International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1935)

television and the A Originally presented before the S.M.P.E., this paper is the first basic contribution to the literature of the television art and promises to be of historical importance Motion Picture Theatre By A. N. Goldsmith PAST-PRESIDENT, SOCIETY OF MOTION PICTURE ENGINEERS PAST-PRESIDENT, INSTITUTE OF RADIO ENGINEERS IT MUST be admitted that the relationship between motion pictures and television has, in the past few years, been made the subject of numerous effusions which, even from a charitable viewpoint, must be characterized as highly imaginative and distinctly misleading. It is unfortunate that the present and future correlation of these important fields should have been made the subject of casual publicity releases or of selfishly inspired propaganda. The subject is of considerable importance and merits thoughtful and impartial analysis. Such analysis requires, it is apparent, an unusually complete knowledge of the commercial activities and engineering methods of the two fields which are involved and perhaps something of a gift of prophecy as well. It is proposed in the following: (a) to consider the methods likely to be used in television-telephone broadcasting into the home; (b) to compare the results likely to be achieved by television-telephone broadcasts into the home with those obtainable by theatrical sound motion pictures ; (c) to consider the probable points of contacts between these fields, and to explore the possibilities of cooperative effort between them; and {d) to consider the possible general effects of the widespread acceptance of television-telephone broadcasting into the home on the motion picture theatre. A Definition of Terms In studying (a), the first of these topics, it is necessary to adopt some standard for "television" — a term having widely different meanings to various people. It is proposed to accept "standards" which represent what may reasonably be expected to be attained on a large scale within the next few years, provided mass production of equipment for television-telephone broadcasting reception in the home is carried out. The term "television-telephone broadcasting" is used because it is naturally assumed that the television picture will be consistently accompanied by the corresponding sound or telephonic material. While some of the details of home television-telephone reception will be given under the study of topic (b) below, it may be postulated here that such television will be accomplished by the use of: 1. an electronic pick-up rather than by a mechanico-optical pick-up. (Such pick-ups include the iconoscope and the dissector tube) ; 2. an ultra-short wave transmitter or transmitters for the television and telephone portions of the program; 3. an coaxial-conductor cable, or its equivalent, or an ultra-short wave radio relay system, for the syndication of the program material for network operation, and 4. an electronic receiver of the cathode-ray type, with a fluorescent image screen, rather than a mechanicooptical receiving system. It is impracticable within the limits of this paper to discuss the principles, design, construction or operation of the complicated devices mentioned above. Home Television vs. Motion Pictures in the Theatre Proceeding to the study of topic (b), there will be given an itemized and instructive comparison of the practical results to be expected by home televisiontelephone reception as compared with the motion picture theatre performance. 1. Mode of Picture Production. The methods of producing the pictures are entirely different in the two cases, odd as that may seem. The theatre picture is projected as a complete unit, one entire frame at a time. The delineation is produced and limited by aggregates of silver grains in the developed positive image. The television picture is produced by a luminous dot (or "dot-element"), the brightness of which is accurately controlled as it passes in succession over a series of parallel and closely adjacent lines until it has covered the entire area of one frame. In the theatre case, the entire picture is on the screen at the same time, to be succeeded by darkness prior to the projection of the next frame, and so on. In the television case, there is never anything more than a more or less bright dot on the screen ! ! The television picture depends even more on persistence of vision than the theatre picture, being in fact nothing more than a flickering and flying dot. It must be added that certain technical details of television picture production have not as yet been standardized. However, the above-cited features appear likely to be permanently present. 2. Number of Picture Elements. The number of picture elements determines the detail or, roughly, the story-telling capabilities of the picture. In round numbers, the theatre picture has something of the order of 5,000,000 picture elements; whereas even a good home television picture will probably have something like 150,000 elements. This is a ratio of 30-to-l in favor of the theatre picture. However, it must be noted that the entertainment value of a picture in motion (whether produced by projection or by television) is not in direct proportion to the number of picture elements which it contains, so that we are not entitled to draw the conclu [15]