AROUND THE CORNER

Evening Star, Issue 21820, 8 September 1934, Page 4

AROUND THE CORNER

THE COMING OF TELEVISION The Post and Telegraph Department and the New Zealand Broadcasting Board have not so far taken any official steps toward trying out in New Zealand the prospects for the development of television, though engineers in the service of those organisations have, in their private capacity, kept in touch through technical journals with developments overseas, where it is considered, according to a cabled report; that television will become as universal as broadcasting, following recommendations which will be made by the Television Committee of the British Post Office (states the Christchurch ‘Sun’). Television has been on the way since 1884, and it seemed to receive the desired impetus in 1925 with the invention of Mr J. L. Baird, a Scotsman, and the American, Mr C. F. Jenkins. In 1928, when Mr Baird announced that he had succeeded in transmitting scenes across the Atlantic and in colour, another big step was achieved. Tint progress, so far as can bo gleaned, is still far from complete, and the commercial development of the various systems is slow, In tho United States the Baird inventions and patents are being developed by Baird Television Limited, which owns shares in the Baird Television Corporation of New York, and has kinship with the German Fernseh Company and tho French Television Baird Natan. Baird Television Limited has occupied a small part of the 8.8. C. programmes for experimental purposes, and the 8.8. C. is now according similar facilities to the newly-announced H.M.V.-Marconi group. The 8.8. C., however, has. not been very , encouraging. Its attitude has been that what it produces must have a definite entertainment value for the general body of listeners, and not just some scientific appeal to a small number of enthusiastic experimenters. It supplied television broadcasts for a time, and then decided to curtail the service on the ground that it was arousing but little public interest until television had developed. The British Government, however, set up a committee some months ago to “consider the development of television and to advise on the relative merits of the several systems and the conditions upon which any public service should be provided.” 1 The members of the committee were: Lord Selsdon (formerly Sir William M itoliel 1-Thompson,‘ M.P., PostmasterGeneral from 1924 to 1929), chairman; Sir John Cadman (vice-chairman); Colonel A. S. Angwin, Assistant Efigi-neer-in-Ohief, General Post Office; Mr Noel Aslibridge, chief engineer, British Broadcasting Corporation ;. Mr O. F. Brown, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research; Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Carpendale, controller of the 8.8. C.; and Mr F. W. Phillips, assistant secretary, General Post Office. The secretary is Mr J. Varley Roberts, of the Telegraph and Telephone Department. General Post Office, . This coitnnittee includes men of considerable scientific and business attainment. Lord Solsdon, as PostmasterGeneral, was concerned in the inauguration of the broadcasting service in Great Britain. Sir John Cadman, the oil magnate, is a past-president of the Institute of Mining Engineers. Mr Phillips was the chief British representative at recent international conferences on broadcasting.. In America, the Radio Corporation is the leader of a large group of research workers, all of whom aro apparently just on the verge of producing television equipment, which will bo a success commercially. Next to America, Germany is probably the most active nation of television investigators. Led by the pioneer of the modern cathode ray tube, Barpn Manfred Von Ardenne, and backed by the efforts of tho Gorman P. 0., nearly a dozen large concerns arc developing television systems. The main object appears to be the production of cheap and simple equipment which will have a wide appeal. The German Post Office, a cable from London announces, Ims installed trial television sets in Berlin and Munich, enabling business men to confer when 400 miles, apart. Now Zealand engineers who have been keeping abreast of television developments regard this announcement frith interest, as it is practically the first indication of an adaptation of television so that it can be used with convenience and success on a commercial basis. The feature of television, of course, is that it will, as ono writer put it, enable “ broadcast vision to accompany broadcast sound into the home.” By simply switching on a dial, owners of television sets will be able not only to hear the item that an entertainer is performing, but to watch his acting as W Mr E. T. Fisk, of Amalgamated Wireless (A/asia) Ltd., recently made the statement that television was “not far around the corner,” and that probably a year or so from now television receivers would be available. Later, however, he explained: “ Just how close we are to television no man can say. Possibly five years will elapse before television receivers are available to the public, at reasonable prices and with the same assurance of service as is to-day associated with the broadcasting of sound.”