BRITISH PROGRESS WITH TELEVISION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22341, 28 May 1947, Page 4

BRITISH PROGRESS WITH TELEVISION

“FROM what I have seen in London television will be supreme all over the world within the next 10 years.” This was the opinion recently expressed by q Sydney .composer, Mr. John Antill, on his return from a visit to Great Britain. In advocating that Australia should do something about television, Mr. Antill said she had the scientists and the engineers and could now get from the British Broadcasting Corporation the results of long years of research. Although the present state of television came in tor a great deal of criticism in the course of a debate in the House of Commons, it is generally recognised that technical difficulties have prevented any Britain-wide development of the new science. It has been difficult to procure suitable buildings and sites, and material shortages such as the shortage of steel and glass have been operative. The fact is that up until early this year there were not more than 15.000 sets in households, reception being normally limited to a radius of 45 miles from headquarters at the Alexandra Palace. But British scientists and technicians are not allowing the present handicaps to stifle ambition and a political spokesman has referred to the Government’s desire to “regard television as part of an integrated broadcasting service.” World-wide interest in British television equipment is reported by a leading United Kingdom firm, and it is stated that a number, of important contracts will soon be concluded for the supply of 600-line sets which are being specially manufactured for export. This is a provision for the future in which both Australia and New Zealand should be interested. The sets produced for the British home market are still on the basis of the 405 lines used for the 8.8.. C. television broadcasts, and the general change to a higher line system is not expected to take place for a considerable time. Thus, in television as in so many other lines of manufacture, the standard of British export equipment is better than that provided for home consumption. . ... A charge that Britain is lagging behind America in the progress made with television has been answered by Sir Alexander Aikman, chairman of Electrical and Musical Instruments, who says that the new British system will not only stand on its own merits but is also as up-to-date as any other apparatus in the world today. Altogether there is reason to believe that, with. some of the new inventions that have come from British laboratories during the past year, the United Kingdom is in many respects scientifically and technically ahead of the rest of the world.