The Tribune from San Luis Obispo, California • 7

SutlSuL eieramrinoime TELEVISION SECTION TELEVISION SECTION 84TH YEAR NO 226 SATURDAY MAY 16 1953 KVEC Ready To Launch Into Video It now appears reasonable almost to predict that hon-est-to-goodness talking images will replace the test pattern orr channel 6 on Mon- i day May 25 "Even with our kind of luck" Mr Jacobson owner of: the Valley Electric Co the KVEC-TV licensee said today "we should be able to make the date" Despite disappointments caused I by weather and a chain of tech- -rural circumstances KVEC-TV is: the proud possessor of the title of 1 being the first video station on the air the freeze" The refers to the federal communications lock-up of all licenses while Initial major stations tested theories a ml reactions and while international wrangling took place over radio frequencies Lea Hacker the general ager of KVEC-TV and with Mrs Jacobson ership and operation tion agreed that May date that was reasonably sound for prediction Robert Wilton the KVEC-TV program director concurred programs are lined tip" be declared outlining a schedule of filmed programs that rate tops In today's video popularity poll Including Amos and Andy and a various and sundry assortment of features Wrestling too Test patterns have been booming into sets since last Wednesday when the transmitter was first turned on The circular identification of has whetted appetites eyes and ears tremendously but now it seems certain that satisfaction is but a week away Dumont television engineers have labored long over the transmitter of KVEC-TV tuning its antenna system to a fare-thee-well They seem more than pleased with the test patterns and the wide range of reception Salinas to the north reports an pictured Kem-Fresno counties seem covered like dew over Dixie Santa Maria Santa Barbara and as far south as Ventura have also signified surprise at the clarity and intensity of the KVEC-TV picture into that area BEHIND THE SCENES Always beyond the range of the microphone and the TV camera is a personality whose firm hand and strong Initiative have guided the progress of both KVKC-radio and KVEC-TV Mrs 31 Jacobson She is the owner of the Valley Electrir Co San Luis Obispo KVEC-TV licensee She is a partner in the television enterprise with Let Hacker who serves as general manager 3Irs Jacobson Is shown behind a TV camera at the KVEC-TV studio (Telegram-Tribune photo) 1870 Marked Beginning of Television Sta Barbara Predicts Start in July us a July 1 to July 10 leeway for a test pattern and betweeh July 10 and July 20 for That conservative prediction date for the start of television in Santa Barbara was made last night by Cblin Selph president of the Santa Barbara Broadcasting and Television corporation The TV 1 station KEY-T win serve as a basic tri-county for both the Columbia Broadcasting system and the National Broadcatsing company Selph said It wil also be affiliated with two other networks he declared Special emphasis will be placed on major sports events it was stated with arrangements already completed for the Pabst and Gil lette series of top attractions KEY-T will put its programs on channel three The video station is in the midst of a big construction program erecting both its transmitter structure and an elaborate studio and office building Gaviota Pass The transmitter site is atop located on the coastal range 16 miles toward San Luis Obispo from Santa Barbara and can be viewed from highway 101 by motorists passing through the Gaviota pass It is about a mile off the highway In opinion there was no question of KEY-T blanketing the tri-county area with an explanation made that there are certain rolling hills in this section that may present an individual problem to some dwellings The KEY-T site is imposing it cannot be denied Its mast and antenna will rise 4100 feet above sea level It will be one of the most powerful stations In the country according to its license Video power will approximate 50000 watts Another advantage held by KEY-T Is its accessability by micro-wave to Mt Wilson a southern California peak which provides a site for seven major Los Angeles stations The network programs which it will beam into San Luis Obispo will be picked up from that point every Indication Santa Barbara will be the focal point of a dominant public medium covering a large portion of the California population from the Monterey county line to the Mexican KEY-T declared in a recent statement studies by the consultants based upon accepted standards and actual experience in similar transmitter locations indicate blanket coverage of Santa Barbara Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties and a portion of Kern county plus a strong over-water signal coverage along the heavily populated shoreline and inward Los Angeles Orange and San Diego it was stated Overlooks City A handsome structure is being erected to provide the studio and office facilities occupying an impressive site that overlooks Santa Barbara It is adjacent to the present airway beacon and is 400 feet above the State street busi-(Tum to Page Nine) ear and that therefore an elec-1 dependably tronic device might be built on The answer is that we had to LADDER TO THE SKY Fingering the clouds that drift lazily over the Cueata summit overlooking this city Is the new mast and antenna of KVEC-TV San Luis television station Starting May 25 It will be bringing the marvel of television to this area for the first time The transmitter site is atop a peak of the Santa Lucia mountain range and the tip of the tower rises 2690 feet above sea leveL These TV Words Sharpen Vocabulary It is generally believed that television is a development of the last few years beginning with the period just before World war IL If we' have in mind modem refinements of the art which make home reception possible on the scale it exists today then this is essentially true But experiments in the transmission of visual images began as far back as 1873 That was the year in which an obscure telegraph operator named May at the Irish terminal of a transatlantic cable waa experimenting with resistances made of ailenium then a comparatively new element Vital Discovery He observed that electrical resistance varied from time to time though he had made no changes in the connections 1 Finally he discovered the variations were caused by differences in the amount of sunlight that happened to fall on the resistances This discovery was of the utmost importance May had stumbled on the fact that electronic impulses can take the form of light and it was then but a matter of experimentation to find a way to transmit these light Impulses from one point to another Alexander Graham demonstration of the telephone at the Philadelphia Centennial exx position in 1876 planted in the minds of three noted scientists the seed that was later to develop into important television experiments Early Flans Ayrton and Perry in England and Carey in the United States reasoned that Bell's telephone was fashioned after the human wait for a completely electronic method to replace the cumbersome scanning disc before we could assure the public of reliable transmission of clearly defined pictures Won Nobel Prize A tremendous stride in this direction was made in 1905 when Albert Einstein proposed an equation which states the way in which energy is transferred from the light quantum also called to the electron It was for this rather than his better-known theory of relativity that Einstein was awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 1921 With the development of the electronic method the old scanning disc method was abandoned and television as a practical means of communication was on its way The modern successor to the scanning disc is the iconoscope developed primarily through the work of Dr Vladimir Zworykin who came to the United States in 1919 Vacuum Tube The iconoscope is a vacuum tube with a long neck and inside the bigger rounded part is a plate of mica about three inches high and four inches wide covered with millions of globules of silver on which the lens in front forms an image This plate is a mosaic of more than a million minute photocells Against this mosaic as it received the Image is hurled a scanning beam of electrons shot from the electron gun In the long neck of the tube The electron blast causes- a current to flow from the mosaic and thus a picture is sent on its way the pattern of the human eye In 1880 they suggested such a mechanism Instead of the retina they proposed a Xank of silenium cells upon which a lens formed an image of the screen in front Actually it was a camera except that it was provided with this silenium bank instead of film The silenium as our telegraph operator had discovered was sensitive to light thrown upon it In 1884 in Germany Paul Nip-kow was granted a patent on the first television method using a This consisted of a single light-sensitive plate on which a lens formed an Image as in a camera German's 3 (el bod Revolving in front of this plate was a disc along the edge of which there was one spiral row of holes One hole would pass across the top of the silenium plate the next would go across a little lower the next lower still So it went until the disk had made a complete revolution the illusion being one of a single picture even through the hole The transmitter and the receiver were essentially the same in principle They were synchronized so that the revolving disc of the transmitter and that of the receiver maintained the same rate of speed It probably seems strange to you that while this workable though primitive television system was invented as far back as 1884 we had to wait 64 years for further developments that would enable us to transmit video programs regularly and provide you with sets that would perform The advent of television has created a new language all its own as San Luis Obispo will soon learn To sharpen your vocabulary for what is to come here are a few words which you must accept These are the more formal words linked with the technical phases of television There is still another jargon of TV words in a lighter vein developed around the studios and spoken by performers To start off paste these now familiar TV words in your hat for immediate use TELEVISION: The simultaneous transmission of sight and sound by radio from one point to another VIDEO: The visual part of a television program that is what you see on the screen of your receiving set Also a common synonym for television AUDIO: The sound portion of the television program that is what you hear TELECAST: A television program as distinguished from a which is applied to TROGRAM CHIEF Kob-rrt Wilton 27 rewarded for his diligence as a long-tiifte KVEC and KPRL announcer and program executive has been named as the program director for this first television station KVEC-TV Video Questions and Answers standard radio programs TO TELEVISE: To pick up and transmit a program by means of television TEST PATTERNS OR A geometric design transmitted visually to your television set by which the user can tune in Usually sound of some sort also is transmitted Test patterns usually go on the air some time in advance of regular telecasts so the set may be properly tuned when the programs come on MOBILE UNIT: The truck or trailer which carries portable controls through which telecasts from places remote from the studio can be picked up RELAY: Transmission of a program from a remote point to another point usually the transmitter Telecasts are from one city to another or from mobile unit to station COAXIAL CABLE: A highly complicated cable for transmission of television programs CAMERA: The mechanical device which picks up the video (visual) part of a telecast It is all electronic and uses no film Audio (sound) portions are picked up on a regulation microphone SCREEN: The frame or panel of your set on which you view the visual portion of the telecast BRIGHTNESS CONTROL: A control on the receiver for regulating the brightness of the picture CAMERA TUBE: Electron tube used to translate a scene Into electrical impulses CATHODE RAY TUBE: Electron tube which sends a pencil like beam upon a screen (usually fluorescent) which glows whenever the beam strikes COAXIAL CABLE: Kind of cable used to transmit television signals over considerable distances without a great loss of strength For instance New York Washington and Philadelphia are corrected bv coaxial CONTRAST CONTROL: A control on the receiver for governing the ratio between the black and white portions of the picture CONTROL ROOM: Studio facilities from which television cameras lighting shading and mixing are performed DIROLE ANTENNA: Antenna consisting of two conductors isu-aHv of eoual length extending In the same straight line with a psir of lead og feeder wires connected at or near the Inner ends DISTORTION 'Anv change in the original frequency amplitude or phase of a radio signal DOLLY: Movable stand upon which the television camera is mounted FADE-OUT: Camera technique in which a scene is gradually dimmed from view FRAME: One of a series of complete pictures which are viewed successively so as to simulate moving scenes GHOST: Secondary picture formed on a television receiver because the signal from the transmitter reaches the antenna by more than one path Ghosts usually are caused by the signal being reflected from objects within approximately one mile of the receiver antenna INTERFERENCE: Random electrical signals which disrupt either the sound or the picture in television Includes automobile ignition impulses some diathermy apparatus neon signs etc LIVE TALENT: On-the-spot televising of events and people in contrast to transmission of film material MIKE BOOM: Arm carrying the microphone above the area being televised MONITORING: Technique cf controlling at the transmitter the picture shading and other factors involved in the transmission of both the scene and the accompanying sound NEGATIVE GHOSTS: Ghost pictures in which the black and white areas are opposite to those of the real pictures PANNING: Camera technique la which a large arc of the scene is shown by swinging the camera around a central point PICTURE NOISE: Interfer ence signals causing spots of light and other irregular patterns the received picture REFLECTOR: Part of an antenna system (used with dispole) used to prevent pick-up" of sig-nsls in one direction and increase it in the opposite direction SENSITIVITY Measure of the ability of a receiver to produce a given output for a given Input SHADING: Process of correcting the light distribution of the image produced by the camera Part of the station monitoring job SIGNAL: Electrical impulses which represent the sound or picture elements being transmitted VIEWING MIRROR: Mirror used to reflect Image formed or receiver tube at a convenient viewing angle change the eye merely adjusts better 6 How soon will we have network broadcasts in television? A Most experts say it will be about four years before the country Is completely linked Micro-Waves Coarjal Cable Answer Video Now that television networks have pushed across the continent it is only a matter of time before San Luis Obispo has such a direct link with the rest of the nation Only last month the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co declared that it was accelerating its plans for a coastal coaxial cable through this county and city A coaxial cable has already been irstall-d by the between San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Gamde Large crews of workmen and special equipment are already putting such a transmission link between Camp Roberts and Paso Robles The entire outline of construction has been completely engineered for the cable installation from Los Angeles and Ssn Francisco and San Luis Obispo already has the edge Fact is the cable was supposed to be in about five years ago but successful research and development of the micro-wave system transmission took the upper hand and the rushed through -the San Joachin valley skipping the coastal section and San Luis Obispo For the present KVEC-TV and San Luis Obispo audiences must be satisfied with programs obtained from motion picture films That is not to discouraging In view of the expanding industry (Turn to Page Nine) Everyone has questions to ask about TV and according to manufacturers these are the ten most common: 1 Can every horde have television No There are some homes In extremely high noise areas where TV will not receive properly there are others where the signal Is blocked by tall buildings hills or other obstructions and many other homes will be outside the normal service area of the stations 2 How can they show both a closeup and a distant view of a baseball game? A This Is accomplished by using two cameras one with longer focal length than the other 3 How far away should a person sit to enjoy the picture This varies with the Individual but usually no closer than four fret 4 Can ordinary telephone lines be used for network TV broadcasts? A No special coaxial cables or microwave relays are required 5-Why does the picture seem clearer after the receiver has been on for a while A The picture does not 7 Yvnat causes Interference In the picture? -Various things Including any high freqeuncy apparatus amateur stations automobiles and FM stations operating on adjacent channels 8 Can movies be sent over TV? Yes much program material In the future win be on films 9 How many stations can there be in any service grea? Thirteen station channels are allotted for TV broadcasting but the FCC wUl assign a maximum of seven stations to each area 10 Can an Inside antenna be used? A In some instances where the signal Is strong and there are no obstructions an Indoor antenna can be used However a standard outside antenna is always preferable HANDSOME HEADQUARTERS Television program operations in San Lois Obispo win be centered In this handsome structure at 3Iountain View mad Hill street The home of the radio broadcasting activities of KVEC considerable additional space has been afforded to provide camera room for the new companion of video KVEC-TV It Is here that most programs will originate beamed to the transmitter site atop Cuestm summit by miero-rwve (Telegram-Tribune photo) el i.