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== SAGE-Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, 1951-1958 ==
== First television broadcast in Western Canada, 1953 ==


''In 1951 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology undertook the development of an air defense system for the United States. The centerpiece of this defense system was a large digital computer originally developed at MIT. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory was formed to carry out the initial development of this system and the first of some 23 SAGE control centers was completed in 1958. SAGE was the forerunner of today’s digital computer networks.''
[[Image:Mt Seymour 01.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Construction of the CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour begins, 1953.  
This and the following historical photographs were provided by CBC Transmission, Vancouver.]]


[[Image:Sage nomination.jpg|thumb|right|Console operations at the Experimental SAGE Subsector Direction Center at Lincoln Laboratory in 1957. Copied from Reference 1 page 150 with Lincoln Laboratory’s permission]]  
[[Image:Mt Seymour 02.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Construction of the CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour continues, 1953.]]  


[[Image:Mt Seymour 03.jpg|thumb|right|240px|The CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour is complete - Fall 1953]]


[[Image:Mt Seymour Region Senior Staff.jpg|thumb|right|240px|CBC Senior Staff at the time of the Mt. Seymour broadcasting site's opening in December 1953. From Left to Right: E. F. McGrath, Supervising Operator, CBU Transmitter. R. L. Whiteside, Technical Director, TV. A. Geluch, Chief Operator, Vancouver area. D. Horne, Supervisor Technical Operations, Vancouver Studios. F. B. C. Hilton, B.C. Regional Engineer. E. Rose, Assistant Technical Director, TV. M. S. Bishop, Senior Transmitter Operator, CBUT.]]


The plaque may be viewed in the main lobby of MIT Lincoln Laboratories, Lexington, Massachusetts.
[[Image:150px-CBUT logo 1953-76.jpg|frame|right|The logo used by CBUT - channel 2 from its commissioning in 1953 until a new system-wide corporate logo was introduced in 1976.]]


''On 16 December 1953, the first television broadcast in Western Canada was transmitted from this site by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's CBUT Channel 2. The engineering experience gained here was instrumental in the subsequent establishment of the more than one thousand public and private television broadcasting sites that serve Western Canada today.''


'''Plaque will be viewable on a wall near the main gate of the CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour just below the Mount Seymour Ski Area. '''


Engineers, mathematicians, scientists and technicians, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Digital Computer Laboratory, the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory, and MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, played the key role in the development of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, the first major real-time, computer-based command- and- control system. Designed as a new air defense system to protect the United States from long-range bombers and other weapons, the SAGE system sent information from geographically dispersed radars over telephone lines and gathered it at a central location for processing by a newly designed, large-scale digital computer. As the system evolved, SAGE broke new ground in radar, communications, computer, information display, and computer programming technologies. SAGE not only revolutionized military command-and-controls, but led to landmark advances in online systems and interactive computing, real-time computing, and data communications using modems.  
The CBUT broadcasting site on Mount Seymour (North Vancouver, British Columbia) was both the first television broadcasting site in Western Canada and the first high elevation/mountain top broadcasting site in Canada. The opening broadcast featured special launch ceremonies at 6 pm and was followed by a CBC newscast at 7 pm. (Western Canada refers to the four provinces west of the Great Lakes: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is physically separated from Central Canada (Ontario and Quebec) by the Great Lakes and the relatively inhospitable Canadian Shield.)


SYSTEM OVERVIEW - The SAGE system used ground-based radars, sea-based radars on ocean platforms called Texas Towers, and airborne radars to detect enemy aircrafts. Digital communication links conveyed this information to command centers, where the first large real-time digital processors - novelties at the time – tracked the radar targets and guided fighter-interceptors to engage the intruding aircraft. Although Lincoln Laboratory’s primary responsibilities was to invent the needed command-and-control processes by using the newly emerging technology of digital computers, many development in radar technology were also needed to provide the “clean” data demanded by the computer.  
At the time of the first broadcast, the establishment of a television station in Vancouver was seen as an important contribution to Canadian sovereignty and cultural identity. The first broadcast and associated ceremonies were major events.  At the same time, CBUT provided an important training ground for and contributed to the principles and practices that guided the engineers who went on to deploy the over 1000 public and private broadcasting sites that serve Western Canada today.  


AIR DEFENSE – THE FIRST YEARS (extracted from reference [1] pages 148 -151). “The first major Lincoln Laboratory effort in air defense, the Cape Cod System, was designed to integrate a surveillance net consisting of large search radars, height-finding radars, and gap-filler radars with a central digital computer (called [[Milestones:Whirlwind Computer|Whirlwind]]) by using telephone lines for data transfer. The computer accepted target data from the radars and created tracks showing the positions and movements of the enemy aircraft. The computer then formulated a response and sent messages to the fighter aircraft so that they could intercept the target aircraft. “The first version of the Cape Cod System was fully operational in September 1953, and it demonstrated that air battles could be managed with such a system. The next step was the augmentation of the Cape Cod System to form the Experimental SAGE Subsector, which covered more of New England. The Experimental SAGE Subsector included more radars, better data processing at the radar sites, a more capable central computer (the AN/FSQ-7), and improved display and control consoles for the human operators who were an integral part of the SAGE system.  
Although VHF transmitting sites had already been established in Western Canada for FM broadcasting, these sites were generally located atop tall buildings in urban areas, e.g., VE9FG (later CBU-FM), a 1-kW FM broadcast station that became operational on 21 November 1947 and which was located at the Hotel Vancouver in downtown Vancouver''.''


“The first radar development needed to make SAGE work was to improve the performance of moving-target-indicator circuitry, which separates the echoes of the fast-moving objects of interest, namely, airplanes in flight, from echoes of slow-moving objects such as waves on the ocean and birds, and non-moving objects such as buildings and mountains. The second radar development came from an urgent need to strengthen the ability of radar to extract information despite radio-frequency interference and jamming. Both of these developments profited from enlarged understanding of communications theory, of which radar theory is a special case, that had flowered after the end of World War II. Underlying these advances was the important development of processing devices to digitize data at the remote radar sites, and send it error-free to large central computers. SAGE was a large, distributed, digital, real-time, surveillance, communications, and command-and-control system. It was the world’s first such system, and the impact of its successful development spread far beyond its role in air defense of the United States. Some historians of science and technology consider SAGE to have been the launching pad of that economic marvel, the Boston-area electronics industry.”
The three television broadcasting sites that had been established in Canada previously (in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa) were also installed at relatively low elevations. For the CBC managers of the day, establishing the network’s fourth television transmitter so far West and at a high elevation and a remote location was a bold and significant decision.


WHAT FUNCTIONS WERE PERFORMED BY SAGE? [6]:
The relatively complicated topography of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia required that considerable care be taken to choose a broadcasting site that would provide the best coverage. Predicting and evaluating the coverage of a VHF broadcast transmitter in mountainous terrain is much different from the corresponding task for the MF broadcast transmitters that had been installed at various low-level locations throughout the Lower Mainland during the 1930‘s and 1940‘s. <br>


#An early warning radar searches for approaching aircraft.
The quality of the initial site selection and engineering is underscored by the longevity of the CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour and the large number of other television and FM broadcast transmitters that are installed in the same general area today, including:
#The radar detects an enemy bomber approaching North America.
#Telephone lines carry information from the radar to the SAGE Direction Center.
#The SAGE Direction Center processes the information.
#The Direction Center notifies interceptors of the target.
#The Direction Center notifies higher headquarters.
#The radar updates the position and course of the intruding aircraft.
#The Direction Center notifies the appropriate surface-to-air missile batteries.
#The Direction Center receives information from adjoining centers.
#The Direction Center vectors interceptors to target.
#The Direction Center receives status reports and other information.
#The Direction Center provides final guidance to interceptors.
#Interceptors destroy intruding enemy bombers.
#The Direction Center receives raid assessment from interceptors.
#The Direction Center apprises headquarters of status and results.
#SAGE System maintains alert for additional hostile aircraft.


The work required research and innovations in many different fields: computer hardware and software, radar, and communications. Many organizations were involved, MIT, Lincoln Laboratory, the Cambridge Research Laboratory (AFCRL), and others. The contract for manufacturing the AN/FSQ-7 computers was awarded to IBM. Western Electric Company provided buildings and internal power supply and communications. Phone lines were provided by the Bell System. System Development Corporation (SDC) was responsible for the software which consisted of 500,000 lines of assembly language. SAGE uniqueness is evident by the many innovations attributed to SAGE as follows: [3] 1- HARDWARE DESGN: Magnetic-core memory. Digital phone-line transmission. Digital track-while-scan. 2- SOFTWARE TECHNIQUES: Multiple simultaneous users. System data structures. Structured program modules. Global data definitions. Table-driven software. Software debugging tools. Data description language. 3- USER INTERFACES: Interactive graphic displays. Light-pen input. On-line common database. 4- HIGH-RELIABILITY OPERATIONS Marginal checking. Internal parity checking. Built-in test data reduction.
'''FM stations'''


ACCOLADES FROM VARIOUS WEBSITES: A- SAGE revolutionized air defense and also contributed significantly to advances in air traffic control systems. As the SAGE system matured, the Air Force pursued the development of a number of advanced command, control, and communications systems. B- In peacetime SAGE was, for all intents, an air traffic control system. It influenced the design of the FAA’s automated control systems. C- The system also gave IBM valuable insight, and it was not long after that the CEO of American Airlines met one of the IBM people involved in SAGE by accident on a flight, and soon the two companies were developing the [[SABRE Airline Reservation System|SABRE]] airline reservation system. D- Other major SAGE developments which included the CRT based real-time user interface, and use of wide-area communications via modems.  
*BU-1-FM 88.1 (CBC Radio One)
*CBUX-FM 90.9 (Espace Musique)
*CKYE-FM 93.1 (Red FM)
*CJJR-FM 93.7 (JR-FM)
*CFBT-FM 94.5 (The Beat 94.5)
*CKZZ-FM 95.3 (Virgin Radio 95.3)
*CHKG-FM 96.1 (Fairchild Radio)
*CKLG-FM 96.9 (Jack FM)
*CBUF-FM 97.7 (Première Chaîne)
*CFOX-FM 99.3 (99.3 The Fox)
*CFMI-FM 101.1 (Rock 101)
*CFRO-FM 102.7 (Co-Op Radio)
*CHQM-FM 103.5 (103.5 QM/FM)
*CFUN-FM-2 104.9 (104.9 Fun FM)
*CBU-FM 105.7 (CBC Radio 2)
*CKAV-FM-2 106.3 (Aboriginal Voices Radio)


== REFERENCES  ==
'''TV stations'''


1. William P Delaney and William W Ward, “Radar Development at Lincoln Laboratory: An Overview of the First Fifty Years”, Lincoln Laboratory Journal, vol 12, 2000.
*CBUT-TV (CBC): VHF 2 (NTSC), UHF 58 (ATSC)
*CHAN-TV (Global): VHF 8 (NTSC) UHF 22 (ATSC)
*CIVI-TV-2 (rebroadcaster of CIVI-TV, A): UHF 17 (NTSC)
*CBUFT-TV (Radio-Canada): UHF 26 (ATSC)
*CIVT-TV (CTV): UHF 32 (NTSC), UHF 33 (ATSC)
*CHNM-TV (OMNI): UHF 42 (NTSC)


2. Thomas P. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects That Changed the Modern World (Pantheon Books, New York, 1998). Chapter 2, pp. 15-67.
== References and Further Reading ==


3. EC Freeman, ed., MIT Lincoln Laboratory: Technology in the National Interest” (Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington MA.1995). Chapter 2, “The SAGE Air Defense System” pp 14-33.
The historical context of the CBUT broadcasting site on Mount Seymour has been documented in:  


4. Robert Buderi, The Invention that Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technical Revolution (Simon &amp; Schuster, New York, 1996).  
Broadcasting in Canada: History and Development of the National System, CBC, 1962, 92 pp.  


5. Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith, From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&amp;D Story of The SAGE Air Defense Computer (MIT Press Cambridge, 2000).  
A Brief History of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, 1976, 40 pp.


6 MITRE Website.http://www.mitre.org/about/sage.html
Also see:  


== Further Reading  ==
"CBC Chief in City", 15 December 1953. Television Transmitter, Mount Seymour Docket 1, Vancouver City Archives.


Karl Wildes and Nilo Lindgren: A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882-1982 and The Electron and the Bit: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1902-2002. Chapter 17, “From Whirlpool to SAGE”, pp. 280 -301.  
Anne Kloppenborg, Ed., Vancouver's first century&nbsp;: a city album 1860-1960, Vancouver&nbsp;: J.J. Douglas, 1977.  


Robert R. Everett, ed. Special Issue: “SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment,” Annals of the History of Computing, 5:4, 1983.  
[http://www.broadcasting-history.ca| Canadian Communications Foundation] (Official site).



George E Valley, Jr., “How the SAGE Development Began,” Annals of the History of Computing, 7:3, 1985.
== Letter from the site owner giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property ==


Robert Wieser, "The Cape Cod System," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 5:4, 1983.  
[[Media:IEEE_Milestone_CBC.pdf|CBC Milestone Support Letter]]


John F. Jacobs, "The SAGE Air Defense System: A Personal History" (MITRE Corporation, 1986).
== Proposal and Nomination ==


[http://wapedia.mobi/en/Semi_Automatic_Ground_Environment%7Cwapedia: semi Automatic Ground Environment].
[[Milestone-Proposal:First television broadcast in Western Canada|First Television Broadcast in Western Canada Proposal]]


<br>
[[Milestone-Nomination:First television broadcast in Western Canada|First Television Broadcast in Western Canada Nomination]]
 
== Letter from the site owner giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property  ==
 
[[Media:Linc_Lab_memo_Doc_2011-04.pdf|SAGE Milestone Support Letter]]
 
== Proposal and Nomination ==
 
[[Milestone-Proposal:SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment)]]<br><br>[[Milestone-Nomination:SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment)]]  


== Map ==
== Map ==


{{#display_map:42.458626, -71.263568~ ~ ~ ~ ~Lincoln Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, MA|height=250|zoom=10|static=yes|center=42.458626, -71.263568}}
{{#display_map:49.353611,-122.956667~ ~ ~ ~ ~CBC Broadcasting Site, Vancouver, Canada|height=250|zoom=10|static=yes|center=49.353611,-122.956667}}


[[Category:Computing_and_electronics|{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Communications|{{PAGENAME}}]]

Revision as of 18:31, 6 January 2015

First television broadcast in Western Canada, 1953

Construction of the CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour begins, 1953. This and the following historical photographs were provided by CBC Transmission, Vancouver.
Construction of the CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour continues, 1953.
The CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour is complete - Fall 1953
CBC Senior Staff at the time of the Mt. Seymour broadcasting site's opening in December 1953. From Left to Right: E. F. McGrath, Supervising Operator, CBU Transmitter. R. L. Whiteside, Technical Director, TV. A. Geluch, Chief Operator, Vancouver area. D. Horne, Supervisor Technical Operations, Vancouver Studios. F. B. C. Hilton, B.C. Regional Engineer. E. Rose, Assistant Technical Director, TV. M. S. Bishop, Senior Transmitter Operator, CBUT.
The logo used by CBUT - channel 2 from its commissioning in 1953 until a new system-wide corporate logo was introduced in 1976.

On 16 December 1953, the first television broadcast in Western Canada was transmitted from this site by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's CBUT Channel 2. The engineering experience gained here was instrumental in the subsequent establishment of the more than one thousand public and private television broadcasting sites that serve Western Canada today.

Plaque will be viewable on a wall near the main gate of the CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour just below the Mount Seymour Ski Area.

The CBUT broadcasting site on Mount Seymour (North Vancouver, British Columbia) was both the first television broadcasting site in Western Canada and the first high elevation/mountain top broadcasting site in Canada. The opening broadcast featured special launch ceremonies at 6 pm and was followed by a CBC newscast at 7 pm. (Western Canada refers to the four provinces west of the Great Lakes: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is physically separated from Central Canada (Ontario and Quebec) by the Great Lakes and the relatively inhospitable Canadian Shield.)

At the time of the first broadcast, the establishment of a television station in Vancouver was seen as an important contribution to Canadian sovereignty and cultural identity. The first broadcast and associated ceremonies were major events.  At the same time, CBUT provided an important training ground for and contributed to the principles and practices that guided the engineers who went on to deploy the over 1000 public and private broadcasting sites that serve Western Canada today.

Although VHF transmitting sites had already been established in Western Canada for FM broadcasting, these sites were generally located atop tall buildings in urban areas, e.g., VE9FG (later CBU-FM), a 1-kW FM broadcast station that became operational on 21 November 1947 and which was located at the Hotel Vancouver in downtown Vancouver.

The three television broadcasting sites that had been established in Canada previously (in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa) were also installed at relatively low elevations. For the CBC managers of the day, establishing the network’s fourth television transmitter so far West and at a high elevation and a remote location was a bold and significant decision.

The relatively complicated topography of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia required that considerable care be taken to choose a broadcasting site that would provide the best coverage. Predicting and evaluating the coverage of a VHF broadcast transmitter in mountainous terrain is much different from the corresponding task for the MF broadcast transmitters that had been installed at various low-level locations throughout the Lower Mainland during the 1930‘s and 1940‘s.

The quality of the initial site selection and engineering is underscored by the longevity of the CBC Broadcasting Site on Mount Seymour and the large number of other television and FM broadcast transmitters that are installed in the same general area today, including:

FM stations

  • BU-1-FM 88.1 (CBC Radio One)
  • CBUX-FM 90.9 (Espace Musique)
  • CKYE-FM 93.1 (Red FM)
  • CJJR-FM 93.7 (JR-FM)
  • CFBT-FM 94.5 (The Beat 94.5)
  • CKZZ-FM 95.3 (Virgin Radio 95.3)
  • CHKG-FM 96.1 (Fairchild Radio)
  • CKLG-FM 96.9 (Jack FM)
  • CBUF-FM 97.7 (Première Chaîne)
  • CFOX-FM 99.3 (99.3 The Fox)
  • CFMI-FM 101.1 (Rock 101)
  • CFRO-FM 102.7 (Co-Op Radio)
  • CHQM-FM 103.5 (103.5 QM/FM)
  • CFUN-FM-2 104.9 (104.9 Fun FM)
  • CBU-FM 105.7 (CBC Radio 2)
  • CKAV-FM-2 106.3 (Aboriginal Voices Radio)

TV stations

  • CBUT-TV (CBC): VHF 2 (NTSC), UHF 58 (ATSC)
  • CHAN-TV (Global): VHF 8 (NTSC) UHF 22 (ATSC)
  • CIVI-TV-2 (rebroadcaster of CIVI-TV, A): UHF 17 (NTSC)
  • CBUFT-TV (Radio-Canada): UHF 26 (ATSC)
  • CIVT-TV (CTV): UHF 32 (NTSC), UHF 33 (ATSC)
  • CHNM-TV (OMNI): UHF 42 (NTSC)

References and Further Reading

The historical context of the CBUT broadcasting site on Mount Seymour has been documented in:

Broadcasting in Canada: History and Development of the National System, CBC, 1962, 92 pp.

A Brief History of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, 1976, 40 pp.

Also see:

"CBC Chief in City", 15 December 1953. Television Transmitter, Mount Seymour Docket 1, Vancouver City Archives.

Anne Kloppenborg, Ed., Vancouver's first century : a city album 1860-1960, Vancouver : J.J. Douglas, 1977.

Canadian Communications Foundation (Official site).


Letter from the site owner giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property

CBC Milestone Support Letter

Proposal and Nomination

First Television Broadcast in Western Canada Proposal

First Television Broadcast in Western Canada Nomination

Map

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