Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

NEW SERIES VOl. 3, No. 27 TELEVISION DIGEST— 11 TV RECORDER AT $160? U.S. consumer electronics industry was puzzled last week by intriguing report that British firm was ready to commercialize home video-tape recorder which could be sold at about $160 retail, or, if built into a TV set, would add only about 25% to retail price. Few details were available on either side of Atlantic beyond publicity announcement. System was demonstrated July 3 on NBC-TV’s Today show (via tape from England), but it was impossible to determine quality of recorded picture because of difference between British & U.S. TV transmission standards. We could locate no U.S. sources familiar with development. Even IIT Research Institute’s Marvin Camras, nation’s leading magnetic recording expert, had no direct knowledge of new British recorder. Recorder is called Telcan and is to be manufactured by Telcan Ltd. (Main St., East Bridgeford, Nottinghamshire, England), whose chief officer is Chmn. Brian North. Telcan is said to be affiliated with Nottingham Electronic Valve Co. New recorder appears to operate on principle first pursued by early developers of video-tape recording in U.S. — speeding up a conventional audio recorder to permit storage of greater bandwidth. But its proponents claim resolution of 300 lines, which, if claim is accurate, would indicate they have added other principles. Recorder uses standard quarter-inch sound tape, run at 120 inches per sec., records 2 tracks. It thus can record about 30 minutes on 10%-in. reel using both tracks (turning tape over or reversing direction after 15 minutes). It can also accommodate 11-in. reel, giving 40-min. playing time. Signal-to-noise ratio is said to be 28 db. It can be used as conventional sound recorder at 7%-ips speed. Recorder measures 17-in. long by 9-in. wide by 2-in. deep, with 4-in. protrusion for motor housing. Recording expert Camras told us that any standard audio recorder with tape speed increased to 120 ips could record rudimentary TV picture, but its resolution would be more on order of 100 lines than 300. He speculated that special high-definition recording head may help increase resolution. RCA, which has been working on development of home video-tape recording, is known also to have used fast-tape approach in its experimental work, but there’s no indication that RCA has come up with what it considers to be a commercial product. (One disadvantage of fast-tape approach is high cost of operation due to heavy consumption of tape — although tape can be erased and used over.) Telcan officials state their home video recorder will be placed on British consumer market before Christmas and that they are negotiating with U.S. manufacturers for licensing agreements. APRIL PHONO SALES UP; Sales of phonographs continued to run substantially ahead of 1962 in April, according to EIA figures released last week. At distributor level, sales were 22% higher than April 1962, and 4-month sales ran more than 29% ahead of same 1962 period. Factory sales were 32% ahead for April, 20% ahead for first 4 months, as compared with corresponding 1962 periods. Here are phono sales figures (EIA no longer compiles separate stereo & mono data) : PHONOGRAPH SALES Distributor Factory Month 1963 1962 1963 1962 January 316,525 219,72S 341,696 259,559 February 329,972 239,420 340,275 255,412 March 346,152 299,257 329,713 298,483 April 247,730 201,192 241,206 183,102 TOTAL 1,239,379 959,597 1,252,890 1,043,010 Trade Personals C. J. (Red) Gentry appointed Motorola national home radio sales mgr., taking over part of duties formerly handled by William E. Laswell, who continues as national stereo phono sales mgr.; Thomas Carroll succeeds Gentry as national car radio sales mgr, Chester Panlson, ex-Westinghouse portable appliance marketing mgr., named marketing vp. North American Philips consumer goods div. Robert Devore resigns as EIA PR dir., planning to return to journalism; William Hepner is acting dir. E. V. Huggins resigns as Westinghouse associated activities exec, vp & dir., will continue as senior consultant “in areas where his experience will be of value.” He was 1958-61 exec, committee chairman. Charles E. Beck, Philco pres., elected to Board of Managers of Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute . . . E. ■MacKay Fraser elected Lab for Electronics secy. Clarence H. Linder, retired GE vp & former American Institute of Electrical Engineers pres., nominated for presidency of IEEE to succeed Dr. Ernst Weber, whose term expires in Jan. Dr. Leonard C. Maier Jr. appointed GE Semiconductor Products Div, gen. mgr. , . . Thomas P. Cheatham Jr. elected Litton Industries corporate vp . . . Doane R. Gero, former Information Systems chmn.-pres., joins Emerson Electric, St. Louis, as pres, of Industrial Electronics Div. Herbert L. Brown appointed vp of Ampex subsidiary Ampex International . . , Leon Knby promoted to sales mgr. of Harman-Kardon’s High Fidelity Div. Obituary Omer M. Giant, 79, TV & radar pioneer and retired Bell Telephone executive, died June 27 at his Stockton, N.J. home. In 1927, he supervised Bell engineers who produced world’s first TV broadcast. He also worked on development of radio broadcast transmitters & sound motion pictures. He was director of Bell’s Whippany, N.J, facility when he retired in 1949. He’s survived by his brother, 2 daughters & son. George Partington, 47, Marconi broadcasting div. chief engineer, died June 13 in England. A noted inventor, he had been with Marconi since 1938, helped develop improved TV cameras & use of 4%-in. image orthicon tube.