Business screen magazine (1946)

When the Industrial Audio-Visual Association gets together, there is never a spare . . . nor dull . . . moment. The group's Fall meeting in New York in October was no exception. For two and a half informationpacked days, this group of leading A-V specialists from industry studied, analyzed, compared and previewed new equipment and techniques and concepts of A-V communication. Special presentations for the group providing a first hand look at new equipment included: — Ampex' Instavision, discussed by Carlos Kennedy, product planning manager for Ampex. — A look at the new Retention Communications Systems equipment for soundslide and microfiche. — A review of AVCO's Cartrivision. — A first hand look at the Spindler & Sauupe multi-media control system. Special addresses by Henry M. Boettinger, assistant controller for AT&T and author of Moving Mountains; and Dr. Francis lanni, director-center for urban studies and programs-Teachers College-Columbia University. On the communications concept side, Boettinger discussed the communications challenges of the future, and Dr. lanni discussed some new work and ideas in instructional technology. Special tours included visits to some of New York's leading industrial A-V installations and displays. Among them were visits to AT&T's television center; Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner & Smith's VTR center; Video Instar Productions where Less Waddington discussed J. C. Penney 's ITV facilities; and a behind-the-scenes tour of BurUngton Industries' "Mill" — currently a popular new tourist attraction, which tells Burlington's story in a massive display and audiovisual environment. Imero Fiorentino, leading lighting designer and consultant presented a special demonstration of proper techniques for the some 70 assembled members. Of special significance were the comments by the association's new president, Lee Coyle (Ohio Bell Telephone Co.), who provided some meaningful answers to the professional industrial A-V commu lAVA's Coyle Defines A-V Man's Identity, Role for Future "Let us not sacrifice ideas to electronics," says new president at a busy and information-packed Fall Meeting. COYLE nicator's most nagging role and identity questions. He said: "One of the recurring topics of lAVA meetings in the past concerns our search for identity. As specialists in audiovisual communications we feel that we have won the right to status, recognition, and greater opportunities for preferment. We resent the tendency of management to think of us as super projectionists or audio-visual technicians. "We proclaim ourselves communicators. Do we truly believe that proclamation? "I wonder whether or not we really know ourselves and understand who and what we are? Have we ever taken time to evaluate our heritage and analyze the circumstances of our existence? Our pursuits are so compellingly fascinating that we prefer doing to philosophizing. Our condition reminds me of Sam Johnson's dictum on the marital state: "Marriage," he said, "has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures." "Our field is in its infancy despite its sophisticated technology. One might put its age at approximately that of lAVA itself — a quarter of a century. AV was bom and raised in our lifetime and whether or not it has reached its majority depends upon one's point of view. "One of the fascinations that 1 find in our field is that the book has not yet been written on audio-visual communications. Ten years from now we may have a Bible to follow, but at the present time we happen to be pioneers. A pioneer is said to be a guy way out in front with arrows sticking out of him. From being in the vanguard I'm afraid we're going to have to pay the usual price in pain and frustration before we reach the haven of status and recognition which we desire. And we are in distinct danger of becoming perpetual pioneers, for the insistent progress of technology will not pause long enough to allow the consolidation of our capabilities. "We must recognize, therefore, that we are pushers of change; that we are innovators; that we are a relatively new breed of communicators in industry and must recognize if not reconcile ourselves to the predictable resistance to change that is a commonplace of human nature. Unbelievable as it sounds, we are moving faster than is good for us; the afterburners of technology keep cutting in on us, and our hardware is going Mach 2 while our software is still trying to make the speed limit down on the freeway. The problem is not ours alone. "The sweeping changes in this, our lifetime, have turned the world upside down. No comer of our lives remain untouched. The churchman is dismayed at the deterioration of his dogmas; the scientist gallops breathlessly only to be outdistanced Continued on next page DECEMBER, 1970 35