NAEB Newsletter (Oct 1958)

and WRC-TV studios and offices as well as FM and TV transmitters. The plant is designed to make most effective use of a minimum of operating personnel. All video controls for live and film cameras are located in one central control and transmission room. AM and FM studios are located in a cluster with all microphone outputs appearing on all control room consoles. Every studio is visible from each of the control rooms. There are two TV studios, one large- and one medium-sized. Eventually these will be equipped for live color originations, with lighting boards relay operated so that the lighting for ten different sets can be arranged and then turned on as required by a control room panel switch. I was interested in the fact that no dimming facilities are provided for light¬ ing. By the use of punched paper tape and readout and memory devices, automatic TV operation is possible once the proper sequence has been set up on the tape. Automation is used primarily for sta¬ tion break operation during long stretches of net¬ work programming. This automation equipment can be clock-operated and switched from network to local, rolling and stopping projectors and switching between film and slide projectors as required and back into the network with operating personnel re¬ quired only to supervise the operation and load the projectors. We’d like to see more representation from educa¬ tional stations at this IRE PGBTS meeting which is usually held the last week end in September. The 1956 meeting was held in Cleveland; Pittsburgh was host in 1957; and the 1959 meeting has tentatively been set again for Washington, D. C., with Detroit also a possibility. —NAEB— The Tenth Annual Convention of the Audio Engineering Society is being held at the New Yorker Hotel September 29 - October 4 in conjunction with the New York High Fidelity Show and the Audio Engineering Show. Some NAEB technical personnel regularly attend this event, which is usually held in New York City the first part of October. A full five- day program of papers on audio subjects has been ar¬ ranged covering stereo, acoustics, magnetic tape and recording techniques as well as new devices, measure¬ ments, standards, speech input equipment and loud¬ speakers. The program looks interesting—hope someone who attends will give us a report. —NAEB— We hope to see many of our readers at the NAEB Convention in Omaha, October 14-17. Jack McBride and his committee have been busy arranging a varied and worthwhile program. _N A E B— The week following the NAEB Convention, the 84th SMPTE Convention is being held at the Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit. The October 22nd and 23rd sessions are of prime interest to ETV personnel. Wednesday morning (the 22nd) the gen¬ eral topic is television equipment and practices, while that afternoon kinescope recording problems and equipment will be discussed. The Thursday evening session (the 23rd) is given over to closed-circuit television for teaching, and educational, military and medical applications of closed-circuit systems will be described. The Thursday morning topic is machine language translation, while that afternoon the general topic is designing for international tele¬ vision where eventual contributions towards auto¬ matic translations and international standards will be discussed. _N A E B— Before we bring this column to a close perhaps we should include a couple of technical tips, since that’s our heading; so here they are: Factors for good vidicon performance. 1. Plenty of light. 2. Flat lighting. 3. Reasonable target temperatures. 4. A good camera. a) Low noise input. b) Linear scanning. c) Aperature correction. d) Gamma correction. e) Stability and reliability. Many times the company which is endeavoring to sell you new television equipment has used oper¬ able equipment on hand in its storage warehouse. This equipment may have been taken in trade or have been returned as a result of the station leaving the air. Obviously, the salesman who calls on you is interested in selling the new equipment of the company he represents; however, his company is interested in disposing of this used equipment too. Why not ask about it? _N a E B— See you in Omaha! N.A.E.B. NATIONAL CONVENTION OCTOBER 14-17 OMAHA, NEBRASKA 10 See You In Omaha NEWSLETTER