Designs Department Documents

DDMI

Designs Department Manufacturing Information documents were produced for use by Equipment Department and commercial companies that made designs under contract and/or licence.

DDTM

Designs Department Technical Memorandums were produced for a variety of reasons. Click the link for more.

DDHB

Designs Department Handbooks were produced for most of the more significant items of equipment that were designed in the Department. They describe the equipment in detail and provide guidance for installation, operation and maintenance.  For some years handbooks were issued as DDTMs, but more recent handbooks were issued as DDHBs.

Serial numbers

The serial numbers for the above documents were allocated for each Section of Designs Department e.g. 6.xxx, so 6.123 and 7.123 are different documents.

After Designs Department and Equipment Department merged to become D&ED, the reference numbers started with a prefix denoting the four new sections that were formed: A for Audio, C for Control, R for Radio Frequency and V for Video.

Only one set of serial numbers was allocated within a Section and they were prefaced by the type of document (DDMI, DDTM, DDHB). So, DDTM 6.123 could not exist if the number had already been taken by DDMI 6.123.  (Although this does seem to have happened a few times!)

In all cases the serial number is followed by the year of publication in brackets.

For example DDHB 7.187 (72) was a Handbook produced by Section 7 (Recording Section) in 1972.

EDI Sheets

Engineering Design Information Sheets were published by Designs Department to describe some designs in outline.

Technical Documentation Cross Reference

Please refer to a Technical Documentation Cross Reference book on this page to find the DDTM/DDHB number for a piece of coded equipment.  e.g. to find the AM15/503P handbook, look for this code in the left column of the "Technical Documentation Cross Reference 1988", then find 1.103 in the DD Handbook column.

Technical Instructions

Technical Instructions on broadcasting theory and practice were published by BBC Engineering Division's Technical Publications Department.

They were produced for the benefit of BBC staff, to provide information on equipment and techniques used in broadcast engineering.  Many of them described equipment designed by Designs Department.