ANNUAL RADIO EXHIBITION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22521, 1 October 1938, Page 9

ANNUAL RADIO EXHIBITION

CHEAPER TELEVISION SETS NEW SYSTEMS OF TUNING cnoii on* owa cobkbspoitdext.) LONDON, August 25.

Television was an outstanding feature of the thirteenth annual Radio Exhibition. Radio manufacturers are making a serious attempt to prove to ■the public the high standard of enteritainment now obtained in television reception and the reliability of the transmissions and receivers.' •. . j Fifteen manfacturers of television equipment had special displays, and the majority of stands had one or .more television receivers. On the screens of more than 100 televisors demonstrated on the stands, visitors were able to see the test match at the Oval and other British' Broadcasting Corporation, visual programmes. The corporation participated in the effort by providing a television studio similar to that at Alexandra Palace, from which cabaret turns and fashion parades were televised. The temporary television studio built at Olympia was more than three times as spacious as those at Alexandra Palace. Through glass panels on three sides, visitors saw exactly how a programme is televised and how the technique effects a compromise between broadcasting and film methods.

Push-the-Button Tuning

Sound receivers have undergone the biggest change in design of recent years. In 60 or 70 per cent, of the models, the familiar knob turning is only auxiliary to the new push-the-button idea, for .so long popular in America. There' were many ingenious variations of the press-button principle. For example, the popular all-wave model, priced at £lB 10s, had seven buttons, each of which controls three separate actions of the receiver. Alongside these buttons appear either the names of long or medium wave stations, or the names of the seven principal shortwave bands. Which particular list of names appears depends on the setting of a wave-change knob. When a button is pressed the station opposite will be received, and will be pulled exactly into tune by a system of automatic correction. Alternatively, as in most makes of push-button sets, a manual tuning knob may be used. Of the 4000 sets on exhibition, 3000 of them have the new press-button tuning.

Screen television sets were shown by some half-dozen firms. The biggest screens are two feet square; the smallest incorporate a hand set measuring only about an inch square. The resultant tiny picture is remarkably clear on close-ups. One maker exhibited a television receiver to be priced about £24. It had four controls, and , showed a picture measuring five inches by four. Another had a television adaptor, to be used with an ordinary spund receiver, costing £22 Is, and giving a picture about four inches square. It is only eight months since the public television service was instituted, and already developments are in prospect which may lead to the establishment of a nation wide service. The range has proved much greater than was supposed to be possible. Reception, far from being limited to some 30 miles round London, has already been recorded in places as distant as Northampton and Bournemouth, ‘ \ |