NBC Transmitter (Mar-Oct 1941)

2 NBC TRANSMITTER DAVID SARNOFF TELEVISION RCA Laboratories Noran E Kersta David Sarnoff, President of RCA and Chairman of the Board of NBC, was given a party by his friends on February 27 th — the occasion, his fiftieth birthday. One week later, Mr. Sarnoff announced that the world’s largest radio research laboratories will be built by the Radio Corporation of America, at Princeton, N. J. It will be known as “RCA Laboratories,” and will be the headquarters for all research and original development work of RCA, and for its patent and licensing activities. The new organization is planned to promote the growth of radio as an art and industry, and to meet the expanding demands of national defense. A further purpose, Mr. Sarnoff said, will be to facilitate the creation and development of new radio products and services which will provide new business and new employment for the post-war period. Under the impetus of emergencies intensive research creates new instrumentalities, and further research and development are necessary to adapt them to use by the public. “To equip our research staff with the best and most modern facilities and conveniences, we have purchased a large tract of land at Princeton,” said Mr. Sarnoff, “upon which we will erect a laboratory building which will in clude a lecture auditorium and the combined technical and patent libraries of the RCA organization. We hope to have the build'ng completed before the end of this year. “We believe that this step rriarks a milestone in the progress of radio. Such important fields as television, facsimile, electron optics, wave propagation and ultrahigh frequencies open to radio a future even greater than its past. The developments in these fields will contribute to the creation of new industries and to the improvement of existing services. “More and more of our research work is being concentrated on problems of national defense. The new RCA Laboratories will make it possible to increase these efforts and to insure the maximum use of our research facilities for defense. “The achievements of modern radio,” continued Mr. Sarnoff, “are also capable of increasing and improving our industrial output in many lines. By the application of electronic devices to industrial processes the Radio Age promises to electronize modern industry, just as the application of electrical devices to industry at the beginning of this century created the Electrical Age. “By the establishment of the new laboratories radio quickens its pace alongside the older industries — electrical, steel, automobile, wire communications, chemical, metallurgical and others — which, through research, have contributed to the industrial leadership and progress of this country. It is through invention and the oractical applications of research that American ingenuity has raised the standards of living in the United States above those of any other nation. “No new industry in the history of this country has made greater strides than radio, or contributed more extensive benefits to people in all walks of life,” said Mr. Sarnoff. “Research, which has enabled American industry to develop new products, new services and new employment, has also been the greatest factor in the continuing advancement of radio.” Since the first of the year, the National Broadcasting Company has continued transmitting sporting events from the Madison Square Carden and other arenas in the area, two or three times a week. Among these sporting events were basketball, hockey, boxing, wrestling and track meets. Of most importance was a series of six indoor track meets from the Madison Square Carden ending up with the K. of C. track meet on Saturday, March 8th. Two other outstanding events televised were the finals of the Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament, and the Tournament of Champions from the Carden. On January 24th, a demonstration was given to the FCC. For the first time, the RCA-NBC demonstrated home projection type receivers with viewing screens 13V2x18 inches. Also, it was the occasion of the longest radio relay pick-up of a television program on record. The mobile television pickup units were stationed at Camp Upton, Long Island, where scenes of army life and induction of selectees were picked up and relayed by three radio links to our Empire State transmitter. This was a radio relay path of 62 miles. The radio relays were developed as a means of networking television programs from city to city. Part of the demonstration program was witnessed in the New Yorker Theater on a movie size screen 15x20 feet. All those who attended the demonstration expressed complete satisfaction and surprise with the results achieved in large-screen television projection. This demonstration was part of a study of the television situation, conducted by the FCC at that time, prior to hearings which were held on March 20th. One of the issues discussed at these hearings was the commercial possibilities of television for the near future. The television industry is now looking to the FCC for the new regulations which will incorporate the Commission’s decisions on the problems of standardization and commercialization.