Associated Companies in over 175 towns in Great Britain and in Barbados, Bermuda. Canada, Ceylon, Guyana,
             Hong Kong, Jamaica, Malaya, Malta, Singapore, South Africa, Trinidad and West Africa etc.
AWA Rediffusion Pty. Ltd.
 
376 Eastern Valley Way
Roseville N.S.W. 2069     Tel. 4065677
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Remembering Rediffusion in Australia
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In 1974,  John Poules  moved to Australia as General Manager of the Redihire Division.
Below are some pictures of John and his team at Roseville NSW.
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Background

Rediffusion had tried to develop it's wired radio service in Australia back in 1949 when their overseas service was being expanded into the far East, ie. Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaya but the proposal was rejected by the Australian government in Canberra in an effort to protect local enterprise.
Bob McCallum, previously with RIS, went out to Australia in 1971 as the first general manager of AWA-Rediffusion Pty.
Limited
, a company jointly owned by Rediffusion International and AWA Limited. The latter, a major Australian supplier of aerial TV sets, sophisticated electronic equipment. hi-fi etc., and the largest Australian-owned company of its kind.





The new business was also a platform to enter the Australian market with Rediffusion systems similar to those offered in the UK by RIS/RBE  and included products and services such as Reditune Background Music, CCTV,  Hotel, Audio Distribution and Specialist Information Systems.

In 1974 AWA-Rediffusion branched into the television sales and rental market setting up a chain of retail shops under their Redihire name.
Colour Television finally arrived in Australia in March 1975, around ten years after the UK. and Redihire had been preparing for the event for over a year with six shops opening in and around the Sydney area with the company's HQ in Roseville, housing the main office, sales and accounts department, service department, Sydney service control and the main stores.

On March 1 1975 all four TV stations in Sydney changed to colour and the overnight demand for colour television sets was tremendous, and within three months eight percent of Sydney households had acquired colour sets and this grew to near twenty-five percent in the first twelve months.  Television rental accounted for around twenty percent of the initial market and Redihire adopted a 'rent or buy' marketing approach from the onset majoring on existing models that were being made for AWA-Thorn by Mitsubishi Electric of Japan. This division of AWA was also the Australian distributor for many audio equipment manufacturers, including Tannoy, Revox, AKG Acoustics having already an established association with AWA.
AWA Rediffusion Systems
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The CCTV system installed by AWA Rediffusion is part of the latest scheme to improve vehicle flow. Twelve high resolution, low light level cameras incorporating powerful zoom lenses give complete, remotely controlled surveillance of the five square kilometre area involved.
The system identifies traffic build-up and problems at a very early stage, and, in conjunction with a planned system of signal lights, it will greatly speed up the reversal of the direction of traffic flow in the four central lanes. This will effectively increase the traffic capacity by 10% at morning and evening rush hours, when the bulk of movement is southbound or north-bound
respectively.
In charge af the Sydney Harbour bridge project was Kevin Hands, seen here making precarious adjustments to one of the camera units.Read about Kevin's memories of his time with Rediffusion

AWA REDIFFUSION LOOKS TO FUTURE

AWA Rediffusion was responsible for installing a major information distribution system in the newly opened Sydney Futures Exchange. The exchange was the financial nerve centre of brokers who are capitalizing on Australia's mineral and raw materials boom by speculating on future price and demand for various commodities. Rapid distribution of commodity prices was, and still is an essential feature of the operation. The heart of the system was a sophisticated computer operated by Australian Associated Press, which provided instantaneous market information on a limited number of basic commodities.
Kevin Hands, seen here making precarious adjustments to one of the camera units.  Sydney Harbour Bridge.  1972

Kevin Hands, seen here making precarious adjustments to one of the camera units. Sydney Harbour Bridge. 1972

( Click on pictures for a full size image )
The problem was how to decide the most cost effective way for a large number of brokers to gain individual access to information about a limited range of commodities without the expense of a computer terminal.
A Rediffusion HF Multipair system provided the answer, with sufficient cable capacity to handle the range of commodities required, and, at the brokers desk, a standard monochrome TV monitor and Rediffusion switch.
So successful had the original system been that a plan was under active consideration to triple the system's size.
AWA Rediffusion senior video consultant Peter Ralston,explains
features of the system to exchange broker Charles Gethen.
( Click the above pictures for a full size image )
Redihire Sydney Shop

Redihire Sydney Shop

Redihire Escort  Sydney Harbour 1976

Redihire Escort Sydney Harbour 1976

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Read Kevin Hand's Memoirs
STAFF PICTURES
Compilation of Staff Pictures
Click the link below to see a compilation of pictures including staff, divisions, exhibitions etc.
Go To Redihire Page
Rediffusion Redihire Australia
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