The Philips K500
was one of the first colour TVs.

When the curved screen first lit up
inside its wooden cabinet
it showed something new.

How has television changed
since you started watching it?

David Burgess who worked at Philips
talks about the problems
with colour television:

"The really big boom in television
didn't happen
until colour television came,
which was about the time
of Wimbledon in 1967.
Some people were quite taken aback
to find the Wimbledon tennis courts
were not green,
they were brown and worn,
and there was quite a habit
of winding up the colours
to get a green court,
which gave the tennis players
bright red skins".

"We had great difficulties
with those early sets
because to get the three main colours -
red, green and blue -
to overlay properly,
was quite a fine art.
Some people would tolerate
any form of colour.
It was new to them,
and they were quite happy watching it."

Philips opened a factory
on the Purley Way in Croydon
in 1956.
Radios and black and white televisions
rolled off the production line.

The success of the factory
depended on keeping up
with the latest technology.
In 1967
BBC2 showed programmes in colour.
New TVs were needed
to see angry reds,
cool blues and sunny yellows.

The Model K500 was the first colour TV
made on the Purley Way.

This sound clip was created during the
I Am Here project. The group of 14-24
year olds selected objects close to their
heart that also said something about identity.

I Am Here is part of Stories of the World,
one of the major projects at the heart of the
London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

"My name's Shanice and I am 15 years old.
What is a TV? Everyone has a TV now in
London. When I grow up I would like to get
a big TV. TVs come in all colours now. TVs
come in all shapes and sizes. There are big
ones and small ones like portable DVD players.
My Philips TV is grey and big, but not the
biggest television in the world."