Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-03
!. Ado is In the Metropoli-
tan Opera House to stay.
! During the holidays three


- fan opera House to stay.
N During the holidays three
operas, representing widely
separated schools of musical tecl-
nique, were broadcast by the
National Broadcasting Co., ana
thousands of letters from raolo
listeners and musical authorizes
testified to their artistic success.
But behind the voices OF the
singers and Deems Taylor'S run
ming account of the stage action
stands a little group OF unSung
men who made the broadcasts
nossible-the engineers and tech
nieians of N. B. c. VINO are Iney
and how did they accomplish
their difficult feat?
Chief credit for the engineering
achievement goes to o. B. Hanson,
manager of plant operation and
engineering, and Gerald Chatt1eld,
technical art director. Between
them they drew the plans and ar
ranged for the installation OF the
equipment which convinced Glullo
GATH general manager
OF Jlc OpeId CoillPaAAy' -
assistant, Edward ziegler, that
Metropolitan Opera could De
faithfully and accurately Trans
ported over the air.
It was Hanson, a wartime radlo
operator and former engineer Tor
the old Marconi wireless Co, who
planned the technical equipment
now in use in the N. B. G. Build
ing, at til Fifth avenue, and with
the assistance of Chatf1eld de-
signed the N. B. c. studios in Chi
cage, Washington and San Fran
cisco. The present control system
used in all stations owned ana OPP
Grated by N. B. c. also was de-
signed by Hanson. -,
In adapting the Metropolitan TO
broadcaSting he was faced with
the problem of getting adequate
equipment into limited space.
There was no room for the con-
struction Of a control booth, SO
Hanson arranged system Oh
wiring whereby the microphoneS
could be controlled from box in
one of the tiers, and the actual
monitoring of the program done
by himself and Chatfield in the
N. B. c. studios, at TIL Filth ave-
nue., New York.
Hanson's decision to utilize only,
one microphone at time is also
largely responsible for the clarity
of tone, which music critics have
praised in the Metropolitan
broadcastS. When the Chicago
Civic Opera first went on the air,
in 1927, Is microphoneS we're used.
In the Metropolitan there are
only 6, and Hanson really uses
but half this number. Three OF
the half dozen are merely precau-
tionary equipment.
For practical purposes, then,
there is one microphone In the
footlights on each side of the
stage, and che suspended over the
orchestra pit. The orchestra
microphone remains open, OF
course, throughout the perform
ance, but only one of the stage
microphones is used at time.
The reason for this, Hanson eX-
plains, is that the same sound
reaches q near microphone and
far one the bareSt fraction Of
second apart. While this brief
variation is not sufficient actually
to distort the program, it does in
terfere with the sharp lucidity OF
tone attained by a single micro
phone.
And clarity of tone was one OF
the chief things for which Han
sons associate, Chatf1eld, was
striving. AS technical art direc-
tor, it is Chatfield's duty to CO.
ordinate the artistic and technical
interests of N. B. c. programs. It
is Chatfeld, who works with Ed
ward Ziegler, assistant manager
of the Metropolitan, in selecting
the portions Of operas to be broad
cast, and who acts as N. B. c.
general representative at the
Metropolitan.
Chatfleld, who recently returned
from an inspection tour Of Euro
pean radio stations with Hanson
and S. l.. RoXyJ Rothafel, Is an
old hand at opera broadcaSting.
When the Chicago Civic opera
first went on the air. he was the
N. B. G. production representative,
and during the second season OF
Chicago bfOndcheta he commuted
from New York each week.
The N. H. g. national opera
series from the New York studios
were under his general super
vision, and when the time came
to put the foremost opera COM
pany in the country on the air he
had wide background Of expert
ence He advised Hanson during
the early preparations, and later
suggested shifts In microphone
locations which helped to obtain
the proper balance between Or
chestra and voice.
The actual installation of equip