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| Industry | Electronics |
|---|---|
| Founded | Cambridge, 1896 |
| Defunct | 1988 |
| Fate | Discontinued |
| Headquarters | York Street,Cambridge |
| Products | Televisions Radios Telecommunications equipment |
| Parent | Philips |
Pye Ltd was an electronics company founded in 1896 inCambridge, England, as a manufacturer of scientific instruments. The company merged withEKCO in 1960.Philips of the Netherlands acquired a majority shareholding in 1967, and later gained full ownership.
W. G. Pye & Co. Ltd was founded in 1896 in Cambridge byWilliam Pye, superintendent of theCavendish Laboratory workshop, as a part-time business making scientific instruments.[1] By the outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914, the company employed 40 people manufacturing instruments used for teaching and research. The war increased demand for such instruments and theWar Office needed experimentalthermionic valves. The manufacture of such components afforded the company the technical knowledge needed to develop the first wireless receiver when the first UK broadcasts were made by theBritish Broadcasting Company in 1922. Instruments continued to be designed and manufactured under W G Pye Ltd, later situated in York Street Cambridge, while a separate company was started to build wireless components in a factory to become known as Cambridge Works at Church Path,Chesterton.
A series of receivers made at Church Path were given positive reviews byPopular Wireless magazine. In 1924,Harold Pye, the son of the founder, andEdward Appleton, his former tutor atSt John's College, Cambridge, designed a new series of receivers which proved even more saleable. In 1928 William Pye sold the company, now renamed Pye Radio Limited, toC. O. Stanley, who established a chain of small component-manufacturing factories acrossEast Anglia.
When the BBC started to explore television broadcasting, Pye found that the closest of their East Anglian offices was 25 miles outside the estimated effective 25-mile radius of theAlexandra Palace transmitter. Stanley was fascinated by the new technology and on his instructions the company built ahigh gain receiver that could pick up these transmissions. In 1937, a five-inch Pye television receiver was priced at 21guineas (£22.05) and within two years the company had sold 2,000 sets at an average price of £34 (equivalent to £2,663 in 2023).[2]
The newEF50 valve fromPhilips enabled Pye to build this high-gain receiver, which was atuned radio frequency (TRF) type and not asuperhet type. With the outbreak ofWorld War II, the Pye receiver using EF50 valves became a key component of manyradar receivers, forming the 45 MHzIntermediate Amplifier (IF) section of the equipment. Pye went on to design and manufacture radio equipment for theBritish Army, including Wireless SetsNo. 10,18,19, 22,62 and 68. Pye was also responsible for the early development work on theproximity fuze for anti-aircraft shells.
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In February 1944, Pye formed a subsidiary called Pye Telecommunications Ltd, which it intended would design and produce radio communications equipment when the war ended.[3] This company grew to become the leading UK producer of mobile radio equipment for commercial, business, industrial, police and government purposes. Popular products included theReporter,Cambridge, andWestminster series of VHF radio transceivers. The company also produced the PF8 UHF hand-held radios featured in episodes ofThe Professionals television series.
After the war, Pye's B16T nine-inch table television was designed around the 12-year-old EF50 valve. It was soon superseded by the B18T, which used an extrahigh tension (EHT)transformer developed by German companies before the war to produce the high voltage required by thecathode-ray tube.
In 1955, the company diversified into music production withPye Records. TheIndependent Television Authority (ITA) started public transmissions in the same year, so Pye produced new televisions that could receiveITV, and the availability of a second channel introduced the need for tuners. Pye's VT4 tunable television was launched in March 1954 and was followed by the V14. The V14 proved to be technically unreliable and so tarnished the Pye name that many dealers transferred their allegiance to other manufacturers. This failure so damaged corporate confidence that Pye avoided being first-to-market thereafter, although they developed the first Britishtransistor in 1956.
Pye TVT Ltd was formed to produce broadcast television equipment, including cameras, which were popular with British broadcasters including the BBC as well as achieving international sales. The early cameras were called "Photicon" and the later models by theirMk number: 2, 3, etc. The Mk7/8 solid-state monochrome cameras were the last to be produced. The Pye Mk6image orthicon camera, known as the PC60, was the last version supplied to BBC Outside Broadcasts in 1963 for a new fleet of eightoutside broadcast vans. These cameras were the first generation of outside broadcast cameras to feature a zoom lens, rather than a turret system.[4] These three-tubed cameras were known for their reliability but were so heavy and unwieldy that they required a stretcher to carry them around the OB site. The Pye PC60 was eventually replaced by theEMI 2001 on BBC outside broadcasts but, during its lifespan, it was used on numerous high-profile productions including Wimbledon tennis and Open golf.
The ITV companies purchased the Pye Mk3s, and to a lesser extent the Mk4s and Mk7s. Pye TVT never produced a colour broadcast television camera, but there was an abortive colour telecine camera; few if any were sold. The reason for this was probably the financial difficulties the company was in.
In 1960, Pye acquired the Telephone Manufacturing Company.[5][6]
Not wishing to risk further damage to their fragile brand, Pye first used transistors in a product sold as a subsidiary brand: the Pam 710 radio (1956), with the transistors themselves labelled Newmarket Transistors (another subsidiary).[7] When this proved acceptable the company launched the Pye 123 radio (1957, still with the Newmarket label on the novel internal components).[8] Products such as these reversed the decline but the arrival of Japanese competition reduced demand to a level that threatened the viability of the manufacturing plants. In 1960, Pye merged with its rivalEKCO to form British Electronic Industries Ltd,[9] with C. O. Stanley as chairman and E. K. Cole as vice-chairman.
The company, like most of its domestic competitors, attempted to restore demand with price competition and, where viable production exceeded demand, sold excess stock at loss-making clearance prices. By 1966 Pye was in such difficulties that they started to reduce their manufacturing capacity with closure of the EKCO factory inSouthend-on-Sea.
Philips attempted to buy out the ailing Pye in 1966. The Minister of TechnologyTony Benn determined that a complete sale would create ade facto monopoly so he permitted the transfer of only a 60% shareholding, with an undertaking that theLowestoft factory would continue to manufacture televisions.[10]
On 20 April 1964,BBC2 was launched, broadcasting entirely on the new television standard of625-lineUHF, but BBC1 and ITV would remain in405-lineVHF until 1969, when they began UHF broadcasting. During this transition, television receivers in the UK had to handle both the VHF and UHF wavebands, which added to the cost of producing the sets. The price of a dual-standard set, combined with the limited coverage of BBC2, meant that initial sales of dual-standard sets were slow.
PAL colour test signals began in 1966 and scheduled transmissions commenced on BBC2 on 1 July 1967, with a full colour service beginning on that channel on 2 December 1967. BBC1 and ITV followed suit on 15 November 1969. Colour broadcasting added further to the cost and complexity of producing television sets. The resulting high price and low coverage areas of the new technology delayed consumer adoption further: it wasn't until 1977 that the number of colourlicences sold outnumbered those of black and white.
In the early 1970s,Sony andHitachi launched UK colour televisions that cost less than £200. Domestic manufacturers attempted to compete, but were handicapped by outdated manufacturing techniques and an inflexible workforce. Pye found themselves with high stocks and low cash flow at a time of poor industrial relations, alow-growth economy and limited scope for reducing costs. The Pye group of companies was bought outright by Philips in 1976. The Lowestoft factory was subsequently sold toSanyo and Philips moved the manufacture of Pye televisions to Singapore.
Prior to the manufacturing offshoring, the company produced a range of televisions branded 'Pye Chelsea'. The range wereteak-clad withstainless steel 'feet'. The Chelsea range were popular with TV rental companies such asRadio Rentals,Rumbelows and Wigfalls. Maintenance of these sets continued well into the 1980s, with the northern rental chain Wigfalls being the last to withdraw them in 1988.[citation needed]
In 1979 Pye were implicated in an episode of Granada'sWorld in Action in relation to the sale of UHF and VHF radios as well as telephone intercept equipment which was used by the UgandanPublic Safety Unit, the secret police ofIdi Amin's rule responsible for killing perhaps several hundred thousand Ugandans.[11] Pye had been supplying Uganda through Wilken Telecommunications, its East Africa distributor.[12]
The Pye brand enjoyed a short-lived renaissance in audio equipment (known asmusic centres) during the 1970s, and in the late 1980s with televisions[citation needed] andVideo 2000 video recorders. The brand later appeared on DVD recorders.[citation needed]
Since 2021, the Pye brand and symbol has been owned by manufacturer Alice Ltd.[13][14]
