American television directory (1946)

TELEVISION IN T (Continued from page 48) this kind of experimentation with the store’s goods. The interior use of television within the store will be extremely interesting. For the first time it will be possible to show samples of goods from one floor to another. Displays within the store will be very much influenced by this new resource. And some exterior win¬ dows may show actual goods and models from various parts of the store. Done without study and without experience it is likely to appear very confusing. For this reason I look for the major development in television for stores to come from display personnel rather than copy staffs. The advent of television will create a bridge between the merchant and the customer. This prospect seems particu¬ larly inviting to me. As the big stores became larger they became more im¬ personal and naturally lost touch with the individual customer. Television will help bridge this gap. It will create, if not an individual association, a closer feeling between the actual store and its customers. Television will neither supplant nor HE RETAIL FIELD substitute for advertising media cur¬ rently in use. All of radio’s success as an advertising medium has never suc¬ ceeded in making it a substitute for magazines or newspapers. Newspapers still represent the most economical form of direct advertising for department stores. And, television, I think, will not change a fundamental habit of wanting to sit and read quietly and leisurely. Keep your eye on facsimile reproduc¬ tion, however, for that will be an im¬ portant supplement. Newspaper use, of course, will eventually be coordinated with television to show merchandise in ads that is being displayed on the tele¬ screen. All of this, I believe, indicates that merchants will one day soon be obliged to reorient their thinking concerning communication with their customers. Those who approach television with the greatest curiosity, patience, research and intelligence will be foremost in its use. Others may be left behind. My advice to merchants is not to think of television as a matured art, sprung Minerva-like, full-armed from the head of Jove. Television will develop slowly, step by step. STRATOVISION (W. K. EBEL) ( Continued from page 28) pilots, turbo-supercharges and super¬ charged cabins. Each plane would have a wing spread of 161 feet and weigh about 20 tons fully loaded. They would be powered with two 1450-horsepower engines, cruise at less than 150 miles per hour, have a top speed of 266 miles per hour and be equipped with retractable landing gears. In addition to its nine transmitters and monitoring and relaying equipment, each plane would afford galley space and a lounge for the flight crew of three and six radio technicians. It would require only 25 minutes for a fully loaded plane to attain the six-mile broadcast altitude above its regular broadcast location. Planes would operate at the 30,000foot level for slightly under 11 hours on one fueling. Reserve endurance at that altitude would be provided for ap¬ proximately two more hours so that maximum time aloft would be about 13 hours. Since operating schedules are planned on an 8-hour basis this means that each plane would have more than 50 per cent reserve endurance, thus in¬ suring continuous program service. This reserve flying time would also an¬ ticipate bad weather contingencies, would permit planes to take off and land at distant bases, flying to and from broadcast locations in complete safety above the storm. A Flying Pickup Unit In addition to its four high-altitude planes, each broadcast location would have a smaller plane equipped to act as a flying remote pickup unit. This plane would be available to cover any special event or emergency within the location’s 103,000 square mile area, re¬ laying television and FM programs to the parent plane for local broadcast or for nationwide network presentation. STRATOVISION (C. E. NOBLES) ( Continued from page 30) not include the cost of relay stations or coaxial cable required to deliver the program to ground stations. Additional advantages claimed for Stratovision are that the time required to build television into a nationwide service would be greatly reduced; that the sale of television receivers would be greatly expedited; that many people in small urban and rural districts will have television who would never re¬ ceive it otherwise because they live in districts which are too sparsely set¬ tled to support a station; that highdefinition color television will be placed more quickly on an equal footing technically with present black-andwhite low-definition television; and that many complicated antenna and “ghost¬ ing” problems are eliminated when a plane is in continuous motion and all programs come from one direction above the main part of the service area. BEST LAUCHS OF '45 Courtesy, New York JournalAmerican. Reproduced by special permission of The Satur¬ day Evening Post, © 1945 by the Curtis Pub¬ lishing Co, Courtesy, New York Sun. 127