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Monday, October 20, 2008

Berlin TV


The Nazis wanted to exploit all kinds of mass communication and before WWII they developed the Paul Nipkow Television Network. They broadcast regular television shows right up until near the end of the war. There were broadcast studios in several places, including Berlin and the Eiffel Tower.


To simulate the broadcast television studios, I got some of the Preiser TV crew sets. I combined them with other figures for actors, technicians, and news reporters. Using bits of sprue and plastic from the spares box I constructed consoles for editing and monitoring the shows. They could broadcast live and also video tape shows for later broadcast.


The green facade is from a BUM cowboy set. It makes a perfect building for a movie or TV set. Atlantic made some similar buildings.


The figures are mounted on sheet styrene, the camera operators mounted with their cameras. I imagine live TV reports from the outskirts of the city broadcast to the citizens of Berlin, waiting in their bunkers hiding from the Soviet tanks.



The control panel and furniture are from various companies. I actually am working on a building to house the system to include sound stages. TV was generally not watched from the home. They would broadcast a signal via closed circuit and people would go to TV parlours and watch the shows together, like a movie. They did have plans for broadcast TV to the masses but the start of the war put those on hold.

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