Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

reporters), the revelation of RCA’s system was undoubtedly hastened by the fact that Dec. 9 has been set for the CBS-requested color standards hearing before the FCC (Vol. 2, No. 41). RCA may demonstrate the system again at the V/ashington hearings (though most of FCC top officials have now seen it) and challenge CBS to prove that its mechanical scanning system is superior. If electronic color will render mechanical color obsolete, RCA will contend, why adopt standards for the CBS or any other mechanical system? That the system has excited renewed interest in TV among manufacturers, was manifested by some of the questions they asked. They got firm and affirmative answers when they asked, in effect, “Does this mean that we can go ahead and produce black-and-white receivers without worrying about obsolescence?” And they were assured the converter could be produced for a reasonable price — somewhere between $25 and $40. When top engineers of big patent licensees of RCA, men like Philco’s F. J. Bingley and DuMont’s T. T. Goldsmith, asked highly technical questions, they got ready and reassuring answers from RCA’s research chief, E. W. Engstrom. He frankly told them his company was well aware of the still unsolved problems and was working on them. Shown at Princeton were color slides and a Technicolor movie received in natural color on two sets with 15 x 20” screens. The images were clear, bright, satisfactory and, as claimed, completely fiickerless. Simultaneously, a low-band receiver showed the same scenes in black and white, also quite satisfactorily. Nub of system is this: Color from subject scanned is split into red, blue and green components, each of which is transmitted separately and continuously. Three kinescopes (“Trinoscope”) at the receiver pick up the respective impulses, project the images into color filters, and all 3 colors are superimposed on the screen. Black-and-white pictures are made out of the green component of the uhf color transmission. Simple addition of a frequency converter permits present low-band sets to do the job. However, a new receiver is necessary for color. Transmission at the demonstration was by cable, but Engstrom said radio transmission offers no serious problem. Radio band width for the 3 colors is expected to run about 13 to 16 me. Gen. Sarnoff was in an expansive mood after the demonstration, told newsmen “any claim color is here today is just pure bunk and nothing else.” Even what was shown is not ready for the public, he said, because it takes 5 years to bring any new radio system to the practical state. He cited the transitions from rotary spark to quench gap and the change to superheterodyne as examples of what he called 5-year cycles. “It will be a 5-year job,” he said, “to bring any system of color into that state of practical use that black-and-white is now.” RCA’s color time schedule was stated as: film, 3 months (but achieved Wednesday); studio live, mid-1947; outdoor live, late 1947; theatre-size, 1948. As for mechanical vs. electronic color, Gen. Sarnoff said it was like comparing the horse-andbuggy to the Stratoliner. One very well informed (and neutral) engineer regarded as an expert in TV sums up the whole color situation this way: “There are about as many color systems as there are TV inventors, all of them with some weakness. CBS’s system, of course, would make obsolete present receivers and has that rotating disc with its disadvantages. RCA’s system demands three tubes instead of one, close alignment of the three colors, and the blackand-white images derived from the green signal suffer some loss in contrast at this stage of development. “Further, in RCA’s case, satisfactory converters necessary to change low-band sets to uhf will have to sweat out the ills that all converters seem heir to (as in FM). Of course, trouble-free, all-electronic color will be approached when aU colors are in one tube, presenting no problem of registration. Developing such a tube is quite a job, but RCA tells us it expects it can do it.” Thus the color pot begins to boil. The Dec. 9 hearing (expected to run 5-8 days) is certain to go into the rival claims, not to mention abstruse discussions of optics, color theory and mechanics, etc. FCC has a wide open mind, its members and staffmen eager to leaim anything of value, willing to be shown. For example, the Commission is by no means irrevocably committed to the 480-920 me band for color. If someone can show good reason for color around, say, 5,000 me, he too will get an attentive hearing. WGN GETS 3Sih VJ: Add the Chicago Tribune’s V/GN Inc. to your log of CP holders for new commercial TV stations, and delete Jacksonville (Fla.) Broadcasting Corp. from the list of applications pending (Supplement 18 A). Your log, therefore, taking into account the 5 grants ^md 3 withdrawals since it v/as published Sept. 28, should now show 36 CPs outstanding, 32 applications pending. WGN Inc. got Channel No. 9 (186-192 me) , with 18.4 kw visual power, 11.4 kw aural power, 496 ft. antenna lieight. It was the fifth Chicago grant to date, 2 more channels (Nos. 11 and 13) still being available, with no seekers as yet (see allocation table in TV Rules, Supplement No. 17). The Jacksonville (WPDQ) withdrawal was expected, indicated by fact it never pursued its application very diligently so far as technical data is concerned