Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

68 Better Theatres Section April 12, 1930 Complete $y| A A Equipment *X«/U 2 Vitadisc Turn Tables (Complete with Elec. Research Lab. or Audak Pick-Ups, Spring Suspended Filter and Fader) 1 Sampson Amplifier 1 Set of Tubes 2 Auditorium Speakers and Booth Speaker Complete and ready to install in an hour * time Vitadisc Co. 92 Mortimer St., Rochester, N. Y. THE DISC-O-PHONE Latest and most simple device on the market, has many special features and advantages .i vatent over any oth Pending er make of turntable, more installations in south Alabama and west Florida than all other makes combined. Hundreds of testimonials, $200 pr. with pick-ups, volume control and change over switch. $480.00 complete with WEBSTER AMPLIFIER and two JENSEN SPEAKERS. THE DISC-O-PHONE CO. Florala, Ala. Complete sound equipment is also furnished by the Disc-O-Phone Company (which is located in Florala, Ala.) This equipment includes a seven-tube amplifier (auditorium type), two dynamic speakers, with tubes and two turntables. By Way of News • The Upco Products Corporation has enlarged its offices and factory in New York. Whether this has anything to do with it or not, I don’t know, but anyway, this firm is about to bring out (maybe has done so by this time) a new pickup. It is called the Auditorial which wouldn’t have been the worst name in the world for the “talkies” themselves, now that it is mentioned). The pickup is distributed nationally by J. B. Price, Inc. Another addition to previous manufacturing facilities is the new plant of the Sterling Motion Picture Apparatus Corporation at Naugatuck, Conn., where the president of the company, Harris Whittemore, Jr., lives. The company, which manufacturers reproducing as well as recording equipment, will still maintain a New York office, however, the address being 250 W. 54th Street. It is in charge of H. C. Schlicker. who is treasurer of the company. sound talks — by F. H. RICHARDSON— Pickup Arm Balance • See to it that your pickup arm is correctly balanced. If it is not, then your needle is likely to climb over a groove wall and raise hob with the synchronism. If there is too much weight on the needle point, you will injure the record groove and flatten the needle quickly. Also, there may be a decided tendency to cause noise. Up to this time I have been unable to secure any reliable method for balancing the pickup arm, but I hope to be able to give you one soon. I have taken the matter up with the powers-that-be and find them reluctant to put out a gauge by means of which needle pressure on the record groove may be measured. Western Electric says its pickup arms are properly balanced when they go out and doesn’t want them monkeyed with at all, which is all very well, but it won’t work any too well for the reason that some men seek trouble where none really exists. They “guess” the pressure is too little or too much. They alter it and think they have made an improvement. It is all guess work. I’m telling Western Electric and all others that a small, accurate gauge should be made with which the projectionist may measure the weight upon the needle point accurately. We may then tell him the pressure should be exactly so much, and when something goes wrong he won’t have to “guess” that it is over or under needle pressure. He can measure it and know what is what, and another “I guess so” will be elimited, to the benefit of sound recorded upon disc records. A Watch Aperture Tension • Watch that aperture tension adjustment closely. Too much aperture tension is ruinous. It wears sprocket teeth, the intermittent movement, the aperture plate tracks, the tension shoes and the film abnormally. It means strained sprocket holes, and in extreme cases, may mean cracked or ripped ones. It means additional tendency to deposit of emulsion on the tension shoes, hence serious damage to films in that direction. Watch your aperture tension ! A Don’t Believe Your Own Ears • Don’t be too darned certain that you are a good judge of sound. Ask your patrons how the sound and its volume impressed them, taking note as to just where each one so asked sat. Don’t try to judge sound volume in your theatre if your own hearing is not entirely normal. Many a man regulates volume by his own hearing without realizing his hearing is either a bit dull or abnormally sharp.