Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

VOL. 15: No. 25 7 Foreign ATLANTIC FILM TRANSMISSION: TV newsfilm can now beat jet travel across the Atlantic. Using a BBCdeveloped technique, 2 min. of film showing Queen Elizabeth departing London on her Canadian trip was televised in Canada and via NBC-TV in U.S. on June 18 in an experimental 10:15-10:30 a.m. network telecast. On the air, the result was about as good as a standard kinescope — and the U.S. telecast came only 2 hours 21 min. after the event, a new record. The link was achieved using regular Atlantic phone cable and the show was fed from the Montreal studios of CBC-TV to Buffalo, N.Y. for NBC-TV pickup. The process is still at a snail’s pace, although it’s said to be “75 times faster” than older methods of facsimile transmission. It takes about an hour & 55 minutes to send a minute’s worth of newsfilm, transmitting every second frame from a 16 mm newsfilm oi'iginal on the transatlantic phone line. Last week’s experiment was the first known TV use of the technique on an east-to-west transatlantic course. A similar method was used in October 1957, however, to transmit films of Queen Elizabeth’s arrival in N.Y. to the BBC (Vol. 13:43). This first effort was a joint venture of UP Movietone News & BBC in which 15 see. of film was transmitted in an hour, about half as fast as last week’s transmission. (For some unexplained reason, BBC held the received film print for 5 hours until its regular newscast before televising it.) Don’t look for any full program transmissions using the new method. They’re out of the question. Live & tape TV can’t be sent via the transmission process. And, it would take about 60 hours (at some $4 per min. in cable costs) to feed an episode of Gunsmoke. The 2-way process is a break-down and build-up one. BBC’s N.Y. office informs us that the heart of the system is a slow-speed fiying-spot film scanner, the video signal from which is used to modulate a carrier for transmission over the cable. At the receiving end, the signals are “demodulated” & used to operate a slow-speed film telerecorder. Several “economies” are used in transmission, BBC admits, since characteristics of the Atlantic cable allow for maximum video frequency of 4.5 kc. Horizonal definition is restricted to correspond with a bandwidth of 1.75 me. In the British 405-line system, the picture is reduced to 200 lines using sequential scanning, and only alternate film frames are scanned (although reproduced on 2 adjacent frames at the receiving end) which precludes sending films involving fast motion. Chief use of the process, therefore, will be in TV news until a more rapid process can be developed. Despite limitations, it’s a giant step forward in TV communications. British TV viewers will also have a chance to see the transAtlantic system work in reverse on June 26, when film clips of the Queen opening the St. Lawrence Seaway will be transmitted from Canada to Britain. ♦ ♦ ★ TV link via the moon between U.S. & Europe is fore.seen within 5 years by British telecommunications expert John Brinkley. The managing director of Pye Telecommunications Ltd. visualizes that the first live transatlantic TV pictures will be sent via 100-ft. metal-plastic balloons which are capable of reflecting the wide-band frequencies used in present TV transmission. Before TV pictures can be bounced from the moon, he said, narrow-band TV transmission techniques will have to be developed. . “Everything about TV is big league in Japan,” reports Richard P. Doherty, TV-radio Management Corp. pres., in Sponsor. The 6-year-old Japanese TV industry has whooshed to more than 2 million sets, 34 stations, and has become a $29 million ad medium, which, still growing, accounts currently for some 10% of Japan’s total ad outlay. Doherty predicts TV “will undoubtedly double its revenue within the next 5 years.” Excellent is the rating he applies to the quality of Japanese programming & production and to the variety & scope of program service. Japanese TV “is sui'passed by overall TV only in the U.S. & Great Britain.” Technical & production equipment in Tokyo’s 4 commercial & 2 govt. 0-&-0 stations is “excellent & abundant.” Apart from a sprinkling of RCA & GE gear, and 2 Ampex Videotape recorders in each station, the equipment “is almost entirely manufactured in Japan and of highest quality.” New coaxial cables linking Australian towns of Melbourne & Sydney, Melbourne & Morwell, Lismore & Murwillumbah and Brisbane & Southport, will be installed soon, reports the Australian Govt. Completion of the first link of the Sydney-Melbourne cable — Sydney to Canberra — is planned for June 1961, with the hop from Canberra to Melbourne due by Jan. 1962. Similar facilities between Melbourne & Bendigo, Sydney & Maitland and Maitland & Lismore are being provided at the same time by installation of wide-band radio systems. Primary use will be for telephone service but TV & radio programs also will be carried. First Mexican sponsorship of a U.S. public-affairs show was sold last week by Fremantle International. The show is 20 Century, produced by CBS-TV. The south-ofthe-border purchase was made by Asbestos de Mexico, S.A. through the Publicidad General agency in Mexico City. Overseas sales by Fremantle during the past month, pres. Paul Talbot reports, covered deals in a total of 11 countries, ranging from Denmark to Japan. Extension of Spanish TV, now limited to Madrid area, is expected soon, according to U.S. Commerce Dept.’s Business & Defense Services Administration, Electronics Div. Plans include construction of stations in Barcelona & Zaragoza, installation of a microwave relay between Madrid & Barcelona. A new 200-kw transmitter is due in Madrid this year. Expected later is construction of stations in Valencia, Santiago, Granada (Mulhacen), Cordoba and Bilbao. Tight censorship of French TV, which places control of programs in the hands of approval committees established by the Minister of Information, is reported by Britain’s Television Today. According to a published decree, the new'spaper says, “66 personalities in letters, arts & sciences are now the sovereign judges of the artistic, cultural & scientific transmissions & future projects” of French TV. Transmitters for 5 Swedish TV stations have been ordered from Marconi of England, along with related equipment. The station at Borlange will have 8-kw transmitter power, 60 kw ERP. Stations at Sundsval, Vasteras, Emmaboda & Vasteiwik will use 4-kw transmitters, and their ERP will range from 10 to 60 kw. All stations are currently under construction by the Royal Board of Swedish Telecommunications. Licensed TV receivers in Britain & Northern Ireland totaled 9,346,697 at the end of April, an increase of 91,275 • during the month.