Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

10 Color Trends & Briefs: Hottest color broadcast equip ment now being offered by RCA is its 3-V vidicon film camera. RCA broadcast div. marketing mgr. A. R. Hopkins says back orders have piled up faster than current production rate. Production is behind early estimates, and company is modifying target of 40 film camera units by year’s end, now predicts number will be closer to 25. Six more 3-V cameras were shipped recently — to WBZ-TV, Boston; KSD-TV, St. Louis; WBEN-TV, Buffalo; WBAPTV, Ft. Worth; KTVK, Phoenix; WGAL-TV, Lancaster. Hopkins says RCA will go into new production of live color cameras in March, expects demand from individual stations to be comparatively heavy then. Production is still “way behind orders” on associated color equipment such as monitors, distribution amplifiers, etc., he adds. DuMont also reports steady flow of color gear, including $86,000 worth of scanner, slide and tei*minal equipment to WBZ-TV, Boston, this week. Its latest transmitter conversion equipment orders are from: KHQ-TV, Hannibal, Mo., WGEM-TV, Quincy, 111.; WLVA-TV, Lynchburg, Va.; KWWL-TV, Waterloo, la.; KOOL-TV, Phoenix, Ariz.; WICU, Erie, Pa. * • * ♦ New components for use with 21-in. color tube, now being offered in commercial quantities by RCA: 3 receiving tubes — horizontal-deflection amplifier 6BC5, shunt voltage regulator 6BK4, damper diode 6BL4; 6 other components— deflecting yoke, 2 dynamic-convergence inductor packs, converging magnet assembly, horizontal-output and high-voltage transformer, vertical-deflection-output transformer. “Color will obsolete old films, and if any of the studios are planning to unload their backlog they had better start right now,” said General Teleradio pres. Tom O’Neil in Hollywood last week. It was his firm which acquired Bank of America’s foreclosed film properties, now being syndicated as Million Dollar Movie. He’s out to buy more, says he’ll go into TV film production “if we can’t buy them better than w'e can make.” Next chores for RCA-NBC color mobile unit haven’t been chosen, but decision has been made not to use it again for Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Jan. 1. Several “spectacular” originations are being considered, none final yet. Though NBC won’t colorcast Tournament of Roses, KTLA plans to do so. Hoffman showed its first 21-in. color sets to dealers and press in Los Angeles Dec. 8, announced production will start in first quarter but didn’t disclose quantity. Sets are expected to sell for $895-$995, include 29-tube chassis and RCA picture tube which pres. H. L. Hoffman said “is the best we’ve used to date.” Completely new information package on DuMont color equipment line was announced by adv. & sales promotion mgr. Frank Newman. Package is available from transmitter dept., 1500 Main Ave., Clifton, N. J. Color sets numbered 259 in northern California Nov. 1, according to survey by Facts Consolidated, sponsored by KRON-TV, San Francisco, which has begun colorctsts. Stepped-up color film production by Screen Gems includes 15-min. film for RCA on development and future of color TV, commercials for Eastman, Ansco, Lucky Strike. Remington-Rand, for electric shavers, is having animated color commercials filmed by G. Street & Co. Ltd., London, for U. S. showing; Young & Rubicam is agency. ■ Dec. 13 week’s network color schedules: NBC-TV — Dec. 13, Producers’ Showcase, 8-9:30 p.m. ; Dec. 16, Ford Theatre, 9:30-10 p.m.; Dec. 18, Babes in Toyland, 9-10:30 p.m. CBS-TV— Dec. 14, Meet Millie, 9-9:30 p.m.; Dec. 19, Fred Waring Show, 9-9:30 p.m. TEXTS OF THE 2 PATENT-filing proposals issued by FCC this week, to require disclosures by those holding patent rights covering services regulated by Commission (see p. 2), constitute a new Part 25 of rules and amendment of Part 1 as follows: APPENDIX— PART 25 — PATENTS Section 25.1 — Filing of Patent Information (a) Anv carrier subject to the provisions of Title II of the Communications Act or any radio station licensee, or any person who controls, cr is controlled by any such carrier or station licensee, who owns one or more unexpired United States patents, or who has the right to license one or more such patents which are owned by others, i.e., the right to sublicense, which he knows or believes to be in use in systems, equipment or devices for one or more communication services regulated or authorized by the Commission under provisions of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, shall prepare and file in duplicate with the Commission on cr before the 31st of March of each year, reports, verified under oath (or affirmed according to law), and covering with respect to the preceding calendar year, the following information: (1) A table listing in numerical order the numbers of the unexpired U. S. patents the person reporting owns or has the right to sublicense which he knows or believes to be in use in systems, equipment or devices for one or more communication services, regulated or authorized by the Commission,! and showing, as to each patent listed, the rights of the “person" reporting, i.e., ownership or sublicense rights, the United States Patent Office classification and subclassification numbers, the filing and expiration dates, and the specific purpose or purposes for which said patent is known or believed to be in use. (2) A table listing the names and addresses of all persons, who hold licenses from the person reporting, for the manufacture, sale or use in any communication service or services regulated or authorized by the Commission under one or more of the patents reported under (1) above,! showing as to each such license, the patents known or believed to be in use thereunder by giving the patent numbers in numerical order, stating whether said patents are licensed on an exclusive, non-exclusive or sublicensing basis, whether they are licensed for manufacture, sale or use, the specific purpose or purposes for which they are known or believed to be used, and the commencement and termination dates of the period for which said patents are licensed. (3) Ail aggreements which the person filing the report has with persons located in the United States or in foreign countries involving the use or licensing of one or more of the patents reported under (1) above, and covering or relating to any communication service or services regulated or authorized by the Commission.! Where a standard form of license-agreement is tised, only sample copies need be filed.“ (4) A statement setting forth the patent licensing policy of the person reporting respecting the patents listed under (1), hereof. ! Exclusive of systems equipment or devices used only in connection with Parts 15 or 18 of the Commission’s Rules or in experimentation under Part 5 of the Rules. Copies of agreements previously filed with the Commission by any “person” coming within the provisions of this rule, may by reference, be made a part of an annual report being filed. APPENDIX It is proposed to amend Part 1 of the Rules by adding a new Section 1.704 to read as follows: “Sec. 1.704. Any person filing a petition requesting the institution of rule making proceedings looking towards the adoption of new or modified rules or standards relating to the apparatus or equipment required or authorized to be used (both for transmission or reception) in any commtuiications service, or to the establishment of technical or other standards in whole or in part determinative of the equipment or apparatus required or authorized to be used in such a communications service, and any person filing comments directed to a notice of proposed rule making looking towards the adoption of such news or modified rules or standards, must, as part of such filing, include an express statement as to whether such person owns or h£is the right to license patents covering in whole or in part any equipments or apparatus which would be affected by the adoption or non-adoption of the proposed rule or standard and, if such statement is in the affirmative, must include a description of the nature of such patent Inter^t.” RCA chairman David Sarnoff, on advice of counsel John T. Cahill, declined to answer certain questions put to him by Zenith-Rauland counsel at N. Y. deposition hearings starting Dec. 6 in Zenith counterclaim suit against RCA, GE & Western Electric (Vol. 10:47-49). Zenith counsel thereupon returned to Judge Igoe’s Federal district court in Chicago to move for an order requiring him to do so. Motion is due to be argued Dec. 14. Judge Igoe had denied an RCA motion Dec. 3 to stay the depositions, had set for argument Jan. 7 RCA motion to dismiss because of statute of limitations and had agreed to hear on same date motion that he define scope of pre-trial depositions. Meanwhile, Federal Judge Knox, in U. S. court for southern district of N. Y., this week reserved decision on an RCA motion to transfer Dept, of Justice anti-trust civil suit to Delaware court (Vol. 10:47-48). No soft-pedaling of color claims by the RCA-NBC family, despite trade irritations. Envelopes containing press mailings now carry this legend in bold type: “RCA pioneered and developed color television.”