Electronic advances in the 70s outlined to conference

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32703, 4 September 1971, Page 21

Electronic advances in the 70s outlined to conference

("By

B. S. FURBY)

Conservation of radio spectrum space emerged as a topic concerning the electronics profession when the eighth national electronics conference was held in Wellington last week. nics communications the challenge of the seventies.” Satellite communication, colour television, lasers, FM broadcasting and other sophisticated applications of electronics were taken for granted: the concern was how to make better use of a limited amount of spectrum space with ever-increasing demands for its use. “We are dealing with a commodity which is completely irreplaceable,” Mr I. R. Gow, a Post Office engineer, told the 172 delegates in discussing regulation and control of frequency allocations. "The only hope is that technology will enable us to make better use of it” Previously Mr P. A. G. Howell, of Canterbury University, had drawn attention to the problems of rising noise level, caused by increasing amounts of electrical equipment, ‘and interference from siting high-power, transmitters in city boundaries. “We’ve made a glorious mess-up;" he claimed. “The ! Post Office is aware of this ’ and in some cases has taken ( action, but the numbers of staff and equipment are such , that only those sources of, sufficient intensity to interfere with television and broadcast can be dealt with generally.” Mr Howell advo-

, cated search receivers around cities which could automatically home on interference and, by being coupled to a computer, supply a print-out of the map locations of sources of interference. “So far the chief reaction has been to raise the power level of transmitters so it is possible, electronically, to shout louder in an international version of the cocktail party situation,” he said, in suggesting research into noise pollution of the radio spectrum. Post Office support Support from the Post Office, with 11 out of the 33 papers presented at the conference, was highly praised by delegates. The engineer in chief of the Post Office, Mr E. W. de Lisle outlined some of the advances likely' in the seventies. "The- growth in the traditional telephone service is expected to. slow about 1975 when nearly all dwelling places will have at least one telephone, but rapid growth is expected in toll services, data services and so on,” he said. "For several decades the telecommunication services provided by the Post Office have been approximately doubling each decade. It is likely, therefore, that the over-all growth rate of previous decades will continue but with new services expanding faster than the old.”

Completely new telephones were among the advances suggested by Mr de Lisle.

1 With 40 per cent of Post - Office capital investment , buried in the ground in the - form of copper wiring, a f change to carrier services s would increase the capacity of each line. “When you are i getting 24 junctions out of • one cable pair, you are i starting to cash in on , electronics,” he said. • Telephone exchanges will ■ move into more electronics, , of the crossbar switching > type, and Mr de Lisle said > that the Post Office was preparing tenders for world-wide distribution for this type of exchange equipment. He described features of the new : exchanges which will give I more services to telephone • subscribers. I j Toll services ' The demand for telegraph and data services is expected • to rise, and overseas traffic > is expected to continue its • present rise of 15 per cent ! each year. Already radio, ! Compac cable and satellite 1 are serving this need, and ■ another cable to Australia is ! being considered. “As the 1 world network expands we ’ shall see more of these ser- ■ vices,” he said. Videophones where telephone subscribers can see the ■ caller at the other end — seemed too expensive for the present, but the Post Office was studying British systems of linking conferences by cable television, or providing vision facilities for education, with the object of introducing

these to New Zealand if economics permit.

Existing toll exchanges in the cities were reaching the stage where manual control could not be extended further, and the Post Office was “closely studying” direct dialling, where the caller dials straight through to a distant subscriber.

Mr de Lisle expected enormous increases in bandwidths of circuits—giving more channels—through lasers, waveguides and other advances in the future. “The Post Office makes the most use of capital available to give the greatest service available,” he concluded, assuring the conference that the Post Office kept close watch on overseas developments to introduce them to New Zealand as soon as possible. “We have read about electronic exchanges overseas for years,” one delegate remarked in speaking to Mr de Lisle’s paper. “The Post Office deserves to be congratulated for coming to this conference and assuring us that it is fully in touch with development”—remarks which were endorsed by acclamation by the delegates. Databank service The problem of computer utilisation was discussed by Mr G. H. J. Hogg. Investment in computers by owners who could keep them busy only a short time could be reduced by making services available to smaller enterprises unable to afford their own. Such services could make more information available to more people, and the computers could be programmed to exclude some users from access to material they should not be entitled to, and the programming could be arranged to prevent their altering the computer’s instructions. Electronics and newspapers were discussed by Mr R. A. Spowart, editor of the “Westport News.” Increasing use of electronics to speed newspaper printing and typesetting processes, and developments of typesetting controlled from Central press association offices in •‘cities directly to remote newspaper offices were forecast. F.M. broadcasting (fre-quency-modulation) was discussed when the Newlands Broadcasting Society read a paper suggesting uses for the sub-carriefs possible in this type of broadcasting (up to four for each transmitter), the proposals conforming to the better exploitation of radio spectrum space through technology raised by other papers. The revolutionary new future practicable through electronics was suggested by Mr Maynard Berger. The use of the computer and increased communication channels, Mr Berger proposed, enabled clerical and labouring work to be abolished. A multi-million dollar research centre, relying on computers, was suggested to initiate - planning. Discussion at the end of the conference favoured annual conferences, and the 1972 convention was -provisionally announced to be held in Palmerston North, the subject to be “Electronics in Science.”