Pye
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:''This article is about the electronics company '''Pye Ltd.'''. For other uses of '''Pye''' see [[Pye (disambiguation)]].''
'''Pye Ltd.''' was an electronics company founded in [[Cambridge]], [[England]] and is currently wholly owned by [[Philips]].
==Early growth==
W.G. Pye & Co. Ltd. was founded in 1896 in Cambridge by [[William George Pye]], an employee of the [[Cavendish Laboratory]], as a part time business making scientific instruments. By the outbreak of [[World War I]] in 1914 the company employed forty people manufacturing instruments that were used for teaching and research. The war increased demand for such instruments and the [[War Office]] needed experimental [[thermionic valve]]s. The manufacture of these components afforded the company the technical knowledge that it needed to develop the first "wireless" (as early radios were called) when the first UK broadcasts were made by the [[BBC]] in 1922.
The company started a wireless components factory at Church Path, [[Chesterton, Cambridgeshire|Chesterton]] and the series of receivers that it made were given positive reviews by ''[[Popular Wireless]]'' magazine. In 1924 Harold Pye, the son of the founder, and [[Edward Appleton]], his former tutor at [[St. John's College]] designed a new series of receivers which proved even more saleable. In 1928 William Pye sold the company, now renamed Pye Radio Ltd., to [[C. O. Stanley]], who established a chain of small component-manufacturing factories across [[East Anglia]].
When the BBC started to explore television broadcasting, Pye found that the closest of their East Anglian offices was some 25 miles outside the estimated effective 25 mile radius of the [[Alexandra Palace]] transmitter. Stanley was fascinated by the new technology and on his instructions the company built a high gain receiver that could pick up these transmissions. In 1937 a 5-inch Pye television receiver was priced at 21 [[guinea]]s (£22.05) and within two years the company had sold 2,000 sets at an average price of £34.
The new EF50 valve from Philips, enabled Pye to build this high gain receiver, which was a Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) type, and not a superhet type. With the outbreak of [[World War II|World War 2]] the Pye receiver using EF50 valves became a key component of many [[radar]] receivers, forming the 45 MHz Intermediate Amplifier (IF) section of the equipment. Pye went on to design and manufacture many famous British Army radio equipments such as Wireless Sets No. 10, 18, [[Wireless Set No. 19|19]], 22, 62, 68.
In February 1944 Pye formed a specialist division called Pye Telecommunications Ltd which it intended would design and produce radio communications equipment when the war ended. This company developed, prospered and grew to become the leading UK producer of mobile radio equipment for commercial, business, industrial, police and Government purposes. See http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org
[[Image:Pye-TV-demo-in-Mons(Belgium)1947.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Demo of television in Mons (Belgium) on 16th sept. 1947]]After the war Pye's B16T 9" table television was designed around the twelve-year-old EF50 valve. It was soon superseded by the B18T, which used an extra high tension transformer (EHT) developed by German companies before the war to produce high cathode ray tube voltages.
In 1955 the company diversified into music production with [[Pye Records]]. The [[Independent Television Authority]] (ITA) started public transmissions in the same year so Pye had to produce new television designs that could receive ITV and the availability of a second channel introduced the need for tuners. Pye's V4 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 British [[transistor]] in 1956. They also produced broadcast television equipment, including cameras which, as well as international sales, were very popular with British broadcasters including the BBC. The early cameras were called "the Photicon" and the later ones by their Mk number 2,3 etc. The Mk7/8 solid state monochrome cameras were the last ones produced. The Pye Mk6 Image Orthicon camera was the last version supplied to BBC Outside Broadcasts in 1963 for a new fleet of 8 outside broadcast vans. The ITV companies purchased the popular Pye Mk3s, and to a lesser extent the Mk4s and Mk7s. Unfortunately, Pye (TVT) never made it into producing 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.
==Company trouble and sell-off==
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, with the transistors themselves labelled Newmarket Transistors (another subsidiary). When this proved acceptable the company launched the Pye 123 radio a Pye 123 (still with the Newmarket label on the novel internal components). 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. 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. This tactic has no strategic value and by 1966 Pye was in such difficulties that they started to reduce their manufacturing capacity with closure of the [[EKCO|Ekco]] factory in [[Southend-on-Sea]].
Philips attempted to buy out the ailing Pye in 1966. The Trade Secretary [[Tony Benn|Anthony Wedgwood Benn]] determined that a complete sale would create a ''[[de facto]]'' [[monopoly]] so he permitted the transfer of just a 60% shareholding with an undertaking that the [[Lowestoft]] factory would continue to manufacture televisions.
The arrival of colour television in the mid sixties was not the rescue that domestic manufacturers had hoped. Test signals began in 1966 and scheduled transmissions commenced on [[December 2]] [[1967]]. The colour transmissions introduced 625-line transmissions alongside the 405-line broadcasts so the receivers had to handle both systems, with a consequent cost overhead. The resulting high price of the new technology delayed consumer adoption.
In the early 1970s [[Sony]] and [[Hitachi, Ltd.|Hitachi]] launched UK colour televisions at under £200 and most domestic manufacturers decided to compete with them in that market. This decision handicapped the domestic manufacturers when the Japanese moved upmarket using [[Just In Time (business)|just in time]] (JIT) manufacturing. When the UK consumers chose quality over price, domestic manufacturers found themselves with high stocks and low cash flow at a time when industrial relations were poor and there was little flexibility in cost reduction. Pye was unable to recover and the entire Pye group of companies was bought by Philips in 1976. The Lowestoft factory was subsequently sold to [[Sanyo]] for the manufacture of television sets after Philips moved the manufacture of Pye televisions to [[Singapore]]. However, the brand enjoyed a short-lived renaissance in the late 1980s, and almost gained cult status amongst college students at the time. Many a collegical common room would be filled with such phrases as 'Do you like Pye', 'Are you a Pye-man', and the ever endearing 'Just look at the shape of the badge!', with many of the aforementioned emblems being scrawled on desks and department notice boards.
==References==
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060310224711/http://www.ean.co.uk/Data/Bygones/History/Article/Radio_and_Television/html/body_pye.htm 'Pye', ''East Anglia Network'' (1997)] Retrieved [[May 15]] [[2005]]
==External links==
* [http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/index.html Pye Telecom History]
* [http://www.qsl.net/gm8aob/ G8EPR Pye Museum]
* [http://www.sepura.com Sepura]
* [http://www.teamsimoco.com Team Simoco]
* [http://www.artevea.com Artevea]
* [http://www.simoco.com.au Simoco in Australia]
* [http://www.simoco.net Simoco in India]
* [http://www.simoco.it Simoco in Italy]
* [http://www.simoco.co.id Simoco in Indonesia]
* Photographs of a demo of Pye TV in Mons (Belgium) in 1947 can be seen [http://www.lefrancq.be/MGL/tv_1947_b.htm here]
* [http://www.waihi.org.nz/main.aspx?topicID=6&page=1&parent=14 Pye Story - Waihi, New Zealand]
* [http://www.asmi81.dsl.pipex.com/pye/pyethumbnailpage.htm The Museum of the Broadcast Television Camera, Pye pages]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies]]
[[Category:Companies established in 1896]]
[[Category:Electronics companies of the United Kingdom]]