“OUR WORLD” A SUCCESS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31407, 28 June 1967, Page 8

“OUR WORLD” A SUCCESS

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, June 27. More than 400 million television viewers in 24 countries on Sunday saw the brownstone Victorian mansion in Glassboro, New Jersey, where President Johnson and the Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Alexei Kosygin, ' were discussing world problems. The first live global television programme, “Our World,” showed viewers from Melbourne to Montreal the huge crowds massed outside “Hollybush” house at Glassboro College. The two-hour television spectacular opened with pictures of newly-born babies in Japan, Denmark, Mexico and Canada and took as its theme the kind of world they had been born into and what man

was doing to make it a better place to live in. The programme, which took two years to prepare, covered five continents and spanned night and day by satellite. About 6500 people coordinated the 250 cameras, which relayed scenes ranging from mid-winter in Melbourne to mid-summer in New York, to two-thirds of the world. Great Co-operation “I am absolutely delighted,” the European Broadcasting Union project editor of “Our World,” Mr Aubrey Singer, said in London after the broadcast. “It certainly went beyond my expectations. “The co-operation we have had from all the other television organisations throughout the world has been incredible. “The success is as much theirs as ours in the main control centre in London.” The newly-born babies which opened the programme were shown five aspects of the world today—“ This Mom-

ent s World,” “The Hungry World,” “The Crowded World” and “The World in its Aspirations to Physical and Artistic Excellence.” Three American satellites and a million miles of cables were used to beam extremely high-quality pictures around the globe. Viewers in Britain saw the tiniest fish on a Japanese prawn farm as clearly as the massive pavilions at Montreal’s Expo '67. Smooth Presentation An army of technicians sitting in front of a gigantic 70-yard-wide screen at the 8.8.C.’s Studio One, the nerve centre for the operation, controlled the smooth presentation, changing from a helicopter above New York to underwater shots near Marseilles without a hitch. Millions of Americans watched the programme on a coast-to-coast link of national education television stations. A spokesman at the network's master control centre in New York said the over all reception was very good. “There were a couple of minor breakdowns and the sound quality, particularly from the Italian pick-up, left a little to be desired,” he said.

“Our World” went on in Japan as the extra late show at 4 a.m.

There was near-perfect reception of pictures of markets in Tunis, fishermen in Spain, and sunbathers in Canada.

The Japanese Broadcasting Corporation described reception as very good, and expected a viewing rate of 50 per cent when the programme was to be rerun in the evening. Deposited At U.N. To commemorate the 120,000-mile hook-up. a tape of the programme is to be deposited for posterity at the United Nations building in New York—a suggestion made by Russia, which withdrew from the broadcast because of “the present international situation” only four days ago. Some of the millions of West Germans who had firstclass reception of the programme were disappointed that the Communist countries had withdrawn. “I was looking forward to seeing live pictures from Mongolia,” one said. More than 12 million French viewers saw the programme, which a spokesman for the state radio and television organisation said had gone without a hitch.