1 comment
  • 1. At 09:04 on 21 September 2012, True Blue Frog wrote:

    Dear Sirs
    Do you by any chance have a spare monoscope camera? I have a brand new CRT (came from the ITA transmitter at Crystal Palace) and I'd really like to get this working.
    Yours sincerely
    Malcolm Beeson (TrueBlueFrog)

    Complain about this comment

Most of the content on A History of the World is created by the contributors, who are the museums and members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the BBC or the British Museum. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site’s House Rules please Flag This Object.

About this object

Click a button to explore other objects in the timeline

Location

London

Culture
Period
Theme
Size
Colour
Material

View more objects from people in London.

Find out more

BBC © 2014The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.