Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1949)

Record Details:

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TV Sessions Lengthen (Continued from page U7) on which work is being started, conversion of existing receivers to the CTI system would cost set owners about $65 to $75 but that at the present stage CTI does not generally favor conversion. A surprise witness for CBS when testimony was resumed after the ECA demonstration was Dr. Dean Brewster Judd, physicist in charge of colorimetry for the National Bureau of Standards, who said he considered the RCA color pictures at Monday's demonstration "poorer in fidelity" than those in the CBS showing. He criticized primarily the RCA two-color system and said he was testifying "as a possible customer for a color set" but with the permission of Dr. E. U. Condon, Bureau of Standards director who also is heading a color investigating committee for the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee. Rebuttal Planned RCA authorities said they would offer witnesses to rebut Dr. Judd's testimony and also that in which Columbia's Dr. Goldmark recommended that RCA drop its system now. They also said they would present their own analysis of the CBS demonstration the week before. Dr. Goldmark was particularly sharp in his criticism. The RCA demonstration, he said, "revealed all the difficulties I have discussed thus far in my testimony concerning the RCA system, only to a much greater and more disturbing extent than I had thought would appear." When "presumably" black-andwhite transmissions were being received on color cameras, he said he saw "marked differences in the colors of the images on the color receivers." Further, he said: "No flesh tones or true whites were visible on any color receiver. Faces were dark red, purple, green or orange." On a 16-inch three-tube directview color set, Dr. Goldmark said, the background curtain appeared purplish when it was actually reddish brown; a gray coat showed purplish, while a singer's face was SURPRISE witness was Dr. Dean Brewster Judd, physicist in charge of colorimetry for the Bureau of Standards, who appeared on behalf of the CBS system. Page 54 • October 17, 1949 FCC COMRS. Robert F. Jones (I) and Frieda B. Hennock listen as Charles H. Sparklin, vice president in charge of engineering for Birtman Electric Co., Chicago, explains color converter built by Birtman for the CBS color television system. "purplish with dark purplish reds in the shadows." Close examination disclosed "a most serious lack of geometrical resolution and crispness on every one of the color receivers," he asserted. He contended that RCA's dotsequential system cannot effectively convey definition equivalent to current monochrome standards because it "forces the viewer, in order to avoid the disturbing dot structure, to retreat to a distance past 10 times picture height. At this distance, the eye is unable to resolve any detail finer than that contained in a 210-line picture," he testified. During black-and-white transmissions, he contended, one color receiver showed green and orange pictures, another purple and green, two orange, one green, and another pink and purple. Questioned by Comr. Frieda B. Hennock, he said he didn't think the RCA system should be fieldtested at all and that, indeed, nothing would improve the system. The only witness thus far presented for the third color system — Color Television Inc. — estimated that with the development of a direct-view tube existing monochrome sets could be converted to CTI color for $65 to $75. He was Charles W. Partridge, a member of the CTI executive committee, who claimed Columbia's $70 to $140 conversion estimates are beyond the range of low-income groups. He said CTI feels it has a well-perfected color system and is now setting up a laboratory for development of a low-cost tube. The CTI system, Mr. Partridge claimed, is simpler than those of RCA or CBS. He said that the firm does not Favor conversion on the basis of present developments because converters are "troublesome and costly." It is undertaking to develop new sets which would receive both monochrome and color, he reported, and "may engage in the manufacture of sets," though it has made no plans toward this end. The tube meanwhile described by Dr. Geer, who holds a patent on it, would employ a screen with one color on the front side and the two other colors on "pyramids" on the back. Its "forerunner," he said was developed by the late John L. Baird in England, with DuMont also having worked on one of a similar type. It can be built relatively inexpensively, he asserted, and can receive color transmitted "sequentially by frame (or field), line or dot, or simultaneously." He said it possesses "inherent simplicity, low cost, adaptability and universality, [and] promises to open color to all who are within range of the color transmitter and who can afford to purchase a television receiver of any sort at all." Color 'Here' ( Under questioning. Dr. Geer paid tribute to the color achieved by the CBS system, and said he was confident the RCA system could be improved substantially. He said color television is "here" and that standards should be adopted soon, but that FCC should see the Color Television Inc. system befoi-e reaching a decision. His own tube, he reported, is not yet "demonstrable" but could be built in eight months to a year. The manufacturers who apeared on behalf of the CBS system offered time and cost estimates as forecast in Dr. Goldmark's statement, released the week before. President Edward F. Mulhern of Birtman Electric Co., Chicago, exhibited a sample color disc converter built according to design information which he said CBS started providing on Aug. 25, after a demonstration Aug. 24. He said Birtman immediately started work on 25 pre-Tjroduction samples to be used by CBS, Air King Products Co., and Tele-Tone Radio Co. for field-testing work. He estimated a color converter for existing sets would cost consumers about $70 and that this should be reduced to about $55 when laboratory designs have been production-engineered. A color disc assembly to be factory-built into future sets should add about $50 to the retail price of the sets, he predicted. Mr. Mulhern thought production "in reasonably large quantities could start within 90 days" after FCC approval of the CBS system. His estimates were based on "a monthly volume of 7,500 sets." The operation of the converter, and other technical details, were outlined by Charles H. Sparklin, Birtman vice president in charge of engineering, and John Schubert, production vice president. The Birtman cost estimates were exclusive of service charges where home installation would be required. So was the estimate of President Milton J. Shapp of Jerrold Electronic Corp., Philadelphia, who thought an external electronic adapter to permit present sets to receive either monochrome or color transmission would retail at about $40. But Mr. Shapp thought an easier and less expensive method of adapting existing sets would be to build an adapter kit, which he said should retail for about $20 and could be installed in 90 minutes. He said, however, that production of the external adapters can reach 100 units a day after FCC approval of the CBS technique. Cites Charges Comr. Hennock cited charges of "inefficiency" which she said had been levelled against FM converters, and wanted to know how well the scanning adapter would perform. Mr. Shapp contended that "for all practical purposes" it would give black-and-white pictures as good as the present system's. He conceded, however, that he had seen only one adapter in operation and that there was "a certain change" in the picture when the line rate was reduced from the standard 525 to Columbia's 405. President H. G. Hamilton of Eastern Air Devices Inc., Brooklyn manufacturers of electric motors, exhibited a motor which he thought could be produced for the CBS color disc at about $8 each and per 111 til k it itf ai ilo SURGICAL demonstrations presented via CBS color at medical conventions were reviewed by J. N. Du Barry of Smith, Kline & French Labs., pharmaceutical manufacturers and sponsors of the showings. BROADCASTING • Telecasting »8