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

Color Telecast from Magnetic Tape A color television program recorded on mag- netic tape was transmitted over commercial television network facilities for the first time on May 12 by RCA and the National Broadcasting Company. The tape-recotded telecast originated with the proto- type RCA television tape recorder that has been installed for field testing at the NBC studios in Rockefellei Center, New York. Transmitted over a closed circuit from New York to Saint Paul, Minnesota, it highlighted the dedication cetemonies of the new research center of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, makers of magnetic tape used in the RCA system. The historic program was recorded in advance on the developmental video tape system at the NBC studios, and the tape was stored until the scheduled transmission time. The telecast was sent to Saint Paul over the microwave relay facilities used by NBC for commercial network programs. On the tape were televised remarks by Brig. General David Sarnoff, Chairman of the Boards of RCA and NBC, who hailed the opening of the new research center as a "historic occasion," adding: "It is most gratifying to all of us in RCA that the scientists and engineers in our laboratories have built TV tape recorder at NBC is readied for its first color telecast by W. D. Houghton of RCA Laboratories. and are now field-testing the first television magnetic tape recorder which brings this message and other por- tions of this program to you in Minnesota. ... It is most fitting that you who developed and made the tape and we who developed and built the recorder should share in this great achievement." On TV Screen and In Person In addition to General Sarnoffs remarks, the pro- gram included a brief explanation of the system by Dr. Harry F. Olson, Director of the Acoustical and Electro-mechanical Research Laboratoty, RCA Labora- tories, and an entertainment program featuring Eddie Fisher, Bambi Linn, Rod Alexander, and Al Kelly. Dr. Olson, under whose direction the TV tape recorder was developed at the David Sarnoff Research Center of RCA in Princeton, N. J., not only appeared on TV screens in Saint Paul duting the tape telecast, but at- tended the ceremonies in person to discuss the recording system. Describing the demonstration as "a progress report" involving the new equipment installed at NBC, Dr. Olson said in the tape-recorded telecast that "some prob- lems remain to be solved." "These involve both the machine and the tape," he said. "We are certain that these problems will be solved. . . . We are confident that electronic photography will be an important tool first in television and later in industry and the home." The RCA TV magnetic tape recording system was first demonstrated under laboratoty conditions on De- cember 1, 1953, at the David Sarnoff Research Center. The system was described by General Sarnoff as the first major step into an era of "electronic photography," in which motion pictures in color or black-and-white will be produced quickly and economically, eliminating most of the time and all of the chemical processing involved in photography. It was pointed out at that time that RCA's objective in developing such a system was to achieve a swift, economical and efficient means of recording color tele- vision programs for storage, playbacks or re-broadcast. RADIO AGE 13