BBC QUAD Broadcasts-specifically SQ and QS

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Way back The ABC in Melbourne Had a program on Saturday morning
Playing BBC Quad Matrix at the time I was taking My Daughters all over the
place Dancing /Flute/Gym
I recorded a couple of programs on Cassette
Part of Tomita in SQ SnowFlakes.
Part Concert 6 Wives Henry 8th SQ
Ronnie Aldrich SQ plus other tracks all in SQ


I still have the cassette copy of this you sent me Ron . :)
 
Of course it’s just possible that he didn’t comment on the BBC’s SQ and QS test transmissions because they never happened isn’t it?

In the summary article by him that you show, isn’t it odd that he doesn’t compare any such supposed SQ and QS broadcast trials with the H trials, even in passing? Given his preference for the QS system he would surely have cited any performance benefits demonstrated under broadcast conditions if there had ever been any such evidence he could have called on to advance his argument.


Maybe .

I don't think there were any "official " SQ or QS test broadcasts . But if there were they could have been off hours , much like the discrete ones , but I'm guessing .


But for the BEEB to play randomly SQ or QS as blind tests is quite plausable as they need unbiased listeners.

Also please keep in mind they rejected both as their go to quad matrix .
 
I don't think there were any "official " SQ or QS test broadcasts .
Exactly, as I've always said, there weren't any. So how do you think your friend could possibly have recorded so much classical SQ stuff off air as you claim??
 
Exactly, as I've always said, there weren't any.


Call them tests or demos whatever you prefer , and they obviously did occur....... UNOFFICIAL , and most obviously you missed out.

All relevant questions that you might consider addressing to the BBC Complaints Department .
I do not , nor have I ever worked for the BBC.
 
I know for sure that in the mid/late 70s a BBC R3 engineer recorded many proms (possibly a full prom season) in binaural for his personal collection. Whether any of those recordings were ever broadcast or otherwise escaped into the wild, I do not know.
 
I know for sure that in the mid/late 70s a BBC R3 engineer recorded many proms (possibly a full prom season) in binaural for his personal collection. Whether any of those recordings were ever broadcast or otherwise escaped into the wild, I do not know.


Yep , I was reading about one that was called "Oil Rig ".

Was broadcast sometime in 77 or 78 , so they were doing trial and error binaural then as well as H and HJ. :)
 
Here were the systems used in the BBC matrix trials:

Matrix A was QS, no logic.
Matrix B was SQ, no logic.
Matrix C was QS, with logic.
Matrix D was SQ, with logic.
Matrix E was a tetrahedral matrix Peter Scheiber proposed for high separation.
Matrix F was UMX (BMX), no logic.
Matrix G was matrix F modified to reduce the phasey stereo image.
Matrix GX was G modified to reduce the phasey stereo image. (GX was not tested in the trials.)
Matrix HX was GX further modified to reduce the phasey stereo image. (HX was not tested in the trials.)
Matrix H was Matrix HX further modified to reduce phasiness.
Matrix J was H further modified to reduce phasiness. (This was done after the trials ended.)
Matrix HJ was J further modified to reduce phasiness. (This was done after the trials ended.)
Matrix HJ was later renamed UHJ.

When I read the BBC articles, I was surprised that neither EV matrix was tested. They have higher front-to-back separations and a higher left-front-to-right-front separations than any of the systems tested, ideal for classical music. I think they were wanting an all-channels-equal system, which neither EV system had.

I wonder if Matrix B was an SQ 10-40 decoder, or decoded the corner modulations without blending.

Note that Matrix A and Matrix C used the same QS recordings.
Matrix B and Matrix D used the same SQ recordings.

It’s worth noting that UHJ is not just HJ rebadged. UHJ is the hierarchy of ambisonic fold downs into 2 to 4 channels from B-format.
 
Yep , I was reading about one that was called "Oil Rig ".

Was broadcast sometime in 77 or 78 , so they were doing trial and error binaural then as well as H and HJ. :)

I have remembered his name: Tony Askew. This was very much an unofficial “hobby” project, and as he explained it to me he had arranged for a dummy head to be hung above the orchestra (much to their amusement), and he was running it to his own reel-to-reel sat alongside the official R3 mixing desk. He was responsible for the live R3 broadcast mix.

Googling Tony, I see he has composer credits for a track on a couple of Radiophonic Workshop releases. Must be the same chap.
 
Well , no ,they also did SQ and some QS broadcasts prior to the H and HJ two main test/demo years 77/78 .


I had a friend from Britain send me lots of H and HJ programs he captured on stereo reel .
He also had a large number of SQ Classical music programs on stereo SQ encoded reel as well.



For the most part , the BEEB did not like QS as they found it noncompatible with mono transmisions which the larger listening audience at the time (70's) had .


Correction ;

It should NOT state " a large number" !
FWIW The reference to a large number is incorrect .
Sorry for the misleading information.

NOTE :

As far as I can tell Alan had ONE HALF of a Reel in SQ in amongst his BBC Matrix H and HJ Reels .
( He may have had more , but never told me )

After doing some further research , I can't find anything to confirm more than a half Reel of SQ Classical music.
 
Correction ;

It should NOT state " a large number" !
FWIW The reference to a large number is incorrect .
Sorry for the misleading information.

NOTE :

As far as I can tell Alan had ONE HALF of a Reel in SQ in amongst his BBC Matrix H and HJ Reels .
( He may have had more , but never told me )

After doing some further research , I can't find anything to confirm more than a half Reel of SQ Classical music.
Interesting; the main reason many of our local FM stations in South Florida opted to use QS was because they found it MORE compatible with mono.
 
The BBC ranked SQ at 5 out of 8 matrix systems tested for mono performance and placed QS at 6 out of 8. They judged both to be similarly poorly ranked when considering stereo performance. Two of the reasons the BBC rejected both systems for broadcasting very early on.
 
Last edited:
The BBC ranked SQ at 5 out of 8 matrix systems tested for mono performance and placed QS at 6 out of 8. They judged both to be similarly poorly ranked when considering stereo performance. Two of the reasons the BBC rejected both systems for broadcasting very early on.
Thing is, H didn't fare much better, and for quad play, was compatible with little. There were, supposedly, adapters to make QS receivers play H, but I hear they didn't work too well.
 
Thing is, H didn't fare much better, and for quad play, was compatible with little. There were, supposedly, adapters to make QS receivers play H, but I hear they didn't work too well.
Actually H did fare better in those lab sessions - it was ranked 1st for most measures of stereo performance and 3rd for mono performance. That's two of the reasons why the BBC went ahead with broadcast testing of it.
 
Than SQ. Those were the two options available for encoders. The two album rock stations encoded themselves from discrete sources; the classical station played whatever they had, but to encode themselves, they opted for QS.
I can see no reason for that, I would argue the opposite. Also with SQ center back was generally considered to be a prohibited position (although it was sometimes used). So with no center back no mono problem, also with sytherised SQ, a forward oriented encoder was used so again no center back. QS also suffers the same problem. As a signal is panned across the rear the level will slowly drop and disappear at Cb in mono. Sansui claimed that not to be a problem as anything in that position such as ambience in a live recording would be unimportant in mono playback. I mostly agree with that statement. The BBC wanted fully compatible mono and so developed Matrix H.
 
But practically nobody could listen to it properly in quad.
Exactly!! - thus it was the best time to try and implement a workable system before the majority had committed to something inferior. Very few people had even heard of quad in the UK in 1973-4 (the time of the BBC's initial comparison of the commercial matrix systems) let alone spent any money on such equipment.
 
My dad had Sony UK product line brochures in the early to mid 1970s, I wish I still had them. I used to pour over them as a child, marvelling at Elcassette with optional wired remote control, and at SQ decoders. So quad gear was marketed in the UK to some extent.
 
Back
Top