Projection engineering (Jan 1932-Mar 1933)

Edit i a FEBRUARY, 1932 NO longer ago than eighteen months he was a SYSTEMS sanguine manufacturer who announced that 50 watt amplifiers for sound systems were practicable, with passable loudspeaker reproduction. Today, there are installations going in with powers of 100 watts and higher. This is real progress along lines which vastly extend fields of application for sound transmission and reproduction systems. While 15 watt to 50 watt installations are yet largely in the majority, serving short range needs in interiors, the availability of higher powers broadens usefully the utility of audio systems — in very larg'e auditoriums, from airplanes, dirigibles, at airports, stadiums, parks, race tracks, skating rinks, ball parks, dance halls, for army and navy uses, on ship board, in factories, and in no end of locations heretofore thought to be of such large areas as to necessitate the installation of numerous units when amplifiers of lower powers only were available. No doubt there shall always be conditions which will be best served by a properly determined distribution of speaker units of 15 to 50 watts power, but the arrival of amplifier systems of the super power order opens up a new vista of opportunity for designers of sound systems and for installing organizations. Henceforth we expect to learn of new applications of and new uses for sound systems as technical improvement progresses. TALKING PICTURES IN AUSTRALIA IT was but a matter of time when the enterprising Australians would catch up with progress in the production of talking pictures. Australians have now commenced production of their own talking films. The first program of allAustralian talkies from the studio of Efftee Film Productions, Melbourne, was recently disclosed at the Plaza Theatre, and will be screened in the 120 Hoyts theatres in Australia. With this project American film interests are associated. In past years desultory attempts were made to produce screen presentations, but due to lack of studio equipment the success achieved was not such as to interfere with the regular flow of 80 per cent American films into Australia. To overcome this technicians were lent by Hollywood to train Australian operators. The feature of the first program, "Diggers," a humorous story of life among the Australian soldiers in France, is the first Australian film to be subject to comparison on the standards of production here and in Europe. Photography, lighting and recording are regarded as excellent. During the next eighteen months the Australian producers hope to produce twelve films, each to run forty minutes. Australian actors will be engaged and encouragement will be given to Australian scenario writers. A recent scenario competition resulted in a flood of scripts from all sections of the country. MATERIAL FOR THE SCREEN C UPPORT of high grade ^ entertainment broadcasts in Canada follows custom in the United States. Manufacturers of products of national sales possibilities are sponsoring broadcasts by paying for time "on the air." There is a present demand for dramatic and historical features of a Canadian character. In a bid for the Canadian film market the wonder is that producers have so far drawn so little upon the pageantry and romance of early exploration in Canada. The French occupation of Canada continued until Washington's time. For three hundred years a civilization, now viewed as venturesome and picturesque, continued north of the St. Lawrence. There are in the libraries various versions of many stirring events participated in by courageous gentlemen and brave women — which may again be enacted on the screen, and in abbreviated form from broadcast studios. o3 mJj^stttZfUc <rL Editor