ENG-1957 — Page 333

284

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

service has eight programme assistants, seven announcers and a record librarian. Clerical staff, drivers and messengers bring the total programme staff to 49; technical staff are provided by. Cable and Wireless.

The most important single event of the year was the expansion of the Chinese service. On 26th May daily hours of broadcasting in Chinese were increased to 17, implement- ing the policy laid down in 1956. The increase in hours meant not only a continuous daily service but also a much wider variety of programmes.

The English service benefited from an increase in pro- gramme staff, being able to present an increased number of live programmes and to increase broadcasting hours to an average of eleven a day.

All recruitment for the expansion programme, described in last year's Report, was completed in 1957.

Together with the new staff came new studios and new equipment. The recording suite, consisting of one recording channel and one studio, was reconstructed to form three recording channels and one studio. The entire back wall of the concert hall was moved back four feet to provide a much larger control room for the studio, and a new narrators studio. Additional accommodation on the eighth floor was being constructed at the end of the year to relieve the pres- sure in offices and maintenance workshops.

Technical facilities were considerably improved, the most modern tape recorders and playback units being installed in the new recording channels and increasing the speed with which programmes can be handled.

Two outside broadcast/recording vans were delivered in 1957 enabling outside programmes to be arranged with a minimum of notice. The value of these vans will be further enhanced in 1958, when two V.H.F. link transmitters and receivers will arrive and be installed for use where telephone lines and power supplies are not available.