Projection engineering (Sept 1929-Nov 1930)

Page 30 Projection Engineering, Aprd, 19'jO dndusff «) THE FIRST W. E. SOUND INSTALLATION The first Western Electric sound reproducing equipment was installed in Warners Theatre, New York, for the opening of the first sound picture, John Barrymore in "Don Juan" on August 6, 1926. This was at a time when the industry viewed the outlook for sound pictures with sour skepticism. By the end of 1926 only 15 theatres had been equipped by the Vitaphone Corporation which, at that time, was distributing the Western Electric sound system. In April, 1927, Electrical Research Products was formed as a subsidiary of the Western Electric Company to distribute and service the Western Electric sound system to motion-picture theatres. Warner Brothers had taken out a license to record by the Western Electric sound system specializing in the disc method and Fox had become a licensee specializing in the sound-on-film method. In the spring of 1927 practically all the large producers, Paramount-Famous-Lasky, First National, MetroGoldwyn-Mayer, Universal, United Artists, and Columbia Pictures were licensed to record talking pictures bv the Western Electric system. The 5000 installations of the Western Electric sound system now in theatres throughout the world, in the brief span of less than four years marks a record of organization growth and theatre service seldom, if ever, equalled in the industry. According to present schedule the installation of Western Electric sound systems will continue for the balance of 1930 at the rate of about 90 a week, including both the domestic and foreign fields. M. C. BATSEL ON PACIFIC COAST M. C. Batsel, chief engineer of RCA Photophone, Inc., is on a trip to Los Angeles where he is holding a series of conferences with RCA Photophone recording licensees. Leading producers of sound pictures in the cinema capital include R-K-O, which operates one of the largest studios on the West Coast, Pathe, Educational Pictures, Mack Sennett, Tiffany, Tec-Art, Darmour and Davidage. and it will be Mr. Batsel's purpose to discuss existing sound recording conditions and certain improvements and innovations that at present are under consideration. "Sound recording and reproduction have improved greatly during the past year," said Mr. Batsel in discussing his visit to the center of sound production activities. "We now have reached the point where we have assurance that a well-recorded sound picture will be faithfully reproduced if the film or disc upon which the sound is recorded is projected by projection equipment of a high standard. However, we know that the best recorded sound picture produced will be doomed to dismal failure if projected by inferior reproducing equipment. While rapid strides have been made since sound invaded the screen, constant improvement has been noted and I look forward to the not-far-distant day when sound pictures will play a most important part in the fields of industry and education. They will provide entertainment for many more years. The world's foremost electrical engineers are engaged in the development of improvements in sound recording and sound reproduction and the producer and exhibitor of sound pictures are profiting from their findings." TEATRO CARRERA. SANTIAGO, CHILE, PLAYS FIRST TALKING PICTURES Chile is the latest country to see, hear and succumb to talking pictures reproduced over the Western Electric Sound System. The first Chilean house to be equipped was the Teatro Carrera, Santiago, which showed "The Broadway Melody" for its first talking attraction on March 6, and played two performances daily to enthusiastic capacity houses. Western Electric has received contracts to install the equipment in ten more houses in Chile. EASTMAN OPENS HOLLYWOOD LAB. AND SOUND THEATRE The Eastman-Kodak Company has opened a completely equipped laboratory and sound theatre in Hollywood, devoted to the general use of the motionpicture industry. The modern research facilities thus made available, permit the making of accurate photometric measurements for which the average studio is not usually equipped. In addition to their laboratory plant, a modern sound theatre, with very nearly ideal acoustic conditions, is available to the studios for the running of films. This theatre is equipped with a standard Western Electric sound installation, and utilizes two of the Super-Simplex machines for projection; at the time of installation, these were the first machines of their type on the Pacific Coast. Some of their advantages include a fan for reducing the heat at the cooling plate, semi-automatic framing and picture centering devicees, and a number of other useful Improvements. One of the departures in this installation is the use of a remote volume indicator and gain control, located at a monitor desk in the theatre proper, which permits manipulation of the sound independently of the projection room faders. This remote volume indicator also serves a useful purpose in checking the daily output of the machines, in conjunction with constant amplitude frequency records. The entire installation is considered one of the most modern in Hollywood, and is generally accepted by the industry as a criterion for quality. COLUMBIA PICTURES CORP. EXPANDS PLANT The 1930 expansion program of the Columbia Pictures Corporation includes, among other notable features, the enlargement of their sound-recording plant and the addition of sound-proof stages. These additions, which are 90% completed at this time, give Columbia a total of four large sound stages, an up-to-date scoring stage and a silent stage. The two new stages are 162 feet by 72 feet each. Results of modern research in sound engineering and construction of sound equipment have been incorporated in the monitor rooms of all the stages, as well as in the newly enlarged recording building. Three channels and two late design trucks, so constructed as to make it possible to operate them as independent channels through a centralized distributing bay, form the nucleus of the recording plant. The acquisition of the Horsley Film Laboratories by Columbia Pictures, as well as a 200% expansion in dubbing equipment, places Columbia in a particularly favorable position in the way of better sound facilities. WIDE FILM RELEASES The first releases on wide film will probably be shown early this Spring. Paramount is about ready with their Magnafilm process, and from the RKO lot it is rumored that "Dixiana," now in preparation, will be made on the double-width film, using the Spoor-Berrgren process. Several of the major producers have already gotten together and agreed upon standardization of all "stereoscopic film" at a 65-mm. width. Of course, all pictures made on wide film will be shot on standard width film also, since it is anticipated that the larger screen size required will limit the stereoscopic showings to the first run houses and road shows, at least for the present. The difficulties involved are by no means limited to the projection end; a new technique is required in photographing the action, because of the changed camera angles. The wide sweep which the so-called stereoscopic cameras take in, also necessitates moving the microphones further back from the action, and sound technicians at the various studios are experimenting with various forms of sound concentrators in order to achieve good pick-up over longer distances. All wide-film production will be somewhat hampered until these corollary difficulties of production technique have been satisfactorily worked out of course, but a good deal has already been accomplished toward this end by the motion-picture engineers. WESTERN FELT WORKS ENLARGES PLANT The rapidly increasing demand for Felts and Westfelt Rug & Carpet Padding has called for an immediate enlargement of manufacturing facilities. There are now under construction new buildings, adjacent to the main works, which will be equipped throughout with new machinery of latest design. This is the fifth addition that increasing business has made necessary to add to the original plant. The two private switches of the main line of the Burlington afford ready access for both incoming and outgoing shipments. Some of the increase in business is due to new lines having been added to original products. Having a most complete cutting division in the same group of buildings has resulted in promptness of service that would not be possible were the divisions scattered. OLD NEILAN STUDIOS REOPENED The old Marshall Neilan studios on Glendale Boulevard are being reopened under the name of the Premier Pictures Corporation, for the production of talking comedies. A group of San Francisco and Los Angeles bankers are financing the enterprise. Joe Rock, well-known Hollywood producer, will be in charge. RADIO TALKIES DEMONSTRATED TO PUBLIC FOR FIRST TIME The public at large, as well as the radio trade, had an opportunity of seeing radio talkies — combined sight and sound broadcasting — for the first time, under typical home conditions and with commercial equipment offered for sale, during January 16th to 18th, inclusive. The demonstration was given under the auspices of D. W. May, Inc., in the Lauder Auditorium, with Jenkins Television Corporation radiovisors now offered to the general public in the New Jersey area. That no technical advance was demonstrated, is a point emphasized by D. E. Replogle, Treasurer of the Jenkins Television Corporation. The demonstration was intended to show what can be done in the average home, within the service range of the Jenkins television station, W2XCR at Jersey City, and served by the same 60-cycle alternating-current power system as that serving the television transmitter, so as to obtain practically automatic synchronism by means of synchronous motors. The sound accompaniment for the radiovision pictures, in perfect synchronism, was flashed through Station W2XCD, the radio telephone station of the DeForest Radio Company at Passaic, N. J. The sight and sound broadcasts, with LouLs A. Witten acting as guest announcer, were staged in the Jenkins television studio at Jersey City. The greatest thrill of the demonstration was an address by Lee DeForest, Ph.D., inventor of the present-day radio tube and the acknowledged father of radio, coming over the air. Dr. DeForest was seen and heard by the audience, through a radiovisor and a standard broadcast receiver. PHOTOELECTRIC TUBES From the viewpoint of performance and characteristics there are two distinct types of photoelectric tubes: the vacuum tuba and the gas-filled tube. The first is highly evacuated, while the second contains an inert gas at pressures of the order of 20 to 150 microns. The anode voltage-anode current characteristic of a typical vacuum photoelectric tube with a constant value of light flux incident on the cathode is similar to thermionic emission when limited by filament temperature. When an inert gas at low pressure is present in the tube the anode current in microamperes rises sharply as the anode voltage is increased. When the anode voltage is constant and the light flux varied, the current is almost proportional to the amount of light. Although the photoelectric emission of electrons from the cathode responds to light variations of radio frequency, the amplification due to the gas does not follow such high-frequency variations. The employment of photoelectric tubes in television and talking moving-picture work operate on what may be termed a-c. linear operation. That is, the response must be linear and uniform throughout a definite frequency range. The foregoing is abstracted from an excellent paper on Photoelectric tubes, by G. F. Metcalf, which appeared in the November, 1929 issue of the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers. DEJUR-AMSCO Benjamin H. Price of the DeJur-Amsco Corporation, Fairbanks Building, New York City, is on an extended tour which will take him to the Pacific coast. During his trip Mr. Price will introduce the new DeJur-Amsco variable condenser for the 1930-31 season. The DeJur-Amsco Corporation also makes heavy duty rheostats and potentiometers for use in talking movies and other photo sound reproducing systems.