Listeners-in and Lookers-on

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 169, 13 April 1935, Page 20

Listeners-in and Lookers-on

4 j w ATELY considerable advances have been made,” says the "Man g Chester Guardian." "The Baird Company, for instance, gave a I demonstration last spring in which singularly clear sight and sound were transmitted from a studio in a tower at the Crystal Palace to a small theatre in Wardour Street, eight miles away. "One observer that day had the odd experience of ringing up the opeintor in the studio, watching him lift the receiver, informing him his tie was crooked, and seeing that he straightened it. This and similar successes here and abroad made it evident that a point had been reached when a sufficiently clear view could be transmitted to attract the public if other con ditions necessary to receiving could be satisfied. •‘For technical reasons the transmission of adequately clear pictures com-•u-ls the use of ultra-short wave-lengths—if they were sent on the waves used for sound transmission the interference would be intolerable and this is one of the gravest obstacles television has to face. “For the range of the ultra-short waves is severely limited—twenty-five miles on flat country is reckoned the maximum, and to reach even 50 pet cent, of the population of this country at least ten stations would be needed in the present state of the development of television. “Again, the ultra-short wave cannot be received on existing sets, and. though the present license fee will enable one to look as well as listen, the cost of a set that will take the well-defined pictures promised is still put

ns high as between £5O and £BO. Nor are any extravagant hopes held out ns to the size or scope, of the pictures at first available. As at present produced they measure some eight inches by six. They can be magnified, but only at the cost of loss of definition. “Next, direct transmission will at first be limited to the images of a few people speaking, singing, or performing in the studio. For outdoor events recourse will probably be had to films which, quickly developed, can lie televised shortly after the event.” “Many new problems will arise,” states the “Yorkshire Post.” ", . . . performers, for instance, will have to possess not only a ‘broadcating voice’ but a ‘televisible face’—and it is impossible to predict exactly how other forms of entertainment will be affected. “But concerts, stage plays, newspapers, public lectures, and gramophones have all survived the threat of broadcast competition, and probably television will continue to leave their individual sources of appeal largely unimpaired. “Television, too, may one day form a regular part of cinema programmes, but without necessarily causing any less demand for films produced by ordinary methods. These, however, are questions of the future, and the main point at the moment is that television shall be wisely developed under conditions which will protect it from irresponsible speculators while allowing adequate scope for individual enterprise.”