FILM RESEARCH WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20960, 25 August 1931, Page 12

FILM RESEARCH WORK.

SUCCESS OF EXPERIMENTS. PROGRESS OF TELEVISION. IMPROVING TALKING PICTURES. Laboratories for scientific research are working at top speed in the, United States investigating improved methods of sound film recording, according to Mr. J. H. Barker, of Sydney, managing director of the New Zealand and Australian branches of the Western Electric Company, who arrived by the Niagara from Sydney yesterday. Research is being conducted in the Western Electric laboratory to the perfection of television, which enables pictures of distant events transmitted by wireless to be seen by people simultaneously with their happening. "We arc only at tho beginning of this wonderful new development," said Mr. Barker, "but already we have produced very satisfactory results on a small screen about 2ft." by 3ft. So small a screen is obviously unsuitable for the thcatro, however, and it is not likely to develop commercially until wo have enlarged tho screen, improved the tone quality of the voice and tho clarity of the image. Just as tho talking picture was perfected long before it proved commercially practical, so television will be possible in tho laboratory before it is given a wider application. Even when perfected it is doubtful if it will be immediately introduced into theatres, as the expense attached to its installation is a serious pioblem." Major attention in the laboratory was at present being concentrated on the improvement of the quality of the talking film, said Mr. Barker. The apparatus with which theatres were equipped in New Zealand and Australia was capable of taking a greatly superior form of film and all tho improvements recently made in tone quality were the result of research into the film basis rather than the reproducing machine. Good pi ogress had been made with the wide screen device, but the opinion among exhibitors was that tho enlargement of tho screen did not contain in itself sufficient entertainment value to justify tho expense of adapting theatres to its use. On the other hand, the use of colour was likely to be extended, and as a result of experiment recent colour films showed appreciable advance in quality.