Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

•f:^^ ^S«^^^. SALFH LCIVELL EXAMINEH THL MECHANISM WHICH \PPLIES THE SOUND RECORDING TO THE EDGE OF THE FILM CONTAINING THE TELEVISION RECORDING. COMPLETE TELEVISION RECORDING EQUIPMENT INCLUDING CAMERA AT EXTREME LB^T WITH SOUND RECORDING AND MONITORING PANELS. finder and checked by exposing film at several different settings. Before each program is recorded, processed film is examined under a microscope to determine the best actual focus. The camera lens is a two-inch Eastman Anastigmat F1.6. Norm- ally, apertures of f2.0 to f2.8 are used. For several reasons, 16mm film rather than 35mm film was selected for kinescope recordings. One of the main reasons was that the cost of .35mm film is somewhat more than three times the cost of 16mm for the same period of recording. The current quality of television images, which will undoubtedly undergo gradual refinement, is considered to be roughly equivalent to 16mm home movies, although actually somewhat better with reference to contrast and detail. However, recording on 35mm rather than 16mm film re- sults in no marked improvement at the present time. Fire regulations covering the use of the wider film are rigorous regardless of whether the film is acetate safety base or the combustible nitrate base, whereas the narrower films, available only in acetate safety base, are not re- stricted by such regulations. In producing television record- ings in the NBC studios, Radio City, New York, programs are piped by direct line to the kinescope tube. For programs originating outside the studio the program is taken from the coaxial cable before the signals reach the Empire State transmitting station. Printing of the film is done ac- cording to standard motion picture laboratory practice. Step printing in which stock and negative are ex- posed to the printing light, a frame at a time, is preferred over con- tinuous printing, where the negative and print stock run past an il- luminated slit at a continuous speed. Recording of the sound portion of a television program is accomplished with standard 16mm sound-on-film recording equipment at the rate of 24 frames per second. ENGSTROM HEADS RESEARCH INSTITUTE E. W. Engstrom, Vice President in Charge of Research, RCA Lab- oratories Division, has been elected President of the Industrial Re- search Institute, Inc., for 1948- 1949. The Institute, of which Radio Corporation of America is a mem- ber, was organized in 1938 under the auspices of the National Re- search Council. In the past ten years, the organization has grown from the original nucleus of four- teen member companies to more than a hundred. These concerns employ research staffs numbering more than twenty thousand people. Purposes of the Institute are to promote through its members more economical and effective techniques of organization, administration and operation of industrial research, and to distribute information on these subjects; to stimulate an understanding of research as a force in the economic, industrial and social activity of the nation, and in general to promote high standards in the field of industrial research. Prior to his election as Presi- dent, Mr. Engstrom had served in 1946-1947 as a member of the Insti- tute Board of Directors and Chair- man of its Finance Committee, and in the following year as a Board Member, Vice President and Chair- man of the Program Committee. As President, he will continue a member of the Board. [RADIO AGE 111