Mass Communication – Brighton Pavilion [Gay Wedding Coverage]
Image by Dominic’s pics
I was walking home this evening, and was excited to see what looked like a couple of enterprising late night ice cream trucks located in the gardens of the Prince Regent Royal Pavilion – lots of nice bright coloured lights inside.
They turned out to be outside broadcast TV satellite uplinks / downlinks, presumably there to assist coverage of the first Gay / Same-Sex Wedding in England, held in the splendid location of the music room of the Royal Pavilion. The law [relating to marriage] was due to come into effect at midnight.
Apart from the small dish on the roof of each vehicle, quite small and mundane. This type of facility used to be installed in a huge vehicle; now the operators cannot even stand up inside.
Because Brighton is not in London, locally available internet services are suitable only for twitter and braille.
The razor sharp legal minds at ITN and other news agencies have spotted that this poor performance does not violate the contractual offers of "up to 1 billion bits per second". Certainly 3G services here cannot deliver internet radio in "real time". Hence the need for these mobile satellite base stations.
Global communications of course were invented by genius english singer-songwriter John Otway, "rock and rolls greatest failure " (Sir Tim Berners-Lee famously went to one of his gigs and stole the internet bit of the idea, with the rest of the intellectual property nabbed by DARPA).
Listen to his thesis "Mass Communication" on myspace here: myspace.com/johnotway/music/song/mass-communication-44369…
Or read his 1983 White Paper (disguised as the lyrics of the song Mass Communication).
[Uh-oh] Mass Communication – John Otway – Lyrics
One, two
One, two, three
Got a dish in my garden for my satellite TV
That’s because I’ve got the technology
Don’t know where it’s leading, or how much I can take
So many more subjects for my video tapes
The news in italian
The weather in french
The ice hockey finals from the russian sputniks
So international with my saucer in the yard
So cosmopolitan with my eyes on the world
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[digital beeping in background]
[chorus] To a million TV sets each ni-i-ight
O – oh, mass communication, mass communica-ation
[+ chorus] O-o-oh, mass communication, mass communication
I got 13 channels in my fibre optic wire
A plug by my phone and a plug for my computer
And the phone and the computer can talk to each other
And the whole damn thing comes up on the monitor
I can stand in front of my video camera
So some guy can watch me smile in America
I’m actually [actively ?] famous all over the world
With live broadcasts from my saucer in the yard
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[chorus] To a million TV sets each ni-i-ight
O – oh, mass communication, mass communica-ation
[chorus] O-o-oh, mass communication, mass communication
[Amazing early 1980’s synthesizer instrumental intermission]
Let’s all get saucers, let’s all get computers
Let’s challenge the americans to space invaders
So competitive with our saucers in the yard
With our satellites playing missile command
Across the sky at the speed of light
To a million TV sets each night
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[chorus] To a million TV sets each ni-i-ight
O – oh, mass communication, mass communica-ation
Oh oh oh, mass communication, mass communica-ation
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[chorus] To a million TV sets each night
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[chorus] To a million TV sets each night
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[chorus] To a million TV sets each night
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[faint backing chorus] O-o-oh, mass communication
[chorus] To a million TV sets each night
[faint backing chorus] Mass communication, mass communication
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[faint backing chorus] O-o-oh, mass communication
[chorus] To a million TV sets each night
[faint backing chorus] Mass communication, mass communication
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[faint backing chorus] O-o-oh, mass communication
[chorus] To a million TV sets each night
[faint backing chorus] Mass communication, mass communication
[chorus] Across the sky at the speed of light
[faint backing chorus] O-o-oh, mass communication
[chorus] To a million TV sets each night
[faint backing chorus] Mass communication, mass communication
["North American" / "Transatlantic" female voice] This is coming to you live by satelite
John Otway also famously avoided serious injury (but not serious discomfort) while falling off a PA Tower speaker stack on the the BBC2 TV programme "The Old Grey Whistle Test" by cushioning his fall using his "gentleman’s hairy love eggs".
One Response to Mass Communication – Brighton Pavilion [Gay Wedding Coverage]