Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1945)

July 21, 1945 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW 51 News In A Nutshell for home consumption in May, 1946 with experimental test starting in January. Of the 20,000 prewar receiving sets, approximately 15,000 remain serviceable, with the other 5000 blitzed. 2. His company will first manufacture home receivers for 405-line definition to sell for about $500 (more than double prewar price). The increase, he said, is due to 33 1/3 per cent purchase tax (sales tax) and doubled labor costs. 3. Several British cities are now linked with London by coaxial cable and a total of six additional stations will be built within three years. When these are in operation, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, and Bristol stations will exchange programs and potentially cover 80 per cent of the population able to afford receivers. British pub owners are enthusiastic over the prospect of purchasing sets on the basis of prewar over-the-bar sales increases where sets were installed. While this home television program, which will start with a one-hour afternoon and twohour evening telecast on a six day per week basis is developing, experiments will proceed on higher definition aiming at around 800-line quality. A use tax, imposed on receiving set owners will help finance the Government sponsored programming through BBC. Theatrewise, Captain West is of the opinion that television will not offer much commercial hope until it can be simplified in operation to about the same degree as the present handling of sound motion pictures by the regular projectionist. This he feels will be achieved eventually. The need for a thorough training of projectionists in electronics is being considered by the British Kinematograph Society as part of a ten year program under Capt. West's leadership. This program envisions as the goal to shoot at: 1. Complete reequipping of theatres for quality sound picture presentation including acoustical treatment within two years along with personnel training. 2. Black and white, 1000-line theatre television free of interference on a large screen within five years. (The RankOdeon-Gaumont British theatres plan their own coaxial network to handle television programming for 800 theatre units in that period of time.) 3. Color Television development for theatres within the next two years. 4. Third dimensional films and television in color with the ultimate in definition and sound quality within ten years. Captain West sees no resumption of theatre television for at least two years or until such time as the quality and method of presentation can be improved. Experts were required, prewar to operate equipment in the six theatres offering television programming. This made the presentations uneconomical. He is presently aiding the French Government in the development and manufacture of mine detecting equipment for the removal of German land mines, some ten million of which are yet to be gathered in. These mines are killing French farmers at the rate of thirty per day and the job of removal is expected to take three years. While in America, Captain West plans ^to visit the leading radio-television manufacturers and laboratories to exchange ideas and compare notes. From the American side of the Atlantic, SMPE television committee chairman. Dr. D. R. White of E. I. du Pont de Nemours has gone abroad to study television in England, France and Germany. Meanwhile, Paul J. Larsen. chairman of the Society's theatre television {Continued from Page 35) practice committee, who presented the SMPE frequency allocation recommendations to the F.C.C., is making a study of what theatres can expect to have available in the way of television equipment in the U. S. Another development was the announcement of frequency allocations for FM and television by the F.C.C. as a result of exhaustive research and testimony by engineers representing all interested factions. The allocations which are between 42 and 108 megacycles of the spectrum permit prompt development of receivers and broadcast facilities by the industry as soon as materials are available. No specific allocations were set for theatre television. Mac on the Mend In a pleasant Long Island town, not far from the big city of New York, a fellow who has made his mark in the field of screen presentation is taking a well earned rest following a severe operation from which he is recovering. This fellow is the warrior who has championed "better projection" through more than a quarter century of intensive work and who is still very active in furthering the ideal he has done so much to advance. He is P. A. McGuire, dean of advertising men in the equipment branch of the film industry and a personality whose friends are legion. "Mac" is now devoting himself to public relations work for International Projector Corporation. He has been associated (Continued on Next Page) ...For Top-Flight Performance^ In realism of image and naturalness of sound these trouble-free, streamlined aces of the projection booth exceed the demands of the most critical audiences. They are built to standards far in excess of those generally accepted for motion picture sound equipment . . . Priced to enable ANY theater to afford NEW equipment . . . DeVRY knowhow engineering, teamed with DeVRY precision methods in parts production and assembly, assures theater projection that is 5 Time Winner DeVRY alone has been awarded Five consecutive Army-Navy E's for Excellence in the production of Motion Picture Sound Equipment. flicker-free, shadowless and steady as a searchlight . . . Top-flight performance for either black-and-white newsreel or technicolor feature . . . Your DeVRY includes a synchronized built-in Sound-Head. DeVRY has the world's most complete peacetime line of motion picture sound equipment. Also Hl-Pidelity Theater Amplifiers and Multi-Cellular Speakers. Before you buy, mail coupon to DeVRY . . . DeVRY corporation. Dept. ST-B7 1111 Armitage Ave., Chicago 14, Illinois Please send details about the NEW DeVRY 35inm Theaee* Projectors and Sound Systems .Statt. Theater , Captuity.