RV Television

Background

RV Television, ostensibly an imprint of Rands Video Ltd., was a producer of direct-to-video railway documentaries during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their works were initially published by SBS Video before their library was acquired by Artsmagic Ltd., who rereleased several of their earlier works under different names.

Logo (1988-1996)

Visuals: On a black background, a blue lowercase "r" zooms from the center of the screen to the top left hand corner. shortly afterwards a red checkmark "v" zooms in from the center of the screen and joins itself to the "r", forming the "rv". After the symbol is formed the word "TELEVISION" in white and in a blocky font zooms in from the center to the bottom center of the screen, followed by "PRESENTS" in the same font but in yellow.

Variant: When the logo appears on the Classic Trains series of videos, the animation is somewhat more fluent (but still choppy) and the words "TELEVISION" and "PRESENTS" are rendered in 3D, whereas all other instances of the logo display the words in 2D.

Technique: Primitive computer animation.

Audio: A calm synth pan flute score.

Audio Variant: Sometimes the sound of steam hissing is heard before the logo fades out.

Availability: Found on the majority of RV Television's video releases such as the Classic Trains series (1988- rereleased by Artsmagic as "British Steam") and the Best of Britain's Preserved Railways series (1994- rereleased by Artsmagic as "Best of British Steam"). Believed to have last been used on the British Locomotives series of videos (1996) which were rereleased by Artsmagic by under the episode titles The Classics, Titans of Steam, Strange Trains, A Feast of Steam and A Feast of Diesels. The Artsmagic prints of the videos still contain the RV logo but remove all references of the company on the box (SBS Video's releases contained the print logo). The DVD releases of RV Television's documentaries remove all traces of the RV television logo.