Our office in Kew Road was adjacent to the A316 Richmond roundabout and Perry would stop off for a drink with us on his way home from selling the latest gear to the West End facilities companies. Bob and I had the engineering basics, thanks to BBC training, and Perry was a great help in increasing our engineering knowledge and setting up and running our new unit. We benefited immensely from Perry’s unique skills in explaining the most complicated engineering matters in words of one syllable which we cameramen could understand.

Perry booked me to light the Sony booths at IBC, in Brighton and later Amsterdam, and at Montreux, and we worked together on these shows for many years. We also organised a joint meeting of the GTC, STLD, BSC and GBCT at Mentmore, introducing members to Sony’s emerging high definition system.

In the mid-eighties Perry went to the Seychelles, not on holiday but to start their television service. Before he left Sony he appointed Ian Sheldon from Link Electronics – another fine engineer who can also speak plain English to cameramen.

In the 1980s there was much discussion about the relative merits of film and television pictures and this was further complicated with the advent of solid state (CCD) sensors. In 1988, after he had returned from the Seychelles, Perry addressed this head-on by commissioning us to make comparative tests.

The shoot was designed to compare 16mm and 35mm film with the latest tubed (BVP350) and the new CCD (BVP5) video cameras. Film camera operator Gerry Anstiss operated the ARRI 16SRII and ARRI 135BL4 cameras, while Steve Jellyman operated the video cameras. Joe Dunton mounted all four cameras on a single Moy geared head and we shot drama, location and night scenes with all the cameras running at the same time. The results were later shown running simultaneously to the heads of film from the various television companies.

Perry Mitchell is one of the most experienced and knowledgable engineers in the history of television. He understands the subject inside out and has the ability to impart his knowledge in a unique easy-to-understand way. His generosity in always being available to share this knowledge has become a major benefit of GTC membership and we will always be grateful to him for his contribution to our knowledge and understanding.