TELEVISION

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3822, 16 October 1936, Page 8

TELEVISION

SUCCESSFUL TRIALS OF LONDON STATION. Television has definitely arrived in Britain at last (writes the Weekly Scotsman’s wireless expert). Throughout this week there will be daily demonstrations of the new science to visitors at Olympia, while television receivers are also available to the London public at other points, one of these being Waterloo Station, where the Southern Railway is to be credited with the enterprise of showing the first television programmes to the general public. Previous to these transmissions and u press view at Alexandra Palace the previous week, I had not seen any television demonstrations for about two years, and I must admit I was amazed at the progress which has been made during that short space of time. At Alexandra Palace we saw scenes of very different types being televised. One scene, for instance, was a studio effort, with a pianist playing, and this was reproduced on the screen of the receiver with wonderful clarity. The music came through in perfect synchronisation with the picture, and there was no flicker in the latter. SCREEN SIZES. Then an outside scene was broadcast, and this again was quite successful except that the detail shown on the small viewing screen was too minute to be fully appreciated. The size of the viewing screen depends on the type of receiver being used, though the average screen can be taken as being of 12 inches diameter, and the area that is covered by the picture is usually about 9 or 10 inches by 7 or 8 inches. These figures show that there will be some discomfort in closely watching a televised picture for any length of time, and that, in my opinion, is going to be one of the great handicaps that television will be faced with during the next phase of development. At present the bigger the size of the picture the less “brightness” there is in it, but, of course that will be remedied in course of time, and eventually we shall be able to reproduce scenes that can be viewed in comfort by a whole family or even a picture house audience. EFFECTIVE RANGE. These television broadcasts will not be available to distant listeners for a long time yet. The London station is only effective within a radius of 25 miles from the Alexandra Palace, and it will be necessary to have many such stations if a television service is to be available to other large centres of population. Another drawback to the popular use of television is the price of receivers. At the time of writing the majority of manufacturers have not announced the prices they are going to charge for their receivers. One model, which is suitable for reception only from Alexandra Palace, is to be sold for 95 guineas. Another set, which, as well as giving sound and vision reception from Alexandra Palace, also includes an all wave radio receiver, is priced at 120 guineas. So far as I can see at the moment, there is not much prospect at present of getting a good television receiver for £5O or less, this being the price that was suggested by the Television Committee. SIMPLE OPERATION. There should be no difficulty in the handling of these new television receivers, as the controls are quite as simple as those of the usual radio set, and the adjustments that are necessary after proper installation by an expert, are of the simplest nature. Taking the G.E.C. television receiver as an example, we find, first of all, a small tuning adjustment, and any readjustment made to the sound tuning automatically affects the picture tuning. This “tuning by sound” device ensures that when the best sound is being reproduced the correct tuning for the picture has also been found. Then there is a volume control, and also one for adjusting the “brightness” of the picture, or, in other words a control which increases or decreases the illumination provided by the cathode ray tube. As the transmitter at Alexandra Palace is to use alternative systems of transmission (commonly known as the "405 line” and “240 line” methods) there is another switch which will adjust the instrument to the system being used, while another movement of this switch turns the whole set off. The colour of the picture produced by the cathode ray tube is usually of a greenish hue, though some choice can be had in this respect by selection of the type of tube, some reproducing in black and white and others in sepia tones.