BROADCASTING

Hokitika Guardian, 27 August 1930, Page 5

BROADCASTING

IN VEST! G ATIONS ABROAD

WELLINGTON, August 25,

The two things which struck Mr A. R. Harris, general manager of the Rad io Broadcasting Company, during his recent trip through the United States and Canada, were the enormous advance made in broadcasting as a social factor in people’s lives, and the wealth of talent at the disposal of the big broadcasting companies. The people in the United States, he said, expect every event from the big ones like the reception to Admiral Byrd or the arrival of Kingsford Smith after his trans-Atlantic flight, down to the smallest happening, to be broadcast and they are. Relays through station after station, perhaps forty m number and in cases 3000 miles apart, enabled people in the remote areas of the United States and Canada to keep in touch with events.

Mr. Harris was chiefly concerned with the technical side of broadcasting. He remarked that he was amazed at the advnnoe made in all departments of the science, Improvements had been made in all directions, and after repented transmissions programmes came over as well ns the original broadcast, The speoial reoeption station at Riverhead to pick up English programmes was a marvel. A spaced system of aerials ensured the elimination of fading and reduction, and the English programmes came over as clearly as possible. These programmes were in great demand,

TELEVISION,

“In respect to television there did not appear to have been very much progress made," said Mr Harris, “and from what I saw in the laboratory there is yet little of any practical value to market. As a novelty development it certainly is very interesting, but many difficulties have still to be overcome before television becomes a commercial factor. It is more than likely that it will be marketed as an adjunct only to the sound transmission and receiving equipment already on the market.”