Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1929)

58 BETTER THEATRES SECTION OF October 26, 1929 THE Ultratone Super Duo-Dynamic Speaker combines the tonal excellence of an air column horn with the practically unlimited volume of an exceptionally powerful dynamic unit. While ordinary dynamic units are usually made with a capacity of 5 watts, the Ultratone Super Duo-Dynamic Speaker carries 25 watt capacity. Increased volume thus obtained results in much greater effectiveness from this speaker when used for theatre auditorium or outdoor purposes. The Ultratone Super Duo-Dynamic Speaker is designed for use with any synchronous or nonsynchronous theatre instrument using No. 250 tubes or the following combinations of push-pull output tubes. Two No. 171; two No. 210; one No. 250; two No. 250. ULTRATONE MFG. CO. 1046 W. Van Buren St., Chicago. 111. Distributed by All Branches of the NATIONAL THEATRE SUPPLY CO. King's Acoustical Wall Banners alone have often cured theatres perfectly for sound without additional treatment. We will send samples, together with a complete theatre diagram on which you can easily indicate the dimensions of your house, together with full descriptive matter on acoustical treatment, with all prices and an order chart convenient for your use, making it simple and easy for you to place a wall banner order, or complete treatment. Write at once to King Studios, Inc. 309 S. Harwood St. Dallas, Texas THE NEW PORTABLE MODEL OF RCA PHOTOPHONE A discussion of a model designed for educational and industrial use By HAROLD L. DANSON Of RCA Photophone, Inc. THE first sound motion picture equipment company to definitely announce its entry into the educational and industrial sound film field is R C A Photophone. Not only is that company in a position to provide recording facilities to anyone desiring to produce educational and industrial films, but RCA Photophone, going bevond any optimistic forecasts and vaguely defined plans, now has on the market a readily portable sound picture projection equipment which will revolutionize education and advertising. This portable equipment was originally conceived by RCA Photophone and its affiliates, the Radio Corporation of America, General Electric Company, and Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, to provide a transportable apparatus for sound-on-film reproduction at banquets, conventions, conferences, etc. The extreme adaptability of the device to educational purposes and the advertising craft, was revealed when it was proposed that RCA Photophone record a number of lecture talks on standard 35-mm. film of famous explorers, scientists and public men. This equipment is now a reality. It has been demonstrated publicly and has thoroughly indicated its extremely practical portability. But essentially this new Photophone development is a sound projection machine, and on its merits as a faithful reproducer, it has convinced the most skeptical of its capable performance. In purpose, as outlined by E. E. Bucher, executive vicepresident of RCA Photophone, the new portable system is intended for universities, colleges, schools, churches, hospitals, welfare institutions, clubs, commercial organizations and similar groups that are now finding the talking screen the ideal medium for transmitting information. Previous announcements of this new RCA Photophone development have linked it with the recording facilities of that company at the Gramercy Studios in New York. These studios constitute a perfect sound motion picture producing plant where all interested parties can make educational, informative, advertising and industrial films, with the expert assistance of scenarists at the studios. Talking Picture Epics, Inc., an organization created to further the field of information on exploration and natural history, is producing just such a series of film lectures at the Gramercy Studios, with George Palmer Putnam, Captain Bob Bartlett, Dr. William Beebe, Roy Chapman Andrews and other equally celebrated adventurers and explorers for the American Museum of Natural History, on the list. The Girl Scouts of America has made a picture, "The Girl Scout Trail," a Visugraphic production, which is being widely exhibited at girl scout clubs, theatres, women's leagues and similar organizations. But the field is virtually unlimited. The extraordinary facility with which the talking film lends itself to medical instruction can best be appreciated when it is understood that 50 students watching a surgeon can see little more than their eyes and the position of their seats permits them to see. On the film, closeups can carry the spectator to the heart of the operation ; but greater than that, the talking film gives the spectator a running lecture outlining in detail the elements of the surgery. Any form of instruction, lecture, public address and informative discourse can be duplicated a thousand times in a thousand widely separated points by the use of the portable reproducing system. The engineering details of the new RCA Photophone portable sound and picture reproducing system are of extreme interest because of the identity between this equipment and the standard large theatre reproducing apparatus of Photophone installed in premier picture houses of the world. The first consideration calls for the projection of standard 35-mm. film with sound track, such as is exhibited in theatres at the present time. This the device accommodates, reproducing the picture through a picture projection system of lenses affording a brilliantly lighted, sharply defined picture on the screen. At a throw of 50 feet, the standard lens supplied gives a picture six by eight feet in size. Other lenses are supplied at the purchasers' options, providing pictures of various sizes at special "throw" distances, to accommodate all conditions. The reproduction of sound is accomplished through the highly developed RCA Photophone optical system and photoelectric cell assembly employed in theatre equipments. The film speed is the standard of 90 feet a minute, and the projector operates from a power source of 110 volts, 60 cycles, alternating current. The entire picture and sound projection system is housed in an attractively finished all-metal cabinet 24 inches square and 12 inches in width, mounted on four adjustable legs of lightweight telescopic construction. All connection plugs are non-interchangeable, preventing injury to the equipment through error in connecting. The amplifier is housed in a metal cabinet of similar dimensions, equipped, as is the projector, with handles for carrying. Only one control, a large, handily-placed volume control knob, is visible, recessed in the top of the amplifier cabinet. This volume control is of the improved type now used in RCA Photophone theatre installations and permits the exceptionally fine adjustment of volume in graded steps of 2-TU from the zero point to maximum. Standard RCA Radiotron vacuum tubes, such as are utilized in all RCA Photophone equipments, step the photoelectric cell current to the value where it can operate the loudspeaker system. A supply of direct current is furnished through a system of rectifiers. One of the exclusive features of the system is accommodation in the amplifying apparatus for a second projector. This arrangement also provides a -sound changeover switch, as in regular theatre installations, for changing from one projector to another, thereby insuring a continuous performance without reelchanging intervals. RCA Photophone's new improved type of loudspeaker, the electrodynamic moving coil cone utilized as a driving unit for a directional baffle, is standard equipment with the portable system. The entire loudspeaker assembly collapses into a small trunk no larger than a salesman's carrying case, providing ready portability of the unit. In all its details, the RCA Photophone portable is simple, as well as handsome in appearance. The few necessary power con