NAEB Newsletter (Jan 1957)

TV TECHNICAL TIPS NO. 28 —By Cecil S. Bidlack, NAEB TV Engineer Big news of the month, as far as the Engineering Service is concerned, is the publication of the report of the 1955 NAEB TV Engineering Workshop held at East Lansing, Michigan in September, 1955. This 189 page report was placed in the mails the second week of December and should be in your hands as this is written, barring delay due to the Christmas rush. We regret it has taken so long so get this report into print. The task of transcribing the talks from the tapes and the necessity for a great deal of editing required far more time than anticipated. By the time the report was ready for the printer, we bumped into a backlog of text book printing. Late as it is, we hope you’ll find it helpful and worth while. * * * * With the collaboration of Dick Lawson of the WILL-TV staff we have also published the first of what we hope will be a series of Staging, Lighting and Graphic Arts Newsletters. These have been sent to those who attended the NAEB Staging and Lighting Workshop at Ann Arbor last August, and to managers and directors of all ETV stations and production cen¬ ters. We know our list of staging, lighting and graphic arts personnel is far from complete. We hope to reach everyone concerned, so if we missed you please write and ask to be added to our mailing list. Included in the mailing to managers is an SMPTE paper “An Inquiry Into Standards for Television Slide Production” and “Preliminary Specifications for the Ampex VR-1000 Videotape Recorder/Reproduc¬ er.” We’ll be glad to supply these upon request. * * * * CBS-TV has placed its two protoype models of the Ampex Videotape Recorder into daily use for West Coast repeats of the Douglas Edwards News program. Picture quality is reported far superior to kinescope quality and compares with the best 35mm film with superior contrast range. Observers report occasional appearance of fine white lines in the picture attributed to “tape drop out.” This is caused by the texture of the magnetic material on the tape base. It is accentuated when the magnetic oxides are not evenly flowed onto the plastic base. Tape suppliers have been giving special attention to this problem, with pre-testing of each reel of tape slated as one possible method of whipping this problem. NBC-TV in Hollywood has received the first of its Ampex Videotape Recorders; but until tests have been completed no plans have been made for “on the air” use. Delivery of the second' recorder is expect¬ ed soon with a third to go to New York Network fa¬ PLACEMENT SUPPLEMENT The following gentleman registered with us last month. Anyone wishing further information or wishing to register with the NAEB Placement Service contact Mrs. Judith Stevens, 14 Gregory Hall, Urbana, Illinois. Male, married, M.A., 29, wants producer- director, or program director position in educational broadcasting. Now employed as radio announcer and supervises produc¬ tion of TV spots for an ad agency. Has de¬ gree in radio-TV and welcomes a chance to teach. Location open. $5,000. cilities. We regret we can’t give a first hand report of the use of videotape on the air. We’d appreciate hearing from our West Coast readers with their com¬ ments on reception. The way we figure, it may be a long time before we “corn pickin’’ middle westerners see programs on videotape. If possible, Ampex officials have promised to advise in advance of coast-to-coast broadcasts on tape. * * * * An interesting application of the use of infra-red reflecting glass is outlined in a story on page 89 of the December 10 Broadcasting-Telecasting. This glass reflects radiant heat but transmits more than 75% visible light. Rectangles of glass, 12 x 16 inches, were installed on frames in front of the spotlights used'. The glass was held at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to reflect heat towards the ceiling and away from the light fixture itself. This method was used for WSM-TV telecasts from Ryman Auditorium in Nashville (which is not air conditioned). WSM officials believe at least 50% of the heat from the spotlights was dispersed, which made it possible to televise “Grand Ole Opry” throughout the summer. They were so impressed they plan to install heat reflecting glass in the regular WSM-TV studio (which is air conditioned). In ad¬ dition to cutting down heat, they also believe a re¬ duction in the amount of infra-red light improves picture quality. * * * * On our visit to KCTS in Seattle, we picked up an idea which may be helpful. In order to cut down on their inventory of 16mm reels, they use a split reel in conjunction with a plastic core and a brass hub which they designed and built. This way they are able to store film in cans on the plastic core (used for bulk film) and operate with a small num¬ ber of split reels. The illustrations show the parts of the brass hub separated and with the hub in the plas¬ tic core. NEWSLETTER Page 7