NBC Transmitter (Jan-Dec 1940)

NBC VOL. 6 JANUARY, 1940 No. 1 LATEST PROGRESS IN TELEVISION NEW YEAR SftS MANY TRAINING FCC VIEWS NEW PORTABLE UNIT GROUPS HELD FOR YOUNGER MEN Evolution of an Idea. Television develops so rapidly that it is always outmoding its own news. This month there are several items for the record. We are all familiar with the ten-ton, two-truck mobile unit which has so successfully picked up such nemos as boxing and tennis matches, and baseball and football games. This sleek monster is the incredible descendant of the early moving-picture apparatus. The picture above clearly shows the dramatic evolution. Ed Stolzenberger travels back through time to demonstrate the actual Pathe camera used to shoot The Birth of a Nation. In the center Roy Meredith is at the controls of the modern Mitchell movie camera which he uses in producing the television subject, Teletopics. And on the right is Ed Cullen mastering one of the television cameras at present employed in Studio 3H. And now there is a further development. The RCA Laboratories in Camden have produced a new light-weight portable television field pick-up unit. The compact . Ml 1 11 1 • • 1 rCC examines new apparatus Will be able to televise material (l. to r.) James Fiy, beyond the reach of the equipment previously used. There are also many other practical advantages in the new unit. The cost is about one-sixth and the weight about one-tenth that of the present mobile equipment. An entire three-camera assembly in eleven “suitcases” and with 1000 feet of cable weighs less than 1500 pounds. Also the power needed is about one-fifth of that formerly required. 110 volts, single phase, is enough. The flexibility of the system has been improved to allow dissolving from the scene on one camera to that being picked up by another, so that on the receiving screen you can see one view build up as the other dies out. The accompanying radio transmitter works on a wave-length of about one meter, the shortest yet employed in practical television work. The power is much less than that of the two-truck unit, but the wavelength is not only equally free of static, but can be used with small, highly efficient antennas which multiply the effective power several times. The RCA Manufacturing Company has already delivered one such unit to NBC. The new field equipment was demonstrated Friday, November 24, before members and officials of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington. D. C., by the RCA Laboratories. Among those present were James Lawrence Fly, Chairman of the FCC; Commissioners Thad H. Brown. Norman S. Case and T. A. M. Craven, members of {Continued on page 4) AS the New Year ajrproaches and gets underway, it finds I the largest number yet of employe training courses in action. This is a result of the Company’s policy of filling vacancies from its own ranks. It has been said more and more often in the past few years that the Company is old enough to prepare its personnel to fill the responsible positions created or opened as time goes on, and this year a more comprehensve effort than ever is being made in that direction. Ashton Dunn of Personnel has already organized a group for the purpose of learning the structure and activities of various departments. It is similar to last year’s group which was developed to satisfy the expressed interest of the younger employes. Some of the more specialized courses recently planned or begun are working in connection with the larger group to fill out the general training program. All of them have members of a remarkably high standard, the majority having received anywhere from one or two years of college to an M.A. degree. The most elementary course, given to all new employes of General Service and to any others who may wish to enroll, is the Orientation Class. Meetings last about two weeks and are held whenever there is a sufficient number of enrollees. During the ten classes or so, the history of RCA and NBC is explained and the organization of NBC taken up. After that, the logical step is to attend the group first mentioned above, which now has sixty-five members from eleven . . different departments. Since tbe first Thad'^Brown?'Nor meeting in October, at which Dr. Angell A. M. Craven spoke, they have gathered every Wednes day evening in the Sixth Floor Board Room to hear executives from the Continuity Acceptance, Engineering, Information and Program Departments discuss their work and the functions of their divisions. Following the talk there is usually a lively question and answer period to clear up any {Continued on page 4) One of the Wednesday night meetings in the personnel training program.