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

TELEVISION AND THE THEATRE Large Screen Developments Are Likely to Create Major Changes in Theatre Programming and in the Production of Film Features, Watts Says By W. W. Watts Vice President in charge of Engineering Products Dept., RCA Victor Division IT is usual, in a discussion of tele- vision, to trace its growth be- ginning with the first whirling-disc scanners of 1885. Actually, these ichronological facts are of little consequence compared to an appre- ciation of television as it exists to- day—an "infant" industry growing into maturity—and an understand- ing of where it may go tomorrow. Recently, the Radio Corporation •of America published an advertise- ment announcing that television is now "Forty Million Big," a refer- ence not to 40 million viewers, or anything like that number, but to the fact that television program service now covers an area popu- lated by 40 million people. For many years every broadcast of the NBC Symphony under Tos- canini had been viewed by capacity crowds in one of the world's larg- est studios. Yet, on the night when this program was first televised, it was seen and heard by more people than comprised the total of all pre- vious studio audiences. To recog- nize the import of this, let us take a brief glance at some current and future statistics. There are now in operation 28 television broadcast stations. The Federal Communications Commis- sion has granted 83 Construction Permits and applications for 281 additional stations have been filed with the FCC. If the currently proposed FCC revision of television channel allo- cations is enacted, then, ultimately, there will be channel space for 953 stations in 456 cities—with an audi- ence that could grow to equal that of the estimated 66 million radio sets now in 37 million homes. There are, of course, other forms of television than the home type. One is Large-Screen Television, a nomenclature applied to television pictures varying from 6 bv 8 feet to 15 by 20 feet. DEMONSTRATION OF LARGE SCREEN TELE- VISION PROJECTION, PROVIDING A SCREEN PICTURE 6 BY 8 FBaiT. Although usage has invariably linked these projection systems to the "theatre", it is my belief that theatre television is but one of many applications for large-screen television equipment. As one ex- ample, it is conceivable that such equipment will be used for audi- ences at television studios since the presence of large numbers of vis- itors to studio sets when in use is fully as impractical in television as in motion picture studios. Promotional use of large screen television in connection with sports and news events also will be made and may, in some cases, displace the "moving light" bulletin boards now widely used by newspapers. Overflow auditoriums, department stores, hospitals, hotels, cocktail lounges, and night clubs provide additional fields of usage. Applications Seem Endless In fact, the possible applications of television seem endless. For in- stance, television cameras on the front of guided missiles provide a picture by radio to permit guiding the missile to its target; under- water television has obvious uses for examining locations now beyond man's reach. In hospitals, famed surgeons have shown that they can demonstrate their technique by tele- vision to audiences far in excess of the capacity of normal surgical amphitheatres. In motion picture studios, directors can view tomor- row's "rushes" on two-dimensional television screens while the scene is being shot. From their easy- chairs on the studio floor, directors can view what is being filmed by the motion picture camera as it gyrates above some huge set on the end of a camera crane. With possibilities such as these, several motion picture companies already have begun their partici- pation in television. Paramount, through television station operation and demonstrations of its film stor- age system at the New York Para- mount Theatre, has shown an active interest in the medium. Warner I[I8 RADIO AGE]