Western Electric

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1004, 21 June 1930, Page 18

Western Electric

LATEST TALKIE EQUIPMENT THE Western Electric talkie equipment that has been installed at the National Theatre is the very latest type available. This type has proved most successful in operation, and only two similar equipments are yet installed in New Zealand.

This information was given by Mr. J. W. Baxter, installation engineer. From him it was learned that the installation at the National was the seventy-third theatre equipped in New Zealand by Western Electric. The policy of the Western Electric Co. (N.Z.), Ltd., is that the installation engineer staj r s at the theatre for a week after opening in order to train the operators to get the best out of the apparatus. It is stated on good authority that at least 75 per cent, of the success of any talkie programme depends upon the skill with which the equipment is operated. The finest talkie plant in the world with the finest picture* can be marred completely by unskilled operation of the mechanism.

Excessive volume can mar the success of a programme as completely as total interruption of the dialogue. A too-high tone level for either the voice or music irritates and disturbs the audience without their knowing what is wrong. Similarly, a too faint amplification of the speaking voice causes overstrain on the part of the audience to catch the words of the dialogue, a condition similar to witnessing a legitimate stage play in a theatre with poor acoustics and by a cast of unskilled elocutionists. A pleasing tone level is necessary, and this is the responsibility of the management through those in charge of the sound mechanism. After installation the theatre is taken over by the Service Department, which is responsible for keeping the theatre running, and for keeping the equipment in good running order and used correctly.

At least once every week, whether or no: a call is made, a service engineer calls and examines the apparatus. For this purpose the whole country has been divided into four divisions, and they in turn divided into districts. The Western Electric organisation throughout New Zealand is under the administration of Mr. J. H. Barker, Jnr. In speaking of his New Zealand employees, Mr. Barker said that nowhere in his experience had he been able to obtain the services of such a high-grade type of experienced electrical engineers as those now in his organisation. In a total payroll of nearly 60 people in the Y estem Electric Company, all but three or four are New Zealanders. The National Theatre management has been untiring in its co-opcration

with those responsible for the ? V. cC^ a * of its programme. Each detail been meticulously studied irom e ' conceivable angle to produce the _. results from an entertainment »tan point. Neither expense nor been spared to give New Zeal theatre-goers the best.