Before I start this video, I want to clarify what the Domesday book is, because if you're
not from the UK, or perhaps just didn't bother listening in history classes, then you may
not know.
It's not a book which foretells the end of the world.
It is however a book completed by 1086 which collected a lot of information about England
and it lands.
This information collected would affect the people of the land, and it's for that reason
it received the name of Domesday Book... meaning the book of Last Judgement.
Right, let's crack on,
For this one, we're going to have to start a little further back, in the year 1085.
With William the Conqueror now firmly in control of England and most of Wales he decided to
send men to each corner of his country to find out how his land was being used and who
occupied it.
The ultimate goal really, to value his wealth and ascertain what taxes could be reaped.
Of course, centuries on, it proved an invaluable source of information for historians, providing
a glimpse of 11th century life in unprecedented detail.
It's with this in mind that the BBC & the Department of Trade and Industry would strike
a partnership with The Open University, Acorn Computers, Philips and Logica to create a
modern version for the book's 900th birthday.
With funding granted by the European Commission's ESPIRIT programme, work began on compiling
life in Britain between 1984 and 1986, with the results stored on a set of incredibly
shiny Laser Discs.
Mmmmmmm, look at those colours.
Beautiful isn't it?
Now, this was cutting edge technology at the time.
So cutting edge in fact, that at the project's commencement, it hadn't actually been built.
The task left for Acorn, Philips and Logica to fight out, was to devise the means of using
a BBC Master Computer to access this multitude of information digitally.
None of this book nonsense, this was 1984 for Christ's sake.
The basis of this kit would be Laser Disc (you know, those huge discs that were hoped
to be the future), but this consortium of companies weren't running into the darkness
blind.
In 1982 laserdiscs such as David Attenborough's Videobook of British Garden Birds were being
produced by the BBC.
Unlike most discs, this wonder of technology actually embedded teletext in a data channel,
allowing any decoder equipped televisions to display information at the press of the
viewer's button.
Of course, teletext data has the benefit of being stored in an analogue format, just like
Laserdiscs.
What Acorn needed was the ability for their computers to not only overlay and navigate
laserdisc information, but retrieve digital data that could be used by the computer as
well.
There were VIS systems which used LaserDisc or even VHS cassettes alongside a floppy disk
for data, but these were nowhere near large enough in size.
By 1985, and working alongside Philips (who were really the only videodisc manufacturers
in Europe), a method was devised to store data in what they called a "semi-analogue"
form, using the audio track on each LaserDisc.
This method allowed each disc to hold the equivalent of roughly 2 gigabytes.
A colossal amount of data, especially back then.
So, what does that mean?
Well, it means that the data simply sat in the digital audio track of the LaserDisc,
allowing the best of both worlds.
Whilst this technology was finalised, the BBC began writing to 30,000 schools across
Britain to request they take part in a huge data collection.
10,000 schools, involving approximately 1,000 children, were estimated to make the scheme
work.
For the schools which agreed to take part, a 12kM square was allocated based on Ordnance
Survey Maps.
The school were then sent a set of discs containing a database questionnaire requesting details
on geography, amenities and general land use.
There was also space for students to write about the area in their own words.
These discs were compatible with the BBC Micro's used in most schools, and once completed were
sent back to the BBC for compilation.
A similar land utilisation survey had been initiated in the 1930s by Sir Dudley Stamp,
which lasted some 15 years.
The BBC, armed with latest technology, were aiming to have it completed within 2.
Peter Armstrong was the editor of the Domesday Project and in his own words, the aim was
to "create a portrait, in data and pictures of Britain and the British during the mid-1980s".
No small feat, and one which was costing some £2 million pounds to produce.
The advantage we had in the UK of course was that, following the BBC Literacy Project a
few years earlier and the government's push to get computers in schools; the BBC Micro
was now so highly adopted throughout academia, that it was the perfect time to orchestrate
a national project on this scale.
By the start of 1986, a staggering amount of data had been collected, which not only
gave a impressive image of 1980s Britain, but also demonstrated the stark contrast between
land use from the original 1086 Domesday book, and that of today.
But of course, no one expected anything less.
This was 900 years of development.
What was even clearer, was this project, was not only creating an incredible resource for
the future, but also teaching school children about their surroundings AND how to use a
computer, and let's face it, everyone wanted to use the school computer in
the 80s.
By the end of 1986, Project Domesday was complete, and it really culminated in this.
2 separate discs, one entitled the Community Disc and one, the National Disc.
Everything is presented in these glorious packs, with dense, but yet, easy to read instructions
and a plethora of leaflets and bits.
But then, you'd expect no less.
This might be the software charged with leading this new Laser Disc format forward, but it
was also pretty expensive.
Separately, the disc packs alone were several hundred pounds, but for the whole caboodle,
you'd need a BBC Master AIV Micro, the BBC AIV VP415 LaserVision Player, and a colour
monitor.
This setup would set you back a cool £5,156.75 including VAT.
That's almost £15,000 in today's money, or roughly $20,000 dollars.
That's no small sum for a school to fork out.
Although if a school already had a standard 128K BBC Master and monitor, it could be upgraded
using a kit instead.
But even still, at more than twice the predicted costs, the government decided to subsidise
take up, in order to actually get it into schools and libraries.
So, what do we get for all that money and hard work?
Well, let's start with the Community Disc.
Now, each disc is actually a dual-sided LV-ROM Format, allowing up to 324MB of data to be
stored on each side.
That's alongside the analogue information we spoke about earlier, which translates to
54,000 video frames.
The format allows either video & data or video & audio to exist simultaneously at any point,
so if we were to just load this disc up without turning on the BBC Master computer.
It will simply play the video track on the disk, straight through to the monitor.
If we want to interact with it, then we need to power up the BBC Master first, then pop
in the disc.
With the Laser Disc under control, the Beeb will then automatically load, using the built
in ROM.
Of course, this isn't any old BBC Master.
The AIV Microcomputer contains an additional 65C192 Co-processor, a SCSI interface, Video
Filing System ROM for reading the data, and also the ability to receive input from this,
the supplied trackerball interface.
Now these are huge devices.
I remember my small child hands barely being able to navigate it back in the day, but it's
also a welcome addition.
It plugs into the User Port, can be placed in your lap if required and looks a lot like
a Marconi trackerball - a device released for several systems of the era, allowing our
little micros to have cursors.
Like a REAL Computer!
Now the Master's RGB video out actually connects in to the LaserVision player, which then passes
the signal onto the monitor.
A SCSI connector transmits data between the Master and LaserVision, and really we're good
to go.
The first message we get is the BBC Micro, telling us it's loading data from the Disc,
then we go straight into the intro video.
Now, on each side this disc is split into North and South areas of the UK, so depending
on which side you load, you get a different introduction.
Mmmmmmmmm, so 80s.
There's always a dark, dystopian, almost foreboding edge to 80s title sequences, and I bloody
love it.
From there, the interface is the same on both sides.
We can explore the entire area of Britain.
Zooming in on areas of the Ordnance Survey map, zooming out, and then, where-ever our
attention is grabbed, we can choose one of these grid areas, and see just what was collected
from each school in that area.
There will be photos - some of which were actually sourced through a competition run
by the BBC.
There will be texts, telling us about corner shops, or Christopher's day at school.
Really, whatever they opted to submit on their BBC questionnaire disks.
It's not just limited to school submissions however.
We have reports on local area traffic, crime rates, economy and all sorts going on.
Thankfully, there's also a search feature, which is pretty rapid, and quite forgiving
in its nature.
Each side of the disc contains high level country wide data (at a 40x30Km block size),
but if you need to access data from the other disc at any time, then the system will simply
ask you to swap the disc over, and then resume when ready.
Now the software itself was where Logica played their part.
Its's written using BCPL - an ancestor of the C programming language, and it was fairly
unique in using a compiled intermediate code which ran on a virtual machine.
Making it very portable if required, and an early instance of this type of development.
The possibility was actually floated of running the discs on an Amiga, as there was a BCPL
for the platform, however this wouldn't have been practical for school use, with it's huge
Micro adoption.
The search functionality can be ascribed to Martin Porter, who developed a highly flexible
alogrithm to help navigate the huge swathes of data.
It's clear once you use the discs how perfect Interactive Video was to present this information.
There simply would have been no other way to serve up this incredible variance of facts,
figures, photos, movies and texts, without this technology and this capacity in place.
The technology also presents a very clear disaply, and that's largely due to the inclusion
of a special PAL decoder which can handle a two-field colour sequence, allowing for
a stable image.
All in all, it really is a fascinating & vast treasure trove of the 1980s.
We take it for granted now-days, but really, it's a lot like a fore-runner to Google Maps,
dotted with individual blogs of information.
I mean, it's a Google maps completely limited to the United Kingdom, but for 1986, it's
a mean feat. of collective engineering and labour.
Let's move onto the National Disc.
Now, this is by far my favourite disc.
Side B is filled with video clips and images of all things 80s.
Mostly news reports and all in chronological order.
But Side A is where its at.
This is what I spent hours on at school.
You start off in a Gallery, the gallery is sectioned into different topics such as Sport,
Daily Life, Consumerism and Royal Heritage.
You can search around these topics through the paintings if you wish.
There are actually have entire hierarchies of National statistics and information here,
and as you drill down deeper on each one, you can find texts about Society, the Economy,
Holiday Destinations, the Environment... all sorts.
There's a lot here.
But as you walk around in this first person perspective, you quickly notice doors which
lead outside, and YES, you can walk out
of them.
Where you end up is a variety of destinations from around the UK, but the beauty is, you
can actually walk around them, just like you can in Google Street view.
Look, here's Brecon, a town in mid-Wales, and you can walk down the street, turn around,
walk back, and even enter houses, where you might confront a Nun perhaps (for some unknown
reason), or a shop and greet the shop keeper.
I mean, this is bloody amazing, and you've got to remember this was 1986.
I didn't actually see a copy of this disc until the early 90s and it still blew me away
some 5 years after its release!
After all, this was still a time when most of us were used to a maximum of 16 on screen
colours, and pixels as large as our pupils.
Now, these walks, are called Surrogate Virtual Walks, and they're not unique to the Domesday
Project.
In fact a few further discs released by the BBC, including the Eco disc, contain their
own virtual walks.
That one is around, and even across the middle of
a lake.
But what is the same, is how these walks were captured.
Clearly, there wasn't a Google Car driving around, with a huge spinning camera on top.
Nope, back in the mid 80s, this was all accomplished on foot using a video camera.
Still images were then grabbed & converted from tape LaserDisc format, for our viewing
pleasure.
Although there aren't that many destinations, it's still pretty mind boggling.
You can even walk around inside a block of flats if it takes your fancy.
So let's have a stroll through Brecon comparing 1986 with 2018.
The first thing that stands out is the cars.
No Austins running about in 2018 unfortunately.
Most of the buildings, are the same, although some converted for other use, and we even
have a white van parked in the same spot.
No confused teenager walking past however.
Further down the high street, we've still got that branch of Lloyds bank by the look
of it and YES GIBB SPORTS has made it.
Well, that I am happy about.
So, there's a lot of information here.
But most of it is more of historical interest than everyday browsing, so what do you do
with all these expensive equipment when you're all Domesdayed out?
Well, this was a problem the BBC and its associated companies realised as well, and so a number
of other discs were published to enable schools to maximise the use of their machines.
This included the aforementioned Eco Disc, a Country Side Disc, but my favourite is the
Volcanoes disc.
There's so much wonder on here.
But despite these discs, the Domesday Machine didn't last long.
Other, faster, smaller, mediums of storage, and crucially, suitable file formats (such
as JPG) quickly arrived on the scene and although the kit is considered a success, it never
reached the anticipated sales, that were hoped would be sparked by the incredible interactivity
of these discs.
Fortunately, despite the equipment now being over 30 years old, there are still a few machines
about where you can have a hands on experience, such as here at the Centre for Computing History
in Cambridge.
The kit is actually more hardy than many believe.
This baby could spin for hours, and indeed does, on a daily basis.
But this technology is still fading out rapidly, and the discs used to hold the data are suffering
from the dreaded Bit-Rot at an alarming rate.
So what do you do with all this information, if in another 20 years we won't be able to
access it at all?
Well, that's where preservation projects come in, and thankfully a great deal of effort
has been made to ensure the contents of the Domesday discs remains with us.
At the launch of the Digital Preservation Coalition in 2002, Lloyd Grossman held up
a Domesday Videodisc to highlight the issue of 'digital obsolescence', and plans were
put in motion to retrieve the data.
This resulted in the CAMiLEON project which investigated emulation of the original hardware.
Ironically, the project website can now only be accessed through the internet archive.
More recently volunteers, including Tim Porter and Jason Fitzpatrick at the Centre for Computing
History helped to unpick the data from the original laser discs and put them into a modern
format, including the Domesday promotional disc, shown throughout this video.
In 2011, the BBC would use preserved data to host Domesday Reloaded on their website.
It wasn't the same as the original experience of course, but most of the information was
there for you to peruse.
It has since been moved to the National Archives, where it exists in, what I'd call a less than
desirable fashion.
For example, the 2011 search function is no longer operational.
BUT, we still have projects like Domesday86, run by Simon Inns and Ian Smallshire who are
aiming to actually preserve the system itself and recreate the experience of the original
BBC Domesday project on modern hardware.
The website has a huge collection of information on the project and I'd advise taking a look
if you want to stay updated.
In the mean time, get down to the Centre of Computing History and have a go yourself.
I mean, where else can you get the chance to walk about a Welsh 1980s town?
Exactly.
Thanks for watching.
There are hopefully some more videos here that may take your interest, and ways to support
my channel.
In any case, have a great evening! :D
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