Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1963)

circuit cameras which rose in price from $1,600 to $1,700 and $2,100 to $2,450 respectively; PE-20-B camera chain, including 4'/2-inch image orthicon camera, from $20,500 to $21,500; and PC-12-B, (includes camera, viewfinder, image orthicon and three lenses of PE-20-B), from $13,150 to $14,150. Kinescope eliminated f in tape-to-film move A new tape-film system, eliminating the need for a kinescope for filmed prints of taped commercials and programs, was revealed by MGM Telestudios at a news conference last Wednesday (Jan. 9). The kinescope is a "hot print" off the camera tube. The system, dubbed "Gemini," consists of a RCA TK-60 television camera which shares its lens with a 16-mm motion picture camera mounted beside it. A device (beamsplitter) lodged behind the lens, splits the light before it enters the camera, thus allowing simultaneous operation on video-tape and 16mm film. Production of a kinescope required that the image pass through two cameras, creating a distortion of the original picture. "Elimination of the kinescope removes what agency people consider the last remaining obstacle to commercial production by tape," George K. Gould, president and general manager of MGM Telestudios, said. Mr. Gould explained that film prints of tape commercials are used by advertisers in markets not equipped with tape recorders. He pointed out that The Gemini No more kinescopes advertisers and their agencies, while satisfied with tape for major markets, have been unhappy about using kinescope in no-tape markets. Mr. Gould said MGM Telestudios has acquired exclusive rights to "Gemini" for three years from Warren R. Smith Inc., Pittsburgh, a motion picture laboratory, which holds the patent on the system. Warren R. Smith, president of the firm, has joined MGM Telestudios as director of technical development. BACK IN BUSINESS Relay, Telstar transmitting television programs to Europe America's two communications satellites Relay and Telstar, have proved they are alive and perking by transmitting tv programs from the United States to Europe. Last Wednesday Relay was used to EIA set production and sales figures Tv and radio distributor sales and set production edged up for the first eleven months of 1962, Electronic Industries Assn. reported last week. Sales in November for both home entertainment units were also up as compared to October's, with radio sales of 1,280,599 being the highest for any month in the year. Production for both devices was down from the totals in the preceding month. Sales and production figures: DISTRIBUTOR'S SALES Television Radio Period Totals (No. uhf) Totals (No. fm) Jan.-Nov. 1962 5,665,367 10,169,503* Jan.-Nov. 1961 5,175,857 9,607,142 PRODUCTION Jan.-Nov. 1962 5,951,361 549,105 17,420,007** 1,089,035 Jan.-Nov. 1961 5,597,535 332,205 15,528,640 804,475 * Excluding auto radios ** Including 6,395,141 auto radios compared to 4,909,658 in same period in 1961. transmit portions of the NBC Today show to Europe, showing ceremonies the previous night at the National Gallery of Art in Washington when President Kennedy opened the display of France's Mona Lisa. The program was beamed to Relay from the AT&T ground station at Andover, Maine. Relay sent it on to Goonhilly Downs in England and PleumeurBodou, France, where it was distributed to tv stations in those countries. Reception was termed "excellent" in France and there was "nothing wrong" in England. The transmission also was monitored by the Italian ground station at Fucino. Also for the first time as a live U. S. program, the ceremonies were shown behind the Iron Curtain to home viewers in Czechoslovakia and Hungary via Intervision, the East bloc's tv interconnection system. Later in the morning another first was established when scenes of New York firemen fighting the blazes in the Empire State Building were seen in England and France, also via Relay. The first successful trans-Atlantic test for Relay, placed in orbit in mid-December but silent since then because of power drain, took place Jan. 4 when a tv test pattern was transmitted from Andover and received in France. During the afternoon pass, the ground station of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration at Nutley, N. J., transmitted and received a second tv test pattern. Transistor Faulty ■ The power drain which Relay began experiencing immediately after its Dec. 13 launch was traced to a transistor in the No. 1 transponder. The faulty transponder was isolated, thus eliminating the power drain, and after a period during which the batteries built up a charge, the satellite was put into service by using the No. 2 transponder. All the circuits in Relay, built for NASA by RCA, are duplicated. Telstar, silent for the last six weeks, was restored to life Jan. 4, also, when a live tv exchange took place between Andover and England and France. In overcoming Telstar's troubles, Bell Lab engineers duplicated the faulty command circuit, pinpointed the malfunction at one of the transistors in the satellite's command decoders, and diagnosed its malady as excessive radiation. The engineers devised special command signals and voltage-removal treatment to restore normal command functions. The success of the trick command pulse, it was pointed out, may also have been due to the fact that Telstar had risen in orbit to weaker areas of the Van Allen Belt. The Van Allen Belt is a girdle of high density radiation surrounding the earth. 58 (EQUIPMENT & ENGINEERING) BROADCASTING, January 14, 1963