Such integration was much less heard of and seen ten or twenty years ago. And if you go back 30 years you'd be lucky if you had a cassette player nestled up to your record player. Even luckier if such a unit also had a AM/FM radio tuner. FM tuners weren't widely used as commercial FM radio didn't take off in Britain till the 70's, steadily gaining more popularity over AM in the 80's.
Role on to 1982 and technology integration picked up just a little more with this interesting gadget. The PYE Tube Cube
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| PYE Tube Cube Catalogue Scan from 1983 |
In 1982 this seemed to be PYE's answer to all things home media, such as it was at the time. Actually, despite being an all in one unit, comprising some fairly common appliances, it wasn't quite up to the same speed as much of the current technology. At a time when colour TV was gaining popularity, the Tube Cube only had a black and white screen. Also, TV sizes were inching upwards each year, with between 16" and 22" TV's proving popular in the early eighties, once again in full colour and often packing Teletext information services. The Tube Cube's 9", monotone, featureless TV would have put off any serious TV lover from buying it. They could buy a decent 16" TV for the same price as a Tube Cube, or put the money towards half the cost of something bigger. But the Tube Cube wasn't aimed at the serious telly addict or Videophile. It wasn't even aimed at the Audiophile either, even with it's three band radio and audio cassette player/recorder. The Tube Cube was portable and seemed to be designed for travelling and caravans. Although it wasn't very light, it did have a carry handle. It was also able to run from a 12V battery. It also had it's own telescopic adjustable aerial and an RF socket so it's user should have been able to pick up a signal no matter where they were. But I dare say, the majority of Tube Cubes sold never had the chance to go travelling. I imagine that many of them were used as a convenient space saver, money saver, or more rarely, as a second TV for the bedroom or Kitchen. In the U.K., the idea of a second TV was yet to fully catch on. But rather than fill the bedroom or kitchen with a secondary, separate HiFi and a radio and a TV, the Tube Cube's integrated features would have been just the thing. In fact they would have been perfect for the bedroom, as the Tube Cube also had a digital clock and alarm mode, enabling the owner to set the time and function to be woken with in the morning. It also had a sleep mode so the owner could fall asleep in front of the TV and it would switch itself off in due time. The short advert below seems to market the TV as a bedroom TV, being placed during a morning program with the slogan, "wake up to what PYE is doing". The Tube Cube's radio had an FM tuner alongside the AM and MW frequencies. The TV itself received VHF (Very High Frequency) signals, which also carried the FM radio signal. The tape deck on the left hand side of the unit was fairly standard, but it was able to record audio from the TV and radio, as well as external sources via it's microphone socket. A headphone socket was also present, although neither headphones or microphone were supplied with the Tube Cube. Like most TV's of the time, it had monaural sound which emanated from a single speaker on the right side of the TV. This was perfectly adequate as stereo on TV hadn't arrived yet, and wouldn't until the mid 80's. But for it's time, and despite being slightly behind the newer technology in some areas, the Tube Cube would have been a handy bit of kit for many people, and I'm sure it found it's way into many homes, being used as intended - a fancy alarm clock, if not as a second home media unit for the kitchen, or even as the perfect gadget for anyone with a caravan.  |
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