TELEVISION MARVELS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21758, 24 March 1934, Page 12 (Supplement)

TELEVISION MARVELS

" SUCCESS IN SIGHT" EXPERIMENTS CONTINUING AUSTRALIAN'S IMPRESSIONS Interesting opinions on the future of television were given last week by the managing director of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), Limited, Mr. E. T. Fisk, in a speech at a Sydney luncheon. Mr. Fisk said he did not think that television would be commercially practicable for some time, and that the British Broadcasting Corporation, which now transmitted four television programmes a week, would soon discontinue the service. He thought, however, that success was in sight. "While I was in London recently," he said. "I had a television receiver in my hotel room. I used to look and listen to the television programmes of the 8.8.C., which started at 11 p.m., when most listeners had gone to bed. I think, after having seen them, that that was a very wise precaution. They kept on for half an hour, which was long enough. It was very fine technically, but as a service which you might expect the public to respond to, it was, in my opinion, quite useless. "The 8.8.C. and other companies have come to the conclusion that television on the ordinary broadcasting programmes is impracticable. Television has gone back quite into the experimental stage, and experimental work is being done on the ultra-short wave lengths. I also found that the apparatus of television was undergoing a complete change. The impression I got was that those persons who two or three years ago were saying television would be here next year were now very depressed; whereas I, who had held the reverse view, think to-day that success is in sight. Television as a broadcasting service is yet a few years ahead. When it does come, it will be different from the existing broadcasting service, which, I think, must go for a great number of years yet. My point is that the modern broadcasting receiving side j will not become obsolescent in that respect." Outlining the activities of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), Limited, Mr. Fisk said the company, which, was formed in 1913 with a capital of £140,000 and 40 employees, had confined itself then to supplying wireless services in Australia and New Zealand to merchant ships, but if it ha'd done nothing more than provide communication between ships and the shore, it would have more than justified its existence. But even then it had confidence that wireless would develop in other directions. In the face of discouragement, it started to manufacture wireless equipment in Australia, and succeeded, and one almost immediate result was that it was able to supply wireless equipment to the land and sea forces of Australia and Great Britain when the war broke out. The beam wireless service, owned and operated by Amalgamated Wireless, Limited, was the most wonderful telegraphic service the world had known, being capable of despatching messages from Sydney and Melbourne to the heart of London at the rate of 300 words a minute. It was only by the initiative and efficiency of a private company that there could be either efficient merchant shipping services or efficient communications, and he regarded communications as being as important to Australia as shipping.