Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1962)

TvB hopes tv audio device will dent car radio audiences The advantages to tv stations of a new auto receiver that picks up the sound portion of tv programs are pointed out in a letter from Television Bureau of Advertising to its member stations. Designed and developed by MobilSound Corp., Santa Maria, Calif., the device is called MobilSound Tv AudioMonitor (Closed Circuit, July 16). The AudioMonitor is intended for use with the am radio in any late model American car and on foreign cars equipped with a 12-volt negative-ground electrical system. It translates or converts vhf frequencies for reception over the am car radio. The unit has a turn switch for am and tv positions. Static-free reception can be picked up by the regular auto radio antenna over distances up to 60 miles from a tv station, according to MobilSound. Among the first to install an AudioMonitor in his car was George Huntington, TvB vice president for national sales, who said in a letter to stations last week that he hasn't listened to am radio on the road since attaching the device. Convinced that it's a new way to expand tv's audience and advertisers, Mr. Huntington suggested several ways the device could compete with auto radio listening: "If you don't care for the rock 'n" roll or Muzak-like music of today's radio, tv's sound provides drama, music, news and comedy. Programming is back on the road. "If your car travel has made you miss favorite tv programs, here's a way to take them with you. "As station executives, you're alert to what your station is telecasting all the time . . . except when in your car. Now you can listen as you go. " l heard your television program while driving home the other night' is a conversation starter with any sponsor. "How many sports events are carried only on television? "We know what has happened to radio in the home . . . now we can see the same thing happen to radio on the road." Mr. Huntington told the stations that TvB has no financial interest in the device, but its development has the potential to penetrate an area now left to radio . . . "and one of radio's strongest selling points." Current models of the AudioMonitor are custom-built for professional use (model 627), and are sold on a direct-to-user basis. They are built on a contract basis for MobilSound by Calbest Electronics, Los Angeles. A standard model for the consumer market will be produced later. Preliminary tests for Echo II succeed The National Aeronautics & Space Administration is continuing its interest in passive communication satellites, even though Telstar has pretty well put the stamp of approval on active relay satellites for transoceanic radio and tv relaying. Last week, NASA tested successfully a new ejection and inflation technique for the forthcoming rigidized Echo II. Echo is the NASA project in which an aluminized balloon is placed in orbit to act as a reflector for radio signals. The first Echo balloon (100-ft. in diameter) was placed in orbit two years ago and although its skin is now so wrinkled it is impracticable as a radio reflector, it is still in orbit — but losing altitude measurably. Launched last week from Cape Canaveral atop a Thor rocket, a folded Echo balloon in a canister was ejected and inflated to its full 135 ft. size. The balloon rose to above 900 miles and drifted about 600 miles down the Atlantic missile range before plunging into the earth's atmosphere and burning up. Last January a similar attempt failed when the balloon inflated too rapidly and ripped. In last week's test, inflation was accomplished more slowly using a Benzoic powder as the inflation agent. The powder turned to gas in the higher altitudes, expanding the balloon. Aboard the Thor was a tv camera which permitted scientists at Cape Canaveral to watch the ejection and inflation. Also aboard was a motion BROADCASTING, July 23, 1962 picture camera in a recoverable capsule which took pictures of the procedures. The capsule was recovered. Later in the year. Echo II will be placed into a 700-mile high orbit from the Pacific Missile Range. It will be used to "bounce" radio and tv signals between the U. S. west coast and Hawaii, and between the U. S. East Coast and Europe and South America. NASA's projected experiments with active satellites are also continuing. Project Relay, being built by RCA, is similar to Telstar and is scheduled to be launched late this year. Relay will be inserted into a so-called low altitude (800-3,500 miles high). Complete coverage of the earth via low-flying satellites calls for 30-40 satellites, so that there is at least one in line of sight always between the U. S. and Europe and between the U. S. and the Far East. Syncom (Synchronous Communications), under development by Hughes Aircraft Co. for NASA, is an active satellite proposed to be placed into 22,300-mile high orbit. In this orbit the satellite will circle the earth once every 24 hours, in phase with the earth's rotation. In this way the satellite will remain fixed above a point in the earth's equator. Shure Bros, organizes new products division Shure Bros. Inc., Evanston, III, has established a New Products Division, to be directed by Marvin B. Lorig as vice president for new products. Shure, manufacturer of microphones, electronic components and high-fidelity products, says the new division "will actively seek new directions for corporate growth through new product ideas from independent inventors, by joint venture, by acquisition and through internal development." TRANSMITTER J REMOTE CONTROL * Simple, reliable, direct, all-relay, pushbutton control. * Single meter reads in "Percent of Normal." * Specified by major networks and the majority of unattended 50 KW stations in the United States. Write for details today MANUFACTURING COMPANY Box 17040 • Dallas 17, Texas CU.'rr''^ Subsidiary of Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc 65