Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

2 JANUARY 18, 1960 who put up best "public-service" prospectus and most cash, which would be allocated to educational TV. (5) Establishment of "higher standards" for non-political FCC by enforcing rigid ethical rules. Also heard from in House last week was another critic of broadcasting practices — Judiciary Committee Chmn. Celler (D-N.Y.). Carrying out pre-session promise, he introduced bill (HR-9486) amending Clayton Anti-Trust Act to prevent "concentration of ownership & control of commimications media." It would forbid newspaper & magazine publishers to control TV & radio stations if that would give them "substantial" monopoly anywhere. Broadcasters similarly would be restricted in "acquiring interests in news publications." String of legislative bombs from Harris subcommittee also threatens broadcasters. As prelude to payola hearings, it is expected to come up before end of Jan. with recommendations for measures outlawing TV quiz frauds such as it uncovered last year. GE RECORDER RESEARCH EXCITES INDUSTRY! TPR . . . Remember those initials — you'll be hearing them again & again in the next few years. They may possibly be in your own future. They stand for "Thermoplastic Recording." Industry interest in GE's developmental film-recording system — which could best be described as "casual" until last week (Vol. 16:1 p5) — changed to something akin to excitement after GE Research Labs' "progress report" demonstrations of the TPR principle to the networks, FCC, NAB & the press in N.Y. System's development is further along than many people had suspected, and although demonstrations were extremely crude, they were sufficient to give far more than an inkling of what TPR may be able to do in commercial, military & industrial fields. Though GE refused to give any timetable, telecasting industry engineers who viewed demonstration speculated that commercially acceptable TPR TV recorder might be available any time from 2 to 5-10 years, depending on how much money & effort GE puts into development. There is no question that a breakthrough was witnessed last week — to use a word which has become inflated through over-use in electronics industry. Looking beyond last week's demonstrations, industry engineers saw these potential developments growing out of GE's new concept in recording : A lightweight TV recorder, suitcase-size, completely portable — possible forerunner of an "instant home-movie" machine . . . low initial cost, low film cost ... an hour's programming on a reel which is small enough to fit in hip pocket ... as flexible as movie film for editing & special effects . . . recordings duplicated by a process easier than making conventional duplicate film prints . . . telecast quality at least as good as televised 35-mm film ... no processing time required . . . monitoring possible while recording . . . film completely re-usable. Admittedly, this is crystal-gazing. GE spokesmen parried or ducked every question about availability dates, commercial production, prices — stressing continually that "considerable work still must be done before commercially practical equipment can be made available for potential commercial markets." The only hint they did give about future timing was statement that some sample equipment might be delivered to the military before end of this year. Here's what was shown : Two developmental models of the TPR — each a little smaller than an Army footlocker (not including power supply & other electronic equipment). Thermoplastic recordings made earlier from a TV receiver were projected through a modified 16-mm movie projector onto a screen. Color slides made by using the technique were shown. Slides — but no moving pictvues — were made at the demonstration from a closed-circuit TV set-up. Invention, credited entirely to 34-year-old GE research physicist Dr. William E. Glenn, has implications far beyond TV. In fact its bandwidth potential is so great, according to Glenn, that the system can handle as much as 50 me of information — about 10 times the amount required to record video signal. This obviously opens up whole new fields of data storage — for computers, satellites, business applications, etc. For TV recording, TPR film is run 5 inches per second, while the recorded track on the film need be only one-tenth of an inch wide. It was inevitable that comparisons should be made with magnetic video-tape recordings. From our conversations with industry engineers, this is the consensus: Will it replace magnetic video recording? Perhaps some day, but not for a long, long time. This is still an experimental system — a principle. There are many problems to be licked, including such bugs as susceptibility to dust (which shows up on the screen as a big white snowball), easy damage to the film. While video tape potentially can give a live-quality image, TPR — being an optical recording — probably will be limited to the quality of a good 35-mm film print.