1940: Television

Television in 1940 experienced a slackening of commercial activity, due largely to uncertainty regarding the adoption of standards of transmission, but from the standpoint of the programs broadcast and the technical advances announced during the year, the art made definite forward strides. Full coverage of the political campaign, including telecasts of the two major nominating conventions, rallies, and a vote-by-vote tally of the election returns, were available to owners of television receivers in the New York metropolitan area. Demonstrations of television transmissions in full color, on an experimental basis, were made to the press and to the Institute of Radio Engineers. The prospect of a national television network was heightened by the announcement of a perfected radio-relay technique and by demonstrations of improved transmission over coaxial cable. Small, light-weight television transmitting equipment capable of being carried in several suitcases was announced and demonstrated televising New York City from an airplane. A number of notable 'firsts' were made in television programs, including the televising of The Ringling Brothers' Circus from Madison Square Garden, and the addition of professional soccer, ice hockey, and collegiate basketball to the list of sports previously telecast. In the field of science, the partial eclipse of the sun provided opportunity for a noteworthy broadcast on April 7, 1940.

Television Standards.

The major event affecting the commercial status of television was the decision of the Federal Communications Commission to withhold the issuance of commercial licenses to television broadcast stations which would have permitted the payment of fees by the sponsors of commercial programs. This action was taken early in the year, following previous announcements that full commercialization would be permitted before the end of 1940. The reason given by the Commission was that commercial activity in the sale of television receivers, which indicated a sale of perhaps 25,000 receivers within a year if it had continued, was in effect setting up standards of transmission to which the Government had not given approval, and that future developments might make desirable a change in these standards which would conceivably render obsolete all receivers then in the hands of the public. Two major hearings on this subject were held by the Commission in Washington, in which expert testimony was heard from engineers representing commercial and technical organizations. The consensus of these experts was that sufficient flexibility could be incorporated in receiver design to obviate early obsolescence, but not all agreed that such flexibility would serve a useful purpose, even if its cost were low.

The net effect of this action and the publicity which accompanied it in the newspapers was to bring television receiver sales virtually to a halt, and to cause the broadcasters, in the absence of any promise of financial return, to review their budgets for television programs. Considerable disapproval of the Commission's action was evident in the press, in answer to which the Commissioners promised to seek an answer to the problem, in consultation with the television industry at the earliest possible occasion. This promise was fulfilled by the formation, in August, of a large committee of engineering experts, the National Television System Committee, appointed by the Radio Manufacturers Association with the advice and consent of the Federal Communications Commission.

Television System Committee.

The National Television System Committee, with its subcommittees, consists of 168 members and alternates. Functioning as an independent body, this Committee has been active in devising a set of television transmission standards which are to be recommended for official adoption by the FCC. Nine subcommittees or 'panels' have prepared reports on different aspects of the problem, together with specific recommendations concerning the manner in which television transmission shall be carried out. The Committee and the Chairmen of its panels were scheduled to meet on January 27, 1941, with the Federal Communications Commission to report their findings to that date. Thereafter, the action taken by the FCC will determine the immediate commercial plans of the industry. If the recommended standards receive governmental approval, it is expected that the manufacturers of television receivers and the television broadcasters will resume their plans for commercial expansion. If, however, the Commission's action is negative, it seems likely that several years of further non-commercial technical work may intervene before the public is actively invited to participate in the service.

Broadcasting Stations.

Another action taken by the Federal Communications Commission which affected television broadcasting to a minor extent was the shifting of station allocations in the ether. One of the ether channels formerly assigned to television (that between 44 and 50 megacycles) was removed from the television category and assigned to the frequency-modulation broadcast service. Another channel, from 60 to 66 megacycles, was transferred from the government service to television, thereby restoring the total extent of the ether devoted to television to its former level. Many stations which had operated on the older channel, notably the NBC transmitter in New York, were forced to go off the air for extended periods in order to shift wavelength in accordance with this change. No scheduled broadcasts were available in New York during the months of August and September on this account. The program service rendered by NBC in New York in the latter part of the year was on a reduced schedule, in part because the transmitter was often in use for tests conducted by the National Television System and partly due to uncertainty regarding the future of the service.

Despite the lessened commercial activity, a large number of experimental authorizations were issued by the Commission to applicant companies. The applications filed with the Commission by these organizations indicated a total expenditure of approximately $8,000,000, to be spent on research in programs methods and technical experimentation. The list of experimental stations now embraces many of the larger cities, as follows: New York City, 6 stations; Philadelphia, 3; Boston, 1; Chicago, 3; Los Angeles, 7; San Francisco, 2; Washington, D. C., 2; Schenectady, 1; Camden, N. J., 1; Iowa City, 1; Kansas City, 1; Manhattan, Kan., 1; West Lafayette, Ind., 1; Milwaukee, 1; Cincinnati, 1.

The stations active in providing program service during the year included W2XBS, the NBC station in New York: W3XE, the Philco station in Philadelphia; W2XB, the General Electric station near Albany, New York, and W6XAO, the Don Lee station in Los Angeles. The DuMont station W2XVT was transferred from Passaic, New Jersey, to a skyscraper in New York City, and was in operation with low power but had no scheduled programs.

Commercial receivers were available for sale during the year at prices approximately two-thirds those set early in 1939, but few new models were offered. The most popular model sold at slightly under $400. At the end of the year the total distribution of television receivers over the country was estimated to number no more than 5,000, of which from 3,000 to 4,000 were in the New York area.

Television Programs.

Programs originating in the NBC studios in New York were transmitted to the metropolitan audience via W2XBS. Many of these programs were relayed to the New York capital district around Albany by W2XB. In the dramatic field, among the plays originated by NBC at the beginning of the year were Ethan Frome, The Gorilla, June Moon, Charlotte Corday, The Perfect Alibi, When We Are Married, Dangerous Corner, Julius Caesar (in modern dress), and The Passing of the Third Floor Back. Among the notable sporting events were the finals of the Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament, from Madison Square Garden; track meets held by the A.A.U., the I.C. 4A, and the Finnish Relief Fund; professional ice hockey games, likewise from Madison Square Garden; the opening baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants from Ebbets Field; several collegiate baseball games; four professional football games during November, and intercollegiate basketball from Madison Square Garden. Religious services and a view of the Fashion Parade on Easter Day were relayed from New York by the Albany station to a snow-bound party in the Adirondacks, some 240 miles away from New York.

In the political arena, the most significant technical accomplishment was the televising of the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia and its transmission over coaxial telephone cable from Philadelphia to New York where it was presented to the New York audience by W2XBS. This was the first intercity hook-up by wire facilities and its quality, both technically and as program fare, was universally praised. The Democratic Convention in Chicago could not be brought directly to the New York audience because the necessary coaxial or radio-relay connections do not exist between these cities. However, motion pictures taken at the Convention were flown to New York and put on the air the following day. The final campaign rallies of both parties were transmitted successfully from Madison Square Garden. On election day one of the longest continuous telecasts on record, nearly seven hours, was devoted to bringing the returns, views of maps, etc., to the audience, interspersed with commentary from leading observers. During quiet spells, the camera was focused on the tape of an automatic newsprinter operated from the news service lines, so the television audience received the news, visually, at the earliest possible moment.

Technical Developments.

From the consumer's standpoint, the outstanding announcements of technical advances were those dealing with the size and brightness of the reproduced pictures. Conventional picture tubes capable of reproducing an image about 12 by 16 inches in size were announced. Projected pictures about 4.5 by 6 feet in size, and of great brilliance were demonstrated and their utility for use in theaters was discussed. Projected pictures for home reception were also under active development, and plans for announcing a home receiver capable of producing projected pictures about 15 by 20 inches in size were under way. (See also PHOTOGRAPHY.)

From the long-range point of view, perhaps the most significant technical accomplishment was the demonstration of television transmission in full color by engineers of the Columbia Broadcasting System. Color television experiments date back as far as 1927, but the results obtained by the CBS system greatly surpass previous efforts. When first demonstrated the CBS color television system was limited to subject matter picked up from colored motion picture film or from transparent colored lantern slides, but successful televising of live subjects has since been announced.

The color aspect of the transmission is introduced by employing two rotating discs composed of transparent filter segments in the three color ranges, red, green and blue. One of these discs is set up directly in front of the television camera in the studio. As the disc rotates, pictures of different hue are transmitted, one picture containing all the red light, the next all the green light, and the next in blue light. These three pictures are transmitted in rapid succession, each picture consuming about one half the time generally used in sending a conventional black-and-white picture. At the receiver a similar disc is rotated in front on the receiving tube screen, synchronously with the motion of the disc at the transmitter. The white light from the screen, passing to the eye through the filter segments, assumes the color of the filter, which corresponds to the color of the image being transmitted at that instant. Thus the eye sees three different colored pictures in rapid succession, through successive segments of the revolving filter disc, the first containing all the red light in the scene, the second all the green light, and the third all the blue. The succession of pictures occurs rapidly enough (in about 1/40th second) so that the three color impressions persist together in the mind of the observer and the colors of the original subject are thereby reproduced. The necessity of sending the pictures at a rate approximately twice as rapidly as in black-and-white transmission requires a proportionate reduction in the pictorial detail transmitted in the scene, but this degradation is largely made up by the presence of color in the reproduced pictures.

The question of the commercial introduction of color television transmission is closely bound up with the question of television standards, since the CBS method of color transmission cannot be adapted readily to the transmission standards currently employed for black-and-white pictures. Color television transmissions using but two colors, similar in appearance to the early technicolor movies, have been demonstrated recently by engineers of the General Electric Company, using the black-and-white transmission standards without change. The question of color transmission is being considered by the National Television System Committee, which will make recommendations concerning it to the Federal Communications Commission early in 1941. See also RADIO: Television.