TELEVISION INQUIRY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18597, 7 January 1935, Page 11

TELEVISION INQUIRY

PLANS FOR FUTURE

PUBLIC CONTROL LIKELY

LONDON, Dec. 15.

Lord Selsdou\s expert committee, which lias been investigating the question of broadcast television in Britain, will submit its report in January. The prevailing opinion in London is that the committee will advocate “public operation and control” on the lines of radio broadcasting. Television, though still in Us infancy, has important possibilities as a factor iu national trade, science, and entertainment. The British Cabinet is, therefore, determined that it shall be closely safeguarded and placed for operation in the hands of a disinterested public corporation, such as the British Broadcasting Commission. Experimental broadcasts will probably first be made from London, and should be receivable within a radius of 25 miles, which appears to be the present limit. As technical advances are made, a network of transmitting stations will be developed and national programmes will be arranged for all centres, of dense population.

The Helsdon committee is said to favor the adoption of high definition television transmissions on ultra short waves, which give the clearest pictures.

Experts agree that the best site for the first London transmitter would'be on the highest ground available, and that it would be desirable to construct a lofty tower ;is well, if the permission of the Air Ministry could bo obtained. A technical difficulty has recently been overcome in the manufacture of a cable which can carry high definition television pictures for relay purposes. It will be possible to relay television to the transmitter from a distance along these cables.

Sound films would form a proportion of the broadcast from such a station, and, for the television of actual events, an intermediate film stage would be the most satisfactory method. Tho big advance in television, which will be marked by these transmissions, has been made possible by the invention of the Cathode Ray tube, which has done for television as much as the valve did for ordinary broadcasting. A final decision on finance, the most difficult, problem, lias not been made by the committee, which has confined itself largely to technical matters. The cost of Greeting a whole chain of television transmitters would be enormous. One suggestion is the institution of a separate license fee for television.