Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

3 in Los Angeles this week, make the 200-400 estimate quite realistic. There's always some uncertainty about grantees' intentions to build, of course, particularly among uhf CP-holders in areas now well served with vhf, but equipment manufacturers are definitely able to double or treble number of stations this year. This astonishing production record isn't generally appreciated until one remembers that the greatest number of stations put on air during any single year up to now was a mere 50. Also overshadowing that fact at the convention were the new "glamour" devices — flying-spot film scanners and numerous tiny, inexpensive cameras spawned by the little Vidicon tube. * * * * Attracting engineers' attention as much as anything were the film scanners — DuMont ' s and Philco 's. There's no gainsaying Philco made a hit with its color film scanner, as did DuMont with its production model of black-&-white scanner which was rage of 1952 NARTB convention. Both are continuous-motion flying-spot devices. Philco showed both 55mm and 16mm scanners, color film on 35mm only. It was first view of color TV on film for almost everyone — and it was good. Display was on monitor tube using 5 kinescopes and dichroic mirrors. Though Philco didn't disclose bandwidth employed, it was obvious that more than 4 me was used — perhaps 4 me for each color. Nevertheless, as NTSC has amply demonstrated, bandwidth can be compressed into 6-mc channel and produce picture scarcely distinguishable from 12-mc picture to average observer. One great advantage of flying-spot scanner for color, not generally known, is that there's no registration problem at all, as there is in live camera employing 3 image orthicons. Equipment is therefore capable of producing better pictures, from registration standpoint, than can be achieved with live camera. There was some slight misregistration in Philco 's demonstration, but this was attributed entirely to dichroic mirror setup which is extremely difficult to keep perfectly aligned. Philco quotes 9-12 months for delivery, estimates the 35mm will run about $25,000, 16mm $20-$30,000. Equipment is designed for black-&-white , too, can be purchased for black-&-white or color. Philco engineers say color may be added simply and cheaply later if station prefers black-&-white only now. Though Philco' s competitors say 35mm has little demand, Philco people say that there's vast amount of 35mm color film; that 35mm equipment also has many industrial and laboratory uses; that it's a natural for theatre TV. The 35mm was much more finished product than the 16mm, the latter being in admittedly "breadboard" stage, since Philco has worked on 35mm for years. * * * * While Philco impressed with color, DuMont made solid impact with finished product and its readiness to deliver. Particularly intriguing about DuMont scanner was "preview" feature — ability to run 2 films or 2 opaques simultaneously. This permits operator to inspect one film while other is on air. Also fascinating to the engineers was reversibility angle — ability to run a few feet of film, see what's on it, then run it back to start position. Calling new device "multiscanner", reporting it easily convertible to color since it was derived originally from color research, DuMont says deliveries will start in August with rate of production 20-30 monthly. Price is around $30,000. Competitors GE and RCA say they're taking wait-and-see attitude on the new types of scanners. "We're not proud," said one top sales executive. "We're willing to examine anyone's ideas, but you know that continuous-motion scanners have been like perpetual motion — everyone has been working on them for years, but no one has been able to perfect them. " * * * * Family of "cons", the compact cameras built around the Vidicon or its relatives, has really grown. Besides the RCA Vidicon, there's Federal's "Photocon" , GPL's 11 Staticon" , Standard Electronics' "Multi-Con" . Dage Electronics uses Vidicon, hasn't coined a new name. Most of the new cameras are offered for film use, though some makers are pushing them for live use, too. Big appeal, of course, is price. As one small