1981 - highly likely this was recorded on 2 inch Quad - invented in the 1950's and was only replaced by the BBC around 1983 when they moved over to 1 inch C-Format as the main transmission format.
I would suggest it’s time to bring back ‘tomorrow’s world’, and the series ‘connections’. The only problem could be the need to think while watching TV? We need to think with Brian Cox programs, and those presented by Alice Roberts, so maybe the more intellectual broadcasting is not totally defunct?
The days of long-gone technology ❤ I adore that transparent kiosk shown at the start. Seen in Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and any number of sci-fi or other genre shows, it held up nicely.
I love the idea of unplugging the tape machine so you can year your messages in the car.....but if it's in the car with you what's going to answer the phone?
"Hello, this is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and message. I'll get back to you." (1974) Answering machines had already been around for 20-30 years in 1981.
@@fluxington My post was about the answering machine being 30 years old already. Other than switching from magnetic wire to tape, the technology hadn't changed and won't change for another eight years until the first digital answering machine comes out in 1990. Answering machines have been digital for 34 years, longer than they had used tape.
@@vintagethrifter2114 I don't think you watched the video properly. It was clearly about a new type of technology at the time, that controlled the length of the message being recorded. All the best.
Apple's Visual Voicemail feature in 2007 was brilliant. Shame it never caught on on Android phones. We still have the old-school method of having to dial into the voicemail.
In the U.S., T-Mobile started offering visual voicemail in the 2000s, for an extra fee. I've had the equivalent, free, since the 2000s, in the form of Google Voice, which, depending on my settings over the years, has texted me a transcript of the voicemail, emailed me a transcript, made the transcript available at the website, and shown the transcript in the Google Voice app, regardless of my phone's operating-system.
@@ebridgewater , it may be worth your while to investigate getting a Google Voice number (free in the U.K.?) and using the Google Voice app for Android to see voicemail transcripts. There are pros and cons.
Can't really blame Android. Google Pixels support it natively and other Android makers via their own apps, but it's up to the carriers to provide the service.
The first answering machine I came across was probably around 5 years after this show was broadcast. It was made by Binatone and was about the size of a shoebox as it used two standard cassettes fitted side-by-side. One very short length cassette for the outgoing message and a longer (possibly C-60) cassette for recording the incoming messages. I also recognise that mini cassette recorder at 2:10 it moves the tape using the take up spool rather than the standard capstan/pinch roller arrangement so the tape starts slow and speeds up towards the end. Good enough for voice recording but not much else.
We always say, "WOW" when these things come out. Now 40 years later I feel stupid😂😂. Same is like we are always look back and say what nice times we had. Never satisfied the NOW time😂😂😂
And later, in the early 2000’s they invented a telephone recording system whereby one would record a greeting for callers, then allowing time for the caller to leave their own message, then for that message to be completely ignored by the recipient, thanks to a new system called ‘caller ID’ to allow the recipient to call you back at some point in the future, to say, “did you call me?”
I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've heard Judith pronounce "Hann". So it rhymes with "can", even though everyone seems to think it rhymes with "Khan".
@@mattgrant9479 If navels have hairs, that really does seem to be to take one, from deep inside, and then obsessively and inanely attempt to split it - and down at the level of the Quantum Realm.
I would turn the telly on, my friend's answering machines were filled with 30 second snippets of British daytime telly audio. Or sometimes I'd secretly call one while they were at my house so they'd have a tiny chunk of our conversation waiting for them at home.
How many laugh at all these old tech advances , we would never have imagined back then that a silcon chip would replace tape. so what will we laugh at in the distant future , smartphones , Tv,s or public transport..hang on we all find that last one funny.
@@primalconvoy Tbf it literally is. We're looking at the early iterations on a concept, so it's primitive by definition. It's also figuratively primitive compared to what's commonplace today. I would be disinclined to argue with the youth about it in any case, since I crumbled into dust while watching this video. I sail on the winds now
@@primalconvoy It's a failed solution. In a year or two, solid-state recording of the outgoing message would be economical and completely solve that problem. Fully solid-state machines started around 1983, and I remember in 1990 ours was tapeless.
Judith excelled at presenting tech in such a slick and interesting manner.
...that reminds me, I must log in to my voicemail to delete the 1 unheard message that's been on my notifications for the past year.
😂😂
Set your answering machine to "Yeah, what's up?"
Watch the messages of confused people thinking they're talking to you flood in.
I love these Tomorrow's World throwbacks. How things have changed!!
Video tape is like a time machine. The quality of this video is awesome. Thank you !
...thanks to modern digital video processing.
...thanks to master tapes still being retained.
1981 - highly likely this was recorded on 2 inch Quad - invented in the 1950's and was only replaced by the BBC around 1983 when they moved over to 1 inch C-Format as the main transmission format.
@@MrSlipstreem @MrSlipstreem Not only, but also. The original quality of these analog video machines were superb, my friend.
Those days when you either had to call your friends and talk to them or show up at their door. I remember.
Pepperidge Farm remembers...
Their parents would always pick up and you had to tell them how you were doing!
Ahhh the wonderful Judith Hann....
Loved Tomorrows World
When these went digital it was like star trek!
I would suggest it’s time to bring back ‘tomorrow’s world’, and the series ‘connections’.
The only problem could be the need to think while watching TV?
We need to think with Brian Cox programs, and those presented by Alice Roberts, so maybe the more intellectual broadcasting is not totally defunct?
Great vignette into what is an easily forgotten - but not readily missed - cul-de-sac of Tech. Thank you!
The days of long-gone technology ❤
I adore that transparent kiosk shown at the start. Seen in Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and any number of sci-fi or other genre shows, it held up nicely.
I get it. Tomorrow’s World is truly the best.
I had a big crush on Judith Hann!
❤❤❤❤❤❤
I love the idea of unplugging the tape machine so you can year your messages in the car.....but if it's in the car with you what's going to answer the phone?
@@CricketEngland- 1981.
Your second tape machine, with the money you saved from the £40 price drop
"Hello, this is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and message. I'll get back to you." (1974)
Answering machines had already been around for 20-30 years in 1981.
Yes and my dad used to have a big answering machine that used tape spools , a big tape recorder from Grundig. That was back in the early 70's.
This video was about different types of answering machines, not the first ones available.
@@fluxington My post was about the answering machine being 30 years old already. Other than switching from magnetic wire to tape, the technology hadn't changed and won't change for another eight years until the first digital answering machine comes out in 1990. Answering machines have been digital for 34 years, longer than they had used tape.
@@vintagethrifter2114 I don't think you watched the video properly. It was clearly about a new type of technology at the time, that controlled the length of the message being recorded. All the best.
More Tomorrow’s World please!
Apple's Visual Voicemail feature in 2007 was brilliant. Shame it never caught on on Android phones. We still have the old-school method of having to dial into the voicemail.
In the U.S., T-Mobile started offering visual voicemail in the 2000s, for an extra fee. I've had the equivalent, free, since the 2000s, in the form of Google Voice, which, depending on my settings over the years, has texted me a transcript of the voicemail, emailed me a transcript, made the transcript available at the website, and shown the transcript in the Google Voice app, regardless of my phone's operating-system.
@@smadaf Not available with Three in the UK. They're adding it to Apple devices later this year, but no word on Android devices 😕
@@ebridgewater , it may be worth your while to investigate getting a Google Voice number (free in the U.K.?) and using the Google Voice app for Android to see voicemail transcripts. There are pros and cons.
Can't really blame Android. Google Pixels support it natively and other Android makers via their own apps, but it's up to the carriers to provide the service.
That was really clever. I'm surprised it didn't take off.
I didn't know some required multiple outgoing messages.
The technology on display here is extraordibary... but will it take off?
The first answering machine I came across was probably around 5 years after this show was broadcast. It was made by Binatone and was about the size of a shoebox as it used two standard cassettes fitted side-by-side. One very short length cassette for the outgoing message and a longer (possibly C-60) cassette for recording the incoming messages.
I also recognise that mini cassette recorder at 2:10 it moves the tape using the take up spool rather than the standard capstan/pinch roller arrangement so the tape starts slow and speeds up towards the end. Good enough for voice recording but not much else.
I repaired answerphones back in 1990-2! seems so strange to say it, also fax machines and photocopiers, how technology has changed.
£130 IN 1981! You could buy a house for £2,000 in 1981 where I grew up.
I love fashion 80'😊
When you finally decided you have the setup of your dreams and you won't need to change anything for the rest of your life...
We always say, "WOW" when these things come out. Now 40 years later I feel stupid😂😂. Same is like we are always look back and say what nice times we had. Never satisfied the NOW time😂😂😂
The singing messages were the worst
And later, in the early 2000’s they invented a telephone recording system whereby one would record a greeting for callers, then allowing time for the caller to leave their own message, then for that message to be completely ignored by the recipient, thanks to a new system called ‘caller ID’ to allow the recipient to call you back at some point in the future, to say, “did you call me?”
Michael Rodd channeling a future Alan Partridge.
Ha ha ha - ancient technology always delights!
I just wish the bbc would bring back tomorrows world.
Phones back then much better than what we have now!
The GPO - a year before BT even existed.
I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've heard Judith pronounce "Hann". So it rhymes with "can", even though everyone seems to think it rhymes with "Khan".
She looks so perfectly '80's...
I actually say she looks more late seventies with the flick of the hair. It is only 1981 after all.
@@mattgrant9479- I agree. A lot of early 90s films (for example) look SO 80s!
@@mattgrant9479 If navels have hairs, that really does seem to be to take one, from deep inside, and then obsessively and inanely attempt to split it - and down at the level of the Quantum Realm.
£130 in 1981 is worth £624.50 today
What do you think of the pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre
If i wasent in i wasent there to answer your call 😂 to bad
Don't know why they didn't just use an SD card.
They hadn't invented the slots for SD cards in 1981.
The "Post Office" handled the Phone system?
How very... "British" of them.
if i ever got someone’s answer phone i just got my dog to bark down line for about 20 seconds
😂
I would turn the telly on, my friend's answering machines were filled with 30 second snippets of British daytime telly audio. Or sometimes I'd secretly call one while they were at my house so they'd have a tiny chunk of our conversation waiting for them at home.
What a chore 😂
Oh. I say. Ditch the plumb dearie.
Judith Hann...the thinking mans crumpet.
Carol Vorderman FTW.
But not those who could spell 'thinking'.
Joan Bakewell.
@@curiousuranus810 Agreed…what a mistook…lol Corrected..thanks. I will never live it down. Embarrassing. 🤦🏻♂️
Very early 1980's sexism ASI. Things really haven't moved on for you, eh?
lol
Pfannerstill Keys
How many laugh at all these old tech advances , we would never have imagined back then that a silcon chip would replace tape. so what will we laugh at in the distant future , smartphones , Tv,s or public transport..hang on we all find that last one funny.
When UK was 95% white
You see how much gold she's wearing? That's how strong & powerful the West was during the filming of this.
Glad someone said that! 🤣
Sorry to disappoint you but mosst 70s and 80s bling was not gold! The economy was in the crapper with inflation hitting 25%.
Fake gold, you múppêt.
"That's how strong & powerful the West was during the filming of this."
This reminds me of Pamela Stephenson's impression
th-cam.com/video/L7L3iSZsNpY/w-d-xo.html
This is so primitive lol
No it wasn't.
@@primalconvoy Tbf it literally is. We're looking at the early iterations on a concept, so it's primitive by definition. It's also figuratively primitive compared to what's commonplace today.
I would be disinclined to argue with the youth about it in any case, since I crumbled into dust while watching this video. I sail on the winds now
Perhaps, but I find it a lot more impressive than current tech.
@@primalconvoy It's a failed solution. In a year or two, solid-state recording of the outgoing message would be economical and completely solve that problem. Fully solid-state machines started around 1983, and I remember in 1990 ours was tapeless.
Pardon them for reporting based on the technology of the day. If only they had a working time machine 😂