Bright Future for Radio Prophesied

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 2, 24 July 1931, Page 1

Bright Future for Radio Prophesied

Some very interesting sidelights upon radio were discussed during an interview with Mr. David Cody, director of the Charles Haines Advertising Agency, on his return from a four months’ visit to the United States. The following records his impressions on radio and television, particularly with regard to their tremendous possibilities, which, even at the present day, are to a great extent undevelobed.

"PIAHE radio industry," said Mr. Cody, "is probably the most active single industry in the United States to-day. Ample evidence of that was

furnished by the country-wide Radio Exhibition held in Chicago in June. This was an exhibition of extraordinary interest and impressiveness. It showed that one of the latest developments is the mass production of radios for motor-cars-special radios that will be properly built in and concealed. Already fourteen leading makes of cars are factory equipped with a radio aerial. When driving in the street it is not uncommon already, on meeting with a stoppage at an intersection, to hear music come from a near-by motor-car! "In the homes, radios are infinitely more generally used than they are here in New Zealand. Wherever I went-in hotels, private homes, or in apartments-I found the radio installed. In many cases equipment was installed in a number of rooms-for instance, a home _ would have not one radio, but one in each of several rooms, and in one case I found a man with a radio installed even in his bathroom! Amusement has been caused when I have mentioned this, but it simply meant that that man was a devotee of his "daily dozen" in his bathroom, or desired to start the day aright by a little bright music from a suitable station. Prices, of course, are naturally cheaper than they are hete, and this has led to the installation of really good type machines. To mention a crystal set would simply be to provoke laughter. The general set used is of good power, and a really handsome article of furniture. , — "At the Chicago Exhibition I saw a television camera, and was interested to hear the comments of leaders in the radio industry. David Sarnoff, for instance, president of the Radio Corporation of America. thinks that next year will see a tangible realisation of this phase of radio. Some television sets are already in operation, but the business is still in the chrysalis stage, although it was reported to me that there were some thousands actually in operation in Chicago. I, however, could secure no guarantee or confirmation of this. report. "While television at the Radio Manufacturers’ Trade Show at Aicago was only a side-show, prediction is confidently made that it vill be one of the chief attractions in the near future. Furthermore it is asserted that it will be one of the big selling features of next year’s radio. More, television is ready to step from the laboratory, not as a scientific toy, but as a practical means of providing entertainment in the home. It appears that a rather remarkable development, called the cathode ray scanning tube, has brought about this amazing advancement in television. This scanning tube gives much better results than are obtainable with the scanning disc, and it does not possess its mechanical disadvantages. "HE cathode ray is silent in action, is capable of giving greater detail in the "picture and can readily. be synchronised with the transmitter. The actual manufacturing cost is considerably less than the cost of a small electric motor scanning disc and the neon lamp, whose places it takes. It has no mechanical parts and requires no mechanical adjustment. The scanning disc seems to bear much the same relation to television as did the crystal detector to radio, and just as the valve has displaced the crystal, so it-is believed that the cathode ray will displace the dise,

These comparisons are made from the information of the radio dealers exhibiting at this show. They most decidedly assert that any equipment which employs the scanning disc or its mechanical equivalent is already out of date. "One instrument can produce a brilliant picture one foot square, and it is understood that the commercial products will be similar to this. The receiver is maintained in synchronism with the transmitter by means of a non-interfering: signal transmitted over the same channel as ate the picture signals. It is quite likely, although television can be broadcast on the broadcast band, that it will be sent down to the short waves, probably into the region of the five metres’ band, where only experimental transmitters have their place at the present time. "The cost of converting this experimental art into commercial practice is in the hands of experienced radio manufacturers, and the buying public is eager for ‘radio movies,’ as they term it. "When television comes about there will be no talk about @ depression. The radio industry, now one of the foremost in the country, will very rapidly assume tremendous proportions. "In New York I went through the National Broadcasting Com pany’s studio, which, like Columbia studios, (Concluded om ‘page 9.¥'

Future for Radio (Continued from page 1.) ° have a network of hook-ups right throughout the United States. Wherever I went I found the broadcasting studios open to the public, and. the companies quite interested in showing visitors through their equipment. The broadcasting is naturally carried out. on a big scale, and the studios are conducted with the most up-to-date efliciency. One programme follows an» other with absolute speed and accuracy, this being effected. by light flashing from one studio to another us soon as a programme is finished. "One thing that greatly impressed me was the splendid English spoken by the /various announcers. They took the’ utmost trouble to: pronounce their words accurately, and I believe that ultimately the influence of radio and ‘the talkies’ on speech the world . over will be very considerable. This attention to clear English diction was very pleasing. In the Paramount studios on Long Island I had the privilege of looking over the latest Western Electric equipment for recording sound. By an ingenious but simple new invention a material advance in the elimination of ‘buzz’ in the silent parts of talkies has been effected. By the radio camera, which I mentioned earlier, it is possible to photograph by television both the subject and the sound and then later transmit both of those." Mr. Cody returned convinced that the next five. years will see an extraordinary ‘expansion of radio in New Zealand. So far he thinks the surface only has been scratched in this Dominion. We are not nearly so radio-minded, he says, as is the population of the States. There, of course, they have a multitude of stations and the choice of a wide range of high-class artists. The programmes, generally speaking, were of a particularly high class.