Data Communications & Telemetry

From the collection of

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton collects, preserves, catalogues and provides public access to its collection of films and magic lantern slides. The collection charts the rise of screen culture in the region and the nation and captures many aspects of life, work and creativity in the South East from the late 19th century to the present day. It is available for research, screenings, creative re-use and commercial access.

Data Communications & Telemetry

This amusing programme demonstrates that you don't need to be familiar with exceedingly complicated jargon to understand key concepts in data communication

This amusing studio-based programme from 1978 uses analogy and humour to explain what are otherwise complicated and jargon-laden concepts in data communication. We begin with three actors. two men and a woman, all in beach wear, sitting in deck-chairs on a desert island set, with Hawaiian music playing in the background. A storm erupts and the cast leave the scene. Another actor, playing the part of the 'Boffin' arrives in his inflatable dinghy. Dressed in a laboratory coat he sits in the vacant deck-chair and finds a Kentucky Fried Chicken box, re-labelled to say Kentucky Fried Castaway, and some bones. Fearing that he's landed on an island full of cannibals he reacts when the woman arrives back on the scene. The two other men start examining the contents of the Boffin's dinghy which makes him irate. He starts to explain what the items are but uses complex language that bores the islanders because they cannot understand his over-complicated language. A dialogue begins where the woman finds linguistic parallels that explain the Boffin's jargon. Actions like jungle drums, to explain signal transmission and reception and coconuts, used to demonstrate bandwidth function, act as analogies and bring clarity to the concepts the Boffin is trying to explain. In this way the concepts of data, encoding and decoding, bandwidth, protocols, simplex, half-duplex and full duplex transmission are explained. These are then summarised using a simple diagram. The programme ends with the woman sending out a message on a walkie-talkie which announces the imminent arrival of a large group of 'Club 18-30' holiday-makers. The 'islanders' are in fact employees of a tour organisation. The final shot shows the Boffin being pelted with empty beer cans while he persists in claiming that all his concepts have to be over-complicated.

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From the collection

University of Brighton Videotape Collection

A cohesive collection from Screen Archive South East representing the production history of a university production unit from 1977 to 2006.  This collection contains educational programmes created for classroom use as well as programmes and commercial narratives that were made on behalf of local businesses, organisations and the community.

Screen Archive South East has made available from across this collection, a total of eighty four programmes from a variety of obsolete open reel 1-inch tape, U-Matic and Betacam broadcast formats.   This cohesive collection represents the production history of a higher and further education based production unit, with content covering a wide range of subjects: teaching the arts and sciences, fashion shows and art exhibitions, early examples of video art and screen dance from the late 1970s to early 1980; documentaries on Sussex artists and a series of works on the institution’s commemorative and promotional history. As such, the collection documents a particular regional community and its use of videotape technology over almost a thirty-year period. The high production values in the work created by Media Services at Brighton Polytechnic later, the University of Brighton, was due to the team of independent film makers or ex-BBC technical and production staff, ensuring top quality programming for the time.

46 videos in this collection

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The Glorious Dream

  • Moulsecomb
  • 2003
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Chelsea School of Human Movement Promo

  • Eastbourne
  • 1991
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Chelsea College: Student Memories

  • 1997
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Brighton Polytechnic Promo 2

  • Brighton
  • 1986
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Altered Image

  • Brighton
  • 1987
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Movement and Meaning 5: A Lesson in Gender

  • Eastbourne
  • 1985
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An Interview with Anne Seagrave

  • Brighton
  • 1986
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Gary Stevens: Audience

  • Brighton
  • 1989
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The Mad Aunts

  • 1990
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The British Library Bibliographic Services

  • Greater London
  • 1981
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The Booth Museum of Natural History, Hove

  • Hove
  • 1990
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The Battle of Lewes Road: Our History

  • Brighton
  • 1983
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Choosing Hardy presented by Andrew Motion

  • 1994
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An Interview with Raymond Briggs

  • Brighton
  • 1978
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Pig-in-the-Middle

  • Brighton
  • 1978
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Interview with Frank Hampson - Creator of Dan Dare

  • Epsom
  • 1978
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Denim: A New Look

  • Brighton
  • 1990
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Knitmaster Electronic Knitting Machine

  • Brighton
  • 1982
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Knitmaster F370 Fine Gauge Machine

  • Brighton
  • 1983
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The Practice of Teaching in Art and Design

  • Ringmer
  • 1982
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Shop: A Project in Batch Production

  • Brighton
  • 1995
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Five Sculptures by Anthony Caro

  • 1982
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An Introduction to Wood

  • 1982
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Stone Carving

  • Drewsteignton
  • 1988
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Packing and Firing a Kiln

  • Brighton
  • 1985
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Enamelling (Part 2)

  • Brighton
  • 1987
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Country House Lighting

  • 1992
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Able Children

  • Brighton
  • 1992
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Degrees of Separation

  • Brighton
  • 2003
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Longhill School - Work in Multi-Media

  • Brighton
  • 1979
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A Day in the Life of a British Schoolgirl

  • Brighton
  • 1995
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PAROSI Literacy Discussion Group

  • 1978
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Engineers for the 90's

  • Brighton
  • 1989
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Green Power Six Hour Electric Car Marathon

  • Goodwood Ho
  • 1999
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Process Industry Control Systems: Air Power

  • Brighton
  • 1985
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Digital Devices

  • Brighton
  • 1985
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Measurement and Instrumentation

  • Dorking
  • 1983
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Basic Electrical Skills Programme 1

  • Edenbridge
  • 1984
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Data Communications & Telemetry

  • Brighton
  • 1978
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The Micro: Controlling an Industrial Clean Plant

  • Brighton
  • 1986
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About AIDS: Teaching to Care - Third Ground

  • Sheffield
  • 1988
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A Day in the Life of a Hospital Pharmacist

  • Worthing
  • 1998
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Energy Food for Sport

  • Eastbourne
  • 1986
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Argus Appeal 2002

  • Brighton
  • 2002
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Small Business Lending: Tom the Baker

  • Brighton
  • 1993
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Europex: Making Europe Work

  • Eastbourne
  • 1999
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