The Fernseh AG television company was registered in Berlin on July 3, 1929, by John Logie Baird, Robert Bosch, Zeiss Ikon and D.S. Loewe as partners. John Baird owned Baird Television Ltd. in London, Zeiss Ikon was a camera company in Dresden, D.S. Loewe owned a company in Berlin and Robert Bosch owned a company, Robert Bosch GmbH, in Stuttgart.[1] with an initial capital of 100,000 Reichsmark. Fernseh AG did research and manufacturing of television equipment.[2][3]

Fernseh
IndustryMass media
FoundedJuly 3, 1929
Headquarters
Berlin
,
Germany

Etymology

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The company name "Fernseh AG" is a compound of Fernsehen ‘television’ and Aktiengesellschaft (AG) ‘joint-stock company’. The company was mainly known by its German abbreviation "FESE".[4] See section see also on this page for other uses.

Early years

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In 1929 Fernseh AG's original board of directors included: Emanuel Goldberg, Oliver George Hutchinson (for Baird), David Ludwig Loewe, and Erich Carl Rassbach (for Bosch) and Eberhard Falkenstein who did the legal work.[4]Carl Zeiss's company worked alongside the early Bosch company. Much of the early work was in the area of research and development. Along with early TV sets (DE-6, E1, DE10) Fernseh AG made the first "Remote Truck"/"OB van", an "intermediate-film" mobile television camera in August 1932. This was a film camera that had its film developed in the truck and a "telecine" then transmitted the signal almost "live".[5]

Fernseh GmbH

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  • In 1939 Robert Bosch GmbH took complete ownership of Fernseh AG when Zeiss Ikon AG sold its share of Fernseh AG.
  • In 1952 Fernseh moved to Darmstadt, Germany, and increased its broadcast product line.[6]
  • In 1967 Fernseh, by then commonly called "Bosch Fernseh", introduced color TV products. Fernseh offered a full line of video and film equipment: professional video cameras, VTRs and telecine devices. On August 27, 1967, the first color TV program in Germany aired, with a live broadcast from a Bosch Fernseh outside broadcast (OB) van. The networks ZDF, NDR and WDR each acquired a new color OB van from Bosch Fernseh to begin broadcasting in color.

Fernsehanlagen GmbH

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In 1972 Robert Bosch renamed its TV division: Fernsehanlagen GmbH (Fernseh facilities). The company supplied almost all the studio equipment for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The Darmstadt HQ had over 2000 employees in 1972. In 1972 Fernseh started to manufacture SECAM TV studio equipment for Moscow.

Fernseh Inc.

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  • In October 1979 Bell and Howell's TeleMation Inc. Division located in Salt Lake City, Utah, entered a joint venture with Robert Bosch GmbH, Bosch's Fernseh Division. The new joint venture was called Fernseh Inc., Bosch Fernseh Division, located in Darmstadt, Germany.
  • In April 1982 Bosch fully acquired Fernseh Inc., renaming it "Robert Bosch Corporation, Fernseh Division".
  • In 1986 Bosch entered into a new joint venture with Philips Broadcast in Breda, Netherlands. This new company was called Broadcast Television Systems or BTS inc. Philips had been in the Broadcast market for many years with a line of PC- and LDK- Norelco professional video cameras and other video products.
  • In 1995 Philips Electronics North America Corp. fully acquired BTS Inc., renaming it Philips Broadcast-Philips Digital Video Systems. Philips sold many of the Spirit DataCines.
  • In March 2001 this Philips division was sold to Thomson SA, the Division was call Thomson Multimedia. In 2002, the French electronics giant Thomson SA also acquired the Grass Valley Group from a private investor that had acquired it three years earlier from Tektronix in Beaverton, Oregon, USA. The name of this division of Thomson was shortened to Grass Valley. The Fernseh's Darmstadt factory, near the Darmstadt Train Station and European Space Operations Centre was moved a short distance to Weiterstadt, Germany. (Later, Grass Valley was sold to Belden on February 6, 2014. Belden also owned Miranda.)[7]
  • Thomson Film Division, located in Weiterstadt including the product line of Spirit DataCine 4K, Bones Workstation, Scanity realtime film scanner and LUTher 3D Color Space converter, was sold to Parter Capital Group.[8] The sale was made public on Sept. 9, 2008 and completed on Dec. 1, 2008. The new Headquarters was still in Weiterstadt, the former Bosch Fernseh — BTS factory. Parter Capital Group continued to have worldwide offices to support products from Weiterstadt, Germany.[9][8] The new name of the company is Digital Film Technology.[10] DFT Digital Film Technology[11] became part of a new company: Precision Mechatronics GmbH in Weiterstadt, Germany.[12] On October 1, 2012 Precision Mechatronics and DFT were acquired by Prasad Group, part of Prasad Studios.[13][14] In 2013 DFT moved from Weiterstadt to Arheilgen-Darmstadt, Germany.

Products

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[15][16][17]

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Offices

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Past and current offices in the cities of acquisitions (see History):

See also

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References and notes

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