Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

ADDITIONAL CONCURRING VIEWS OF I have participated in this proceeding and the final results with confidence that a foundation is being laid that will provide the people of this nation a fine compatible color television system, capable of improvement without obsolescence of black and white receivers and color receivers built to receive the programs broadcast in accordance with the signal specifications embraced in the standards. History is replete with the initial high cost and complexity of products designed for public consumption, resulting from the birth of a new industry, for example: the automobile. This, too, has been the experience in the radio and television industry. With respect to the complexities and cost of equipment, considering the competition in the manufacturing industry coupled with the public enthusiasm and acceptance of the television broadcasting service, I am certain that both larger screen and cheaper color receivers with controls having the ease of adjustments of current monochrome receivers will be made available to the public within the next two or three COMMISSIONER ROBERT I concur completely with the Commission’s decision in this case. The defects and imperfections of this new medium are carefully pointed out and this is as it should be. The factual situation has been given to the public. It is patently apparent that color television will not be available to most of us for some time to come but this was also true in the early days of black and white television. For my own part, I would like to say that I consider this decision a milestone in the fast moving electronics industry. The American standard of living rises again. I would like to pay my own tribute to the Industry and the able and ingenious men comprising it who have made OMMISSIONER GEORGE E. STERLING years, the time necessary to establish a color television broadcasting service of any consequence. In the meantime, the public can buy black and white television receivers now on the market and which will continue for the next three or four years to represent the greatest percent of production of TV receivers, confident that when programs are broadcast in color they may view them in black and white. In the meantime, the manufacturing industry will move ahead affirmatively to build color receivers within the price range of the great mass of the American people. The Commission has, in this decision, pointed out with considei-able emphasis the necessity of properly shielding and filtering receivers so that color programs will not be degraded by interference from radio frequency sources as well as preventing interference to the important amateur radio service, considering the public service it renders in several respects. It is my hope that industry will continue to give this subject high priority as they proceed to build equipment for public consumption. E. LEE CONCURRING this new miracle possible. The defects and shortcomings that may now exist will evaporate in the coming months as Industry takes on mass production. The first automobile had many defects. An aeroplane going on the assembly line immediately takes on some aspects of being outmoded as experience teaches us new improvements and better methods of production. We would never learn the new short-cuts if we kept the basic idea on the drawing board. Our economy will get a tremendous boost from this development. I am delighted at long last to have had a small part in putting the show on the road. Appendix A Description of Color Television Transmissions Under New Rules Description of Color Television Transmissions in Accordance with Proposed Signal Specifications I — INTRODUCTION 1. Following is a description of color television transmissions in accordance with the proposed signal specifications under consideration. In attempting to simplify the description so that it might be intelligible to the lay reader it has been necessary from time to time to use non-technical terms. This may have resulted in some technical inaccuracies. However, engineers will find full data and descriptions in the record. II — GENERAL 2. There is much similarity in the composition of television pictures and magazine or newspaper pictures. Printed pictures are composed of small dots and in the case of black and white pictures these dots are black and of varying size to give the impression of various shades of gray. The presence of the dot structure is not apparent to the eye under normal conditions because the distance between the viewer and the picture is such that the eye can no longer distinguish the individual dots and sees the combined effect as a single image. The sharpness of the picture is determined by the number of dots which compose the picture. The monochrome television picture, however, is composed of lines with varying degrees of grayness throughout their length to correspond to the brightness of the original object at that point. The sharpness of such an image is determined to a large extent by the rapidity with which variations in brightness can occur along the line either from black to white, or from white to black. For a given system there is a maximum rapidity with which the line can change from black to white and back again to black, which change would result in a white dot. The width of this dot determines the number of such dots which could be reproduced in a particular line and thus the number of such dots per line is a measure of the sharpness of images which can be reproduced. The television picture differs from the printed picture in that the number of equivalent dots in television is independent of the size of the television screen whereas the printed picture normally uses a fixed number of dots per inch of picture dimension. In order to create the illusion of motion it is necessary to transmit a series of still pictures in rapid succession. This principle for creating the illusion of motion is the same for both motion pictures and television, and depends upon the well known phenomenon of persistence of vision. 3. In television the tools employed for reproducing a picture are the camera, transmitter, and receiver. The function of the camera in a television system is to transform light energy into electrical energy. In principle, the television camera is not unlike a photographic camera. However, in place of film, in back of the television camera, there is substituted an electrical plate which is sensitive to light. This plate is composed of thousands of separate light-sensitive cells. When the light comes through the lens of the camera, it forms an image of the scene on the plate. The individual cells of the plate store up energy in proportion to the light which falls upon them. Thus, the cells in the bright parts of the image are filled with 7