Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

What we have learned about sound in wartime— and what it means to POST-WAR THEATRE SOUND The war has brought radar nd other advances in the lectronic arts, which include lotion picture sound. How mch will this experience conibute to the arts of the film hen peace comes? Here is n answer from a sound engi$er familiar with both theatre nd war device development t WILLIAM M. JUREK FEW OF us have the oppornity to see the miracles of the electronic oratories that are helping our men on the ttlefields around the world — on land and i, and in the air. Fruits of research have :>ught many new terms and instruments to : attention of the public without throwing ich light on their use in the post-war world, otion picture sound is an electronic art. hat, then, may this research in electronics ■ the waging of war, mean to motion picre sound? Before answering that directly, let us see tat the more significant advances have been. ie of these is radar. Radar has given our hting men eyes to see through darkness, r and mist by transmitting micro-wave imIses into space. Any objects in the path of se impulses produces an echo that registers indicating devices the distance, location 1, in general, the size of the object in their TER THEATRES, APRIL 7, 1945 path. Radar has made possible operations on the sea and in the air that otherwise would have been impossible. During the early air attacks on London, England was saved by radar instruments that gave ample warning of the approaching enemy, thus giving the populace a chance to prepare proper defense with the limited facilities at hand. The handy-talkie, or walkie-talkie, a portable miniature transmitter and receiver, has replaced the wire telephone in our fast moving front lines and established a new field of dependable communications for use over a short distance. The self-calculating gun directors have eliminated the guesswork in the fast and dependable control of our high-powered, fastoperating anti-aircraft equipment. Portable, depth sounding equipment for small boats, made by some of the motion picture equipment manufacturers, has brought about safer landing operations in uncharted waters. Radio frequency heating has been a tremendous aid to production on the home front where a quick, controllable, even heat is desired — operations ranging from the evaporation of moisture at low temperatures to the tempering or melting of steel alloys at extremely high temperatures. Many instruments and theories have been contributed to the science of medicine and the .art of plastics that were brought about by this new form of heat generation. Frequency modulation (FM) will be accepted in every home as soon as the transmitting and receiving equipment is available to the general public. FM will present to the people at home a new conception of sound reproduction introducing new realism in tone and volume range only enjoyed by the few privileged to attend the studio program, thereby making people more conscious of better quality in sound reproduction. The motion picture theatre will have to improve its present standards to match the capabilities of FM. Unfortunately, the theory of FM cannot be applied directly to the sound equipment in the theatre, but the associated FM sound equipment will set new standards by which all mechanically produced sound will be judged. Before the war the motion picture industry, seeking a new and better medium for sound recording and reproduction on film, developed the push-pull sound track method. All of the major studios made their pictures with this sound track available to people capable of using it. All forward looking manufacturers at that time made their reproducing equipment capable of utilizing the push-pull or standard recording method. In the post-war era, the push-pull sound track will soon replace our present single track system as there is no immediate promise of another method of comparable competence. Wire recording, a relatively old art, has been brought forward and improved to the point where it is practical for the recording of speech. The reason for its great ac(Continued on page 16)