“LOOKING-IN"

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 79, 27 December 1928, Page 10

“LOOKING-IN"

FUTURE OF BROADCAST PICTURES

PROBLEMS OF ART AND

ETHER

The transmission recently of the first broadcast pictures, following the public demons rations of the moving images of television, has brought us to the remarkable age of “looking-in,” and people are already talking of the reproduction of such events as next year's Derby in the home.either at the time of the race or, at any rate, a few hours after. It is a fascinating possibility, and the 8.8. C. is fully alive to the immense public interest that has been aroused.

But “Looking-in,” a representative of the London "Observer” gathered from Savoy Hill, is not by any means so easy a matter as “listening-in.” The enormous popularity of the existing broadcasting service is, no doubt, largely due to tire modest outlay for receiving sets, which is all that is required for “lis-tening-in” and which even the most humble homes are everywhere able to afford. “Looking-in”’ will not only require special sets, but there are also many technical problems, as well as questions of policy, involved.

The attitude of the 8.8. C. towards picture transmission ’ the same, it iwas explained, in the case of telephotography as it is in that of television. The Corporation are .ready, that is to say, to encourage and to incorporate in their service any new invention of this character “when it reaches the stage of general utility and when, also —and this is most important —its incorporation would ~ not interfere with the ordinary broadcasting service.”

Testing New Inventions. New inventions are constantly being taken to the 8.8. C. They are all given thhe opportunity of careful tests. So far the only one that has produced results which the Corporation considers justify a public experiment is the Fultograph system of phototelegraphy. It is too early to say whether this invention will be definitely incorporated in the service. All that is so far being done is to give it public tests on five days a week, from 2 p.m. to 2.25 p.m., outside ordinary broadcasting hours. That reasona’”’’ good reproduction can be secured has already been demonstrated. The utility value of the invention is another matter. It has yet to be ascertained whether there is any considerable public demand for pictures which can be provided in thia way.

Television and the Ether. To the question when similar tests will be given to television —to the transmission of moving images, in contrast to the still pictures of the Fultograph process—it is replied that the 8.8. C. will be ready to give them as soon as there is some little hope of the possibility of its general application, and without seriously disturbing tin broadcasting service. At present television is still only in its laboratory stage of development. To try to add it to broadcasting, with its present limitations, would menace the distribution of the ordinary programmes.

By their considerable side-bands, television transmissions cause serious disturbances in the ether. Broadcasting is rigidly restricted to a limited number of ether channels. To change over some of these channels from broadcasting to television would impair the operations of other neighbouring channels and would certainly involve the withdrawal of the present facilities of reception from hundreds of thousands of the poorer class of listeners.

There are,only-ten channels for the British broadcast wave band, and these are barely enough to secure a democratic system of distribution, by which is meant “programmes at good consistent signal strength for most of the people in most of the thickly areas.” ’ v To derange this service and io retard its normal development by taking away wave lengths prematurely for a purpose which is known in advance to be incapable at present of general application would be obviously, it is pointed out, a dereliction of duty on the part of the 8.8. C. fife the twenty million people who listen either occasionally or regularly. The most highly developed methods of photo-telegraphy, on the other hand, do not Involve the same disturbances of the ether, ai . as the Fultograph experiments outside programme hours develop it will be discovered whether there is any widespread public demand for such pictures, and whether the system can be usefully incorporated in the 8.8. C. programmes. The Ear or the Eye? So far as the technique of broadcasting has been evolved for the past six years, the r‘ hqs been to try to make a new art form for the ear alone. Is the direction of this technique to be modified by pictures’—is one of the questions which has now to be considered. There is the danger that in mixing the two what is good in straight broadcasting may be vitiated by inartistic combinations.