RTS Technology Centre brought together the restored MCR21 mobile control room – used for the 1966 World Cup Final and Winston Churchill’s funeral – with some of outside broadcasting provider NEP’s state-of-the-art IP-enabled trucks at an event in late March at the NEP base in Bracknell, Berkshire.
Special guest for the evening was Harry Coventry, a former BBC cameraman who worked on MCR21 at Wembley when Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick won England the World Cup and at Churchill’s funeral. He recalled the excitement and emotion of the 1966 final, and operating a camera on top of St Paul’s overlooking the funeral procession.
The restored truck now has a significant educational role for young people, said Nick Gilbey and Brian Summers of the Broadcast Television Technology Trust. Summers also discussed the restoration of the truck, including finding an original Marconi camera at the Science Museum, which turned out to be from the MCR21.
Dafydd Rees, Head of Technical Solution Architecture at NEP, said Venus, one of its latest trucks, dwarfs the MCR21. With its Tardis-like interior, Venus can accommodate 35 people and has numerous video and audio channels to meet the needs of major international operations.
In autumn, the RTS centre plans to explore OB technology over the next 10 years.
