Push-button news
Television viewers of the future may be able to have specific items of information — weather forecasts, stock market prices, sports results and so forth — displayed on their screens at the touch of a button.
This is made possible through a system known as Ceefax, developed by 8.8. C. engineers. It consists of a small box attached to the television set, in which the required information is stored.
The data reach the box through invisible “gaps” in the normal television programme. These gaps — 50 every second — occur too fast to be detected by the human eye. but they permit the Ceefax information to be transmitted, stored and constantly updated. “With this attachment the farmer could come home and get a weather forecast whenever he wanted it,” said the head of the 8.8.C.’s engineering information department, Mr Bill Wood. “The football fan coming in after a night out could get the full day’s results at the press of a button. And the investor could keep a watchful eye on stock market prices.”
The system will undergo full-scale tests in Britain next year, and if successful it could be in production within two or three years.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19721216.2.76
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33101, 16 December 1972, Page 11
Word Count
195Push-button news Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33101, 16 December 1972, Page 11
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in