FUTURE OF RADIO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3772, 29 June 1926, Page 36

FUTURE OF RADIO.

The following appeared in onr Second idition last week:-

VIEWS OF AN EXPERT. BOOM PREDICTED IN DOMINION. A recent arrival in Dunedin was Mr P. D. Laurie, an authority on matters connected with wireless broadcasting and “listening-in.” Mr Laurie is a young New Zealander, who was for some considerable time with the Zenith Radio Corporation of Chicago and New York, and had the unique experience of broadcasting a personal message to his parents from New York, which was picked up by t New Zealand listener-in” and relayed to Mr Laurie’s parents in Christchurch. In the course of conversation with * reporter, Mr Laurie referred to the growing interest in “ listeningin ” in New Zealand, and expressed the opinion that the Dominion would undoubtedly experience a wireless “boom” in the near future. At the pre3<nt time, he said, the public knew >«ry little about the possibilities of wireless, but as soon as the new broadcasting stations were in operation and first-class programmes were being sent out every evening, and news reports during the day, every home would require a “listening-in” set. In America there was scarcely a home without its radio, .and millions of “sets” were in use day and night. From oarly morning, when physical culture exercises were broadcasted, and followed by news bulletins, till the early hours of the following morning, when some of the world’s best artists, bands, orchestras, and dance bands had been providing entertainment all the previous evening, owners of receiving sets could sit in their homes and be regaled with wonderful entertainments. It would be some time before this stage would be reached in the Dominion, said Mr Laurie, but there was no doubt it would come. Experts had already found a method of “storing” broadcast matter, and it was only a matter of time when world-famous artists would be broadcasted from the New Zealand stations, just as perfectly as they were in the great overseas studios. broadcasting had reached a wonderfully high standard in America, said Mr Laurie. The studios were wonderfully fitted up, tnd were usually enclosed in plate-glass, to make it quite impossible for any extraneous sounds to be broadcasted. The “announcers” were highly trained in their duties, and had to train their voices till they reached a state of absolute efficiency, it was not sufficient for them to be able to speak into the microphone clearly and distinctly; they had a meter registering their voice in front of them, and they bad to modulate every inflexion of their voice so that it was broadcasted perfectly. They had, moreover, to have a thorough knowledge of whatever subject they were announcing, so that there would l*e no mispronunciation of names or techjikr.l terms. It was realised in America tVit the announcer was a very important factor in the success of a station, and consequently a high standard of efficiency was demanded. Some"idea of the magnitude of some of the broadcasting stations could be gathered from the fact that special telegraph operators had to be kept at the stations to retti ve the telegraphed reports sent in nightly by “iisteners-in.” Sometimes thousands of these Reports and requests for a repetitionof numbers broadcasted wer* received Turing an evening, and a special staff of operators was kept busy receiving these reports. Many thousands of mailed reports were also received daily, and the postal authorities had found the growth of the wireless industry Lad resulted in a substantial increase in their revenue. Mr Laurie expressed the opinion that Great Britain had lost a great opportunity when 6he had not kept pace with the phenomenal developments in wireless. Like the moving picture industry, it had been left to America to supply the world’s needs, with the result that to-day British manufacturers found themselves unable to compete with the American suppliers. At a matter of fact, British sets w T ere far behind the American ones from the point of view of efficiency, and the industry in Britain was not making anything like the progress it sfipuld. Speaking of tlje latest developments in sets, Mr Laurie said that the tendency was to simplify the operation of these. The most modern sets had only two tuning dials to operate, and several uni-control sets were now being marketed. These had only one dial for “tuning-in” purposes, and it was necessary only to turn the dial to the required number to bring in any station. Mr Laurie said he considered that there was a big future for retailers of radio receivers in New Zealand, but he did not think that sets could be satisfactorily manufactured in the Dominion, owing to patent rights and the difficulty of securing tested parts. The Zenith Corporation. for example, received as many as 4000 transformers a day for use in its sets, and every one of these had to undergo a searching test before it was passed for use. The percentage of rejections was often very nigh, and New Zealand manufacturers could not possibly reject a big proportion of parts imported irom a country so far away as America. As a matter of fact, many of these rejected parts were passed on to retailers of wireless accessories, and this was no doubt the reason why many amateurs could not get satisfactory results from sets they had built American “listenersin” had practically discarded home-made sets, and almost every home was now equipped with a factory-built receiver, the owner knowing that his set had been built by experts and had only the very best parts obtainable in it. In conclusion, Mr Laurie paid a compliment to the Dunedin Radio Society, stating that it was undoubtedly giving the best broadcasting service in New Zealand at the present time. Its programmes were all of a high staudard, and it had given pleasure to thousands of “listeners*n” throughout the Dominion. The broadcasting oi the concerts of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders' Band hau given * great impetus to radio ih New Zealand •no hud brought materially nearer the day when every home would nave its radio receiver.-