Evening star., 1949-10-02
Color TeIevision Tests
To Be Seen by FEC al
HEARINGS This Week


It will be matter of looking as
we'll as listening this week when
the Federal Communications Com
mission resumes hearings on the
color television squabble that has
placed an increasingly heavy re-
sponsibility on the seven commits
sionerS.
The commission Thursday. Fri
day and the following Monday is
to view demonstrations of color
telecasting by various companies
that have developed intricate ap-
paratus and systems.
Before it can hope to say which.
if any, of the systems might be Ii
censed for sale to the public, the
commission will have to decide an
even more difficult problem. 1t will
have to choose between the claims
of concerns and inventors who re-
gard color television as ready for
commercial use now and OF other
groups who contend it should be
kept in the laboratories for much
more seasoning.
Those issues will continue to
be debated when the FEC begins
its second week of public hearings
Tuesday at the Commerce Depart
ment auditorium. Following a
presentation started last Friday by
Radio Corp. of America Spokes-
men urging adoption Of one type
of color system, the Columbia
Broadcasting System, Color Tele-
vision, Inc, and possibly others
will explain and defend their sys-
TENS this week.
AS sort of umpire the FEC in
dicated on several occasions last
week that it has even more to
worry about than the job of pro-
tecting the public. safeguarding
the television industry and inves-
tors. and leaving the way open to
scientific progress.
Adequate Information Needed.
It's immediate responsibility,
members explained, is to get ade-
ouate technical and cost estimate
information as the basis for a
practical decision. Several mem
bers complained they have not
been able to get it at the hearing
thus far. It has become increas-
ingly obvious why the hearings
may last for 10 weeks and why a
decision may not come before
next spring.
Their responsibility to the pub
lie, the commissioners say, is COM
plicated by a growing public de-
mand for color television imme-
diately and by "free-for-all'
fight in the television industry
between advocates and opponents
of color or of specific systems.
Claims and Counterclaims.
Claims and counterclaims in
, clude charges that set manufac-
turers deliberately block color
development or that color system
champions are trying to rush an
inadequate product to the market.
There also are conflicting asser-
tions that color television now
would be only for the rich or that
any one with about SIS could get
a color gadget.
Despite extremely technical tes-
timony, the hearings have had
their lighter moments as we'll as
verbal blasts between attorneys,
commissioners and witnesses.
But for the most part the
jargon mystifies the layman and
occasionally doesn't seem too clear
to some of the experts on or of
the FEC.
The word "television," for in
stance, is seldom heard. It's usu-
ally described in terms requiring
an engineering degree to decipher.
A set is usually "a terminal ap-
paratus," a vague picture is "a
degraded image" and the often
heard expressions "compatlble
and "adaptable' have nothing 70
do with the divorce court. Ana
"high definition" relates to sharp
ness of picture and not the con-
tents of a dictionary.
When talk about megacycles ano
monochromes became too heavy al
the hearings. Chairman Wayne
Gov would bring matters down to
earth by announcing the progress
of the Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals
and Dodgers.
More Experimenting Vital.
Color television experiments
have been under way for years
h,1t, most of the experts agree that
more wears must pass before color
television will be as common IN tne
household as are radio ana oiacs
and white television today.
CHS, RCA and the other ad'
vocates of early approval for colol
television in commercial operations
agree on basic principles IN pro-
ducing color, but they disagree OF
methods. Each system uses the
primary colors of red, green asae
blue to blend into other colors
Technicans explain that thl
blending of colors differs from th'
Job of the paint and brush artist
Whereas red and green togethe
on a canvas would bring brown
they would make yellow on tn
television screen.
The systems of blending the prl
mary colors are simple-once yol
have a Ph.D in electronics or ply
ssics and understand how the colo
is picked up and broadcast in tn
first place.
CHS experts say their system
would flash, one primary colo
after another at great speed OF
the screen. This would be qulcke
than the human eye and tn
watcher, in effect. would do tn
blending of colors.
RCA experts, with equal clarlt;