LOCAL "TALKIE" SETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 223, 20 September 1929, Page 3

LOCAL "TALKIE" SETS.

TWO AUCKLAND COMPANIES,

SUCCESSFUL TESTS MADE.

Two tests of locally-made reproduction equipment for sound films were held in suburban theatres yesterday, and the results on each ma-chine were even better than had been expected. A Cutone set was tried at the Strand Theatre, Onehunga, and a Synchrotone set at the Central Theatre, Papatoeote. Four short Vita phone films reproduced on the Cutone were heard very clearly. The recording was of the "sound-on-disc" type, and the sound was perfectly synchronised with the movements of the players. Cutone can be used for "sound-on-disc" only, and an ingenious attachment makes it possible to reproduce music from ordinary gramophone records through the same loud-speakers as are used for the synchronised music and dialogue. Thus accompaniment can be produced for silent films. The C'utone installation is manufactured by Cuff and Thomson, Ltd., makers of the Cutone projection machine. Both Vitaphone and Movietone {"sound-on-disc" and "sound-on-film") pictures can be reproduced on the Syn-chro-tone set. Three "shorts" and a full-length '"'talkie, "The Terror," were projected from this set, and in each ease the reproduction was splendid. Synchrotone equipment will soon be installed in several suburban theatres, and while the present machines may not be so successful in very large theatres, the manufacturers, Synchrotone, Ltd., are confident that their equipment is suitable for houses with seating for 1500 people. Particularly noticeable in both tests was the absence of any harshness, which has been so suitably likened to "a bad gear-change." Sufficient volume can be obtained from either machine to suit an audience of an} - size. The success of local mechanicians in producing equipment that can be profitably sold at prices as low as those asked for Cutone and Synchrotone is a boon to suburban and country showmen, for whom the installation of expensive imported reproduction machines has been impossible, and the standard of the sets is indeed a compliment to the <kil! of bTew Zealand workmen.