Equipment Department - A specialist department of BBC Engineering Division between 1924 and 1993

Equipment Department was created in 1924 and developed into a large department that manufactured and tested equipment needed by the BBC.  After 1947, a large proportion of the equipment that it produced was designed by Designs Department.  ED also included the BBC's Central Stores, Transport and the Receiver Section which installed and maintained television sets for important people, including royalty.  From 1929 ED was based at Avenue House in Clapham and in 1958 it moved to Avenue House in Chiswick. 

Click here to see a video about Equipment Department (on Youtube), contributed to BBCeng by David Brown.  It was made in 1984 for an exhibition that was held at the BBC's Woodlands building in West London.  Originally the video was 8 minutes long, but for this web site it has been reduced by Martin Ellen to the part that includes a commentary and it is now 3 minutes long.  The remaining shots were mainly of workshop equipment and while this was appropriate for the exhibition in 1984 they are not really relevant for this web site.

Equipment Department's "Control of Engineering Material, it's Acquisition, Storage and Transport" is described in this CEMAST booklet.pdf

ED122 "Specification for the Wiring of Equipment" is a 185 page document that covers this subject is some detail.  If you would like more information please click here to send an email. 
This is a pretty 'dry' document!  Here is a typical extract:-

B2.6  Colour Coding
Where transistor leads are sleeved, or discrete wiring is used to extend transistor terminations the following colour code is to be used:-
Collector  - Blue
Emitter    - Yellow
Base       - Green

Avenue House, Power Road, Chiswick.  Home of Equipment Department (and later D&ED) from 1958 - 1993

Avenue House shortly before Design and Equipment Department closed down in 1993