Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

8— TELEVISION DIGEST MABCH 25, 1963 down TV sales unless the consumer understands. If we put together a public relations program, can we get govt, money to finance it?" Lee considered carefully, replied: "I'm not ruling that out. We might ask for an appropriation . . . but it's a time-consuming matter." To emphasize need for dealer education, Taylor cited Motorola survey, in which dealers gave their ideas on uhf & all-channel law. Typical responses, he said, were: "Some sort of crackpot govt, idea" . . . "Scheme for manufacturers to make more money" . . . "Something to do with Telstar." Taylor summed up: "Of course, the dealers will contribute to sell the sets — but somebody's got to sell the idea." New FCC supplementary rules for administration of all-channel low were in preparation, meanwhile, and will be issued in few weeks. FCC staff is leaning toward exempting special classroom ETV sets from all-channel law. It hasn't made definite conclusion yet regarding other exemptions sought by industry — sets for hotels, motels & apartments which have uhf converters on their master antenna systems. EIA's Sondwick brought up another case which may need sp>ecial interpretation: Manufacturer ships TV sets interstate to port for export to Latin America. Is he required to include all-channel tuner? GRADING SYSTEM INSTEAD OF HI-FI DEFINITION? Package phono manufacturers explored with an FTC representative the possibility of substituting sliding scale of "acoustic quality" measurements for that official definition of "high fidelity" the FTC is seeking. Meeting with EIA phono section in Washington last week, Martin Shepherd Jr. of FTC's Bureau of Industry Guidance gave impression that FTC was far from any major progress in its efforts to adopt standards to protect public from spurious hi fi. At same time, set makers made it clear they were irked with whole megillah, even though they're cooperating fully. Those who also make TV sets (and that includes majority of EIA phono manufacturers) indicated that they already hove one transcendental govt.-imposed headache — explaining all-channel set low to public (see p. 7) — and they need hi-fi problem about os much os Asian flu. Shepherd told manufacturers that component hi-fi manufacturers (who haven't yet submitted proposed definitions) and hi-fi magazine readers who hove written letters to FTC generally want more stringent definition than that proposed by EIA. He said FTC has discussed possibility of "A, B, C" or "choice and prime" ratings, as well os separate definitions for packaged & component hi fi. Among phono makers there was sentiment for adopting standard "acoustic quality" ratings similar to auto industry's approval of SAE horsepower ratings. Suggested rating system would be simplified version of method proposed last June to EIA loudspeaker section by Lincoln Walsh, Walsh Engineering Co. (Vol. 2:26 pi 4), and which will be further discussed at section's meeting next June in Chicago. System is designed to measure acoustic qualities of complete system or any port of hi-fi system, and could be applied to packaged phonos, component systems or individual components. Deep in their hearts, however, packaged phono manufacturers feel soimd quality generally is subjective factor which can't be measured satisfactorily, any more than beauty of music con be measured. This they told Shepherd with considerable eloquence and side references to the Mona Lisa. Shepherd remained imconvinced. The situation remained confused. • • • • Export & licensing business in FM stereo receivers may open up soon in many ports of world, FCC FM-stereo expert Harold Kassens told EIA's radio section in another spring conference session. Reporting on CCIR's recent Geneva conference, he said international radio group was unable to reach agreement on world FM-stereo standards. Countries now have "satisfied their diplomatic obligations," he scrid, and "there's nothing to prevent them from going ahead with FM stereo now." He predicted several countries would follow lead of U.S. & Canada, begin soon. Disagreement at CCIR wasn't violent — but many countries had more pressing broadcasting problems and weren't ready to tackle official FM stereo standards. Iron Curtain countries opposed U.S. system, seeking to substitute own system which they soy would permit transmission of stereo or 2 separate monophonic programs on same FM channel.