1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
BBC London
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BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London and parts of the surrounding area. Its output includes the daily BBC London News and weekly Sunday Politics on television, the regions headquarters are situated in the new eastern extension of Broadcasting House. The flagship programme is broadcast between 18,30 and 19,00 each weekday evening, following the end of the BBC News at Six and is presented by Riz Lateef. Comparisons are inevitably made to the commercial TV regional competition, in this case ITV News London, BBC London can be viewed in any part of the UK on digital satellite channel 974 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service. BBC Radio London combines speech and music based programmes 24 hours a day, Broadcasting across London on 94.9 FM, DAB, Virgin Media Channel 930, Sky Channel 0152, Freeview Channel 721 and also online. The station was known as BBC London Live, GLR. The current Breakfast show presenters are Penny Smith and Paul Ross, the Breakfast and Drivetime shows feature a wealth of local London news and comment with roving reporters out and about. Other programmes such as JoAnne Good or Robert Elms include varied speech and music with local news bulletins every half-hour. The travel news on BBC Radio London is updated at 31 and 58 minutes past each hour during off peak times and its one of the few radio stations to have access to TfL cameras. The travel news online is updated from an independent travel information supplier and this data is fed from their main system onto BBC Londons website, via the BBC Travel News portal. The online section also has features on aspects of travel in London. Sport is a major part of the radio schedule, with a 3-hour sports based programme each weeknight evening. This is considerably more than most other BBC local radio stations and reflects Londons large number of sporting teams, BBC London News launched on 1 October 2001 following changes to the coverage areas of BBC transmitters allowing for the establishment of new editorial areas. BBC London, as it came to be called, replaced the long-running Newsroom South East, there were many incarnations of regional news programmes in this area before the current programme was introduced in 2001. Other identities for the London area coverage were London Plus, and this meant that sizeable communities which probably deserved dedicated programming of their own - such as Oxford, Luton, Crawley and Medway - were often ill-served by a London-biased programme. There is also overlap with the editorial areas of other BBC regions in this part of England. The previous new services for the area, in the old BBC South East region, were based in Shepherds Bush, White City. Following the launch of BBC London, the moved into facilities in Marylebone High Street, where the news service was based alongside BBC London News
3.
ITV London
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ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the two ITV broadcast franchises, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is transmitted from Crystal Palace in South London, ITV London was formed on 28 October 2002 as a unified on-screen brand for both of the Carlton and LWT franchises, running on weekdays and weekends respectively. It replaced the unique branding used by both franchisees with a service, offering the same service and news all week round. Legally, both franchises remained separate, but they are run by the operating board and from the same facilities. Both licences are now held by ITV Broadcasting Ltd, but the two companies still legally exist as Carlton Television Ltd and London Weekend Television Ltd. Each of these companies is, along with most other companies owned by ITV plc. ITV London is also unique in that it supplies the feed for the other franchises and is the sole alternative ITV region to Sky, Freesat. Other regional variants are available by manually searching, but London is the region to be given an exclusive EPG slot. ITV London is based at The London Studios, on the bank of the River Thames. The centre was due to both companies presence in the centre, Carlton having leased space within the facility, alongside GMTV. The contracted news service London News Network was also based, produced, any reference to the service being in London is made in the voiceover alone, or through the programme titles, such as London Tonight. The LWT logo was laid out in a purple box clearly at the top, with the caption An LWT Production beneath. This was replaced in 2006 by a caption featuring the new ITV1 logo with the words a production for above it. In 2013 it was replaced by a white ITV News caption with the words ©year ITN, to align with ITNs, on 14 January 2013, the stations on-air identity was changed to ITV, along with all other ITV plc-owned franchises. ITV London itself doesnt make any programmes, as all productions were completed by external companies, Carlton, Carlton Television London Weekend Television ITV History of ITV ITV London at itv. com
4.
Arqiva
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The company headquarters is located at Crawley Court in the village of Crawley, Hampshire. Its main customers are broadcasters and mobile network operators, and its main asset is a network of over 1,000 radio. It is owned by a consortium of investors led by CPP, Arqiva is a patron of The Radio Academy. Through its NOW Digital subsidiary, it operates various local digital radio ensembles, the company, which has a history that dates back to the beginning of regular public broadcasting in the United Kingdom, was actually only formed in 2005. Below is a history of the various organisations that are now part of Arqiva. The assets were split into a separate company, prior to being sold. The domestic transmitter network was purchased by a US company, Crown Castle, subsequently, in 2004, this was purchased by National Grid plc, which merged in its own private communication network, the name changing to National Grid Wireless in October 2005. This company developed on the back of the growth in mobile phones and this was added to by the purchase of the former BBC network National Grid Wireless, as it became, led a consortium bidding for the second UK national DAB multiplex licence, but was unsuccessful. The licence was awarded instead to 4 Digital Group in July 2007, the Television Act 1954 gave birth to the Independent Television Authority. The ITA appointed and regulated a number of regional programme contractors, the Sound Broadcasting Act 1972 created legal commercial radio in the UK for the first time. It was modelled on ITA, in that programmes were made by local contractors while the regulator, renamed the Independent Broadcasting Authority, the Broadcasting Act 1990 split the IBA into three bodies. The Independent Television Commission regulated commercial TV and the Radio Authority regulated commercial radio, at this point, technical standards regulation, previously carried out in accordance with the IBA engineering Code of Practice, seems to have disappeared from the regulatory landscape. Transcom was acquired by International CableTel Inc. which subsequently built its brand around the NTL name and it ran up huge debts during the dot-com boom which crippled the company for many years. In 1998, NTL acquired the UK antenna sites business of Simoco, in 1999 NTL acquired the UK field service operations business of Simoco. In 2004, NTL sold its broadcast unit to Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group, in January 2005, Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group renamed its new subsidiary Arqiva. Inmedia was owned by Kingston Communications and known as Kingston inmedia before being bought by the Carlyle Group in 2004. Arqiva announced the signing of a Sale & Purchase Agreement with BT to acquire the full-time service components of BT’s Satellite Broadcast Services business for £25 million in cash in November 2006. The deal will include long-term customer contracts, operations and personnel located in the USA, France, Italy, deal completion is subject to regulatory approval in the UK and Germany
5.
Crystal Palace, London
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Crystal Palace is a residential area in South London, England, within the London Boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham, and Southwark. It is named after the local landmark, the Crystal Palace. The area is located eight miles south east of Charing Cross and includes one of the highest points in London, at 367 feet. It is contiguous with Anerley, Dulwich Wood, Gipsy Hill, Penge, South Norwood, Sydenham, the district was a natural oak forest until development began in the 19th century, and before the arrival of the Crystal Palace the area was known as Sydenham Hill. The Norwood Ridge and an oak tree were used to mark parish boundaries. Today, the area is represented by three different parliamentary constituencies, four London Assembly constituencies and fourteen local authority councillors, Crystal Palace Park has also been the setting for a number of concerts and films, including scenes from The Italian Job and The Pleasure Garden. Two television transmitter masts make the district a landmark location, visible from parts of Greater London. A pneumatic railway was briefly trialled in the area in 1864, after the palace was destroyed by fire, and with railway travel declining in the UK more generally, passenger numbers fell and the high level station was closed in 1954 and demolished 7 years later. Rail services gradually declined, and for a period in the 1960s and 1970s there were plans to construct a motorway through the area as part of the London Ringways plan. In 2016, Crystal Palace was named as one of the best places to live in London, the ridge and the historic oak tree known as The Vicars Oak were used to mark parish boundaries. This has led to the Crystal Palace area straddling the boundaries of five London Boroughs, Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark, the area also straddles three postcode districts, SE19, SE20, and SE26. The ancient boundary between Surrey and Kent passes through the area and from 1889 to 1965 the area lay on the eastern boundary of the County of London. It included parts of Kent and Surrey until 1889 and then parts of Kent, London and Surrey between 1889 and 1965. For centuries the area was occupied by the Great North Wood, the forest was a popular area for Londoners recreation right up to the 19th century, when it began to be built over. It was also a home of Gypsies, with local street names. The area still retains vestiges of woodland, the third quarter of the 19th Century brought the Crystal Palace and the railways. The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. Following the success of the exhibition, the palace was moved and reconstructed in 1854 in a modified and enlarged form in the grounds of the Penge Place estate at Sydenham Hill
6.
London Borough of Bromley
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The London Borough of Bromley /ˈbrɒmli/ is one of the 32 London boroughs which make up Greater London. The London Borough of Bromley is south of the River Thames which flows through London, the borough is named after Bromley, its principal town. The local authority is Bromley London Borough Council, the borough is the largest in Greater London by area and occupies 59 square miles, of which the majority is Metropolitan Green Belt land. It is also perhaps the most rural, most of the population lives in the north and west of the borough, with an outlier at Biggin Hill in the far south. The borough shares borders with the London Boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich to the North, Bexley to the North East, Southwark and Lambeth to the North West, as well as Croydon to the West. It also borders the Sevenoaks District of Kent to the East and South, westerham Heights, the highest point in London at an altitude of 804 feet, is located on the southern boundary. The Prime Meridian passes through Bromley, about 30% of the land in Bromley is farmland, the highest figure of a London Borough. The borough was formed, as were all other London boroughs, in 1969, after a local campaign, the village of Knockholt was transferred back to Kent to become part of the Sevenoaks Rural District and later Sevenoaks District. Before 1965 it had part of the Orpington Urban District. The borough is partly urban and partly rural, the former to the north, other smaller suburban areas include Anerley and nearby Crystal Palace, and Penge. In addition, parts of Mottingham, Sydenham, Swanley and Ruxley lie within the borough boundaries, there are two main built-up areas in the southern part of the borough, Hayes and West Wickham. Biggin Hill, Downe and Keston with Leaves Green and Nash are separate, smaller, local attractions include Down House, Chislehurst Caves, Holwood House, Crofton Roman Villa, and the site of The Crystal Palace. Bromley is divided into 22 wards with a total of 60 council seats, after a number of by-elections and a defection, the Conservatives regained control on 5 July 2001. The 22 wards are shown on the accompanying map, ward names often straddle the named settlements and suburban areas above, their boundaries are fixed, whereas the latter are not. In 1801, the parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 8,944. This rose slowly throughout the 19th century, as the district built up. When the railways arrived the rate of growth increased. The population peaked in the 1970s, when began to relocate from London
7.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
8.
The Crystal Palace
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The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass structure originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 990, designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet long, with an interior height of 128 feet. It stood there from 1854 until its destruction by fire in 1936, Crystal Palace F. C. were founded at the site in 1905 and played at the Cup Final venue in their early years. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkinss Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854, the Commission in charge of mounting the Great Exhibition was established in January 1850, and it was decided at the outset that the entire project would be funded by public subscription. Within three weeks, the committee had received some 245 entries, including 38 international submissions from Australia, turner was furious at the rejection, and reportedly badgered the commissioners for months afterwards, seeking compensation, but at an estimated £300,000, his design was too expensive. Opponents of the scheme lobbied strenuously against the use of Hyde Park, the most outspoken critic was arch-conservative Col. At this point renowned gardener Joseph Paxton became interested in the project, the lily and its house led directly to Paxtons design for the Crystal Palace and he later cited the huge ribbed floating leaves as a key inspiration. Paxton left his 9 June 1850 meeting with Henry Cole fired with enthusiasm and he immediately went to Hyde Park, where he walked the site earmarked for the Exhibition. Two days later, on 11 June, while attending a meeting of the Midland Railway, Paxton made his original concept drawing. In the event, Paxtons design fulfilled and surpassed all the requirements, would cover roughly twenty-five times the ground area of its progenitor. He was exultant, but now had less than eight months to finalize his plans, manufacture the parts and erect the building in time for the Exhibitions opening, which was scheduled for 1 May 1851. Paxton was able to design and build the largest glass structure yet created, from scratch, in less than a year, Paxtons modular, hierarchical design reflected his practical brilliance as a designer and problem-solver. These were the largest available at the time, measuring 10 inches wide by 49 inches long, the original Hyde Park building was essentially a vast, flat-roofed rectangular hall. A huge open gallery ran along the axis, with wings extending down either side. The main exhibition space was two stories high, with the upper floor stepped in from the boundary. Most of the building had a roof, except for the central transept. Both the flat-profile sections and the transept roof were constructed using the key element of Paxtons design - his patented ridge-and-furrow roofing system. The basic roofing unit, in essence, took the form of a triangular prism
9.
John Logie Baird
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In 1928 the Baird Television Development Company achieved the first transatlantic television transmission. Bairds early technological successes and his role in the introduction of broadcast television for home entertainment have earned him a prominent place in televisions history. Baird was ranked number 44 in the BBCs list of the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote in 2002. In 2006, Baird was named as one of the 10 greatest Scottish scientists in history, in 2015 he was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame. He was educated at Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh, the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, while at college Baird undertook a series of engineering apprentice jobs as part of his course. The conditions in industrial Glasgow at the time helped form his socialist convictions and he became an agnostic, though this did not strain his relationship with his father. His degree course was interrupted by the First World War and he never returned to graduate, at the beginning of 1915 he volunteered for service in the British Army but was classified as unfit for active duty. Unable to go to the Front, he took a job with the Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company, the development of television was the result of work by many inventors. Among them, Baird was a prominent pioneer and made advances in the field. Many historians credit Baird with being the first to produce a live, moving, Baird achieved this, where other inventors had failed, by obtaining a better photoelectric cell and improving the signal conditioning from the photocell and the video amplifier. Between 1902 and 1907, Arthur Korn invented and built the first successful signal-conditioning circuits for image transmission, the circuits overcame the image-destroying lag effect that is part of selenium photocells. Korns success at transmitting halftone still images suggested that such compensation circuits might work in television, Baird was the direct beneficiary of Korns research and success. In his first attempts to develop a television system, Baird experimented with the Nipkow disk. Paul Gottlieb Nipkow had invented this scanning system in 1884. Television historian Albert Abramson calls Nipkows patent the master television patent, Nipkows work is important because Baird and many others chose to develop it into a broadcast medium. In early 1923, and in health, Baird moved to 21 Linton Crescent, Hastings. He later rented a workshop in the Queens Arcade in the town, in February 1924, he demonstrated to the Radio Times that a semi-mechanical analogue television system was possible by transmitting moving silhouette images. In July of the year, he received a 1000-volt electric shock, but survived with only a burnt hand
Television transmitter and major relay sites in the United Kingdom