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

NBC Co\ crs the Conventions Sli'.ff of M)() Tiihiiuiiins jnJ (oiniiniiliiloix Aiilcil h\ S2J)()0J)()() of Eijiiipnunt, Si't iVnr Rccoiil oj Conrii'^i- in Scnhc lo T\^ iiiii/ Riiilio Set ()))ihr\ font (.Oiisl lo C.OiisI T„ -Ht view and sound of .» gavel wielded by the party's national Committee chairman signalized the opening of the 1952 Republican Convention in Chicago on July 7, and set in motion the most complete and complex array of television-radio facilities ever assembled at one time for any occasion. It brought to realization the exten- sive plans over which scores of NBC engineers and programming experts had pored for nearly a year. For the first time in history the video facilities, ranging from TV cameras on the Hoor to long files of microwave relay towers and miles of coaxial cables made it possible for the colorful and sometimes frenzied scenes of a national political convention to be witnessed simultaneously in nearly a third of ail homes from coast to coast. Actually, NBC's convention coverage had started sev- eral days earlier. During pre-convention week the net- work presented eight hours of special TV programs. Included were sidelights of the tense battles for contested convention seats as well as the press conferences that were held by candidates for the presidential nomination. Some idea of the extent of NBC's participation in the convention can be had from statistics compiled by the network. To report and observe every move on and ofT the convention floor at the Chicago Amphitheatre, at the National Committee headquarters in the Conrad Hilton Hotel, at railroad stations and other focal points, NBC assembled a staff of .SOO. Some were "borrowed" from the network's owned and operated stations, including eleven technicians from Hollywood. These stafi members were supplied with the latest equipment including several units never before used in the coverage of national events. One of the most interesting of these accessories was the walkie-lookie, a portable TV camera-transmitter .iriginally developed through research at the David ^.irnort Research Center. Princeton, N. J. The hand Mzed T\' camera, weighing 10 pounds, together with Its 5()-pound back-pack transmitter made it fwssible for commentators and observers to extend the scope of their RADIO AGE 3 coverage into areas where standard cameras ct)uld not go. The walkie-lookie transmitted a regular TV picture- plus-sound from the scene of action to its associated base station thence through the network to home view- ers tuned to NBC stations. Another equipment newcomer, unveiled for the two conventions, was NBC's super mobile unit, rebuilt from a 4-4-passenger bus. Variously called a "disaster unit", "crash truck" or 'TV newsroom on wheels", the 35-f{K)t truck with its complement of television cameras and controls, film cameras and fast-developing dark rooms. Mini projectors and microwave transmitter showed its ability at Chicago to speed to any point of interest and to record and transmit the action for immediate re- transmission over the network or delayed transmission from developed film reels. The truck's film-developing unit is a radical de- parture in that field. The apparatus proved that it could turn out 300 feet of negative 16 mm. film in 15 min- utes, six times faster than ordinary developing machines. Few home viewers of the convention scenes could realize the full extent of preparations and materials involved in bringing these f>olitical highlights to the American people. Part of the tons of radio-television instruments and equipment shipped to Chicago by NBC for use during the political conventions.