Evening star., 1951-07-15
On the Air

Amateur military experts who
TRY to forecast the next tactical
move in the great color battle
have not assigned themselves an
easy task. Only one thing is GER
tain. If this fight ends the way
each participant is confident it
will end, it will be the first war
in history in which each side
emerged victorious and routed its
opponent from the field.
CHS is downright SNUG. On its
side it has the fait accompli. It's
color system has been approved
by the FEC, the Supreme Court
has ruled that the FEC had a
right to approve it and it is tele-
lvising commercial color programs
twice a day. Not very many people
are looking at it yet. of course
but color is here at CHS and the
wine of victory is heady.
| The strange thing is that the
news of this victory does no:
seem to have penetrated to the
opposition camp. If you had
fought a long and losing battle
with a Government administra-
tive agency and then had tla
Supreme Court put it's official
seal Of approval on your defeat
you might understandably be
Idowncast. Nobody's downcast
around RCA. however.
The RCA boys may not be pre-
cisely SNUG, but if your cat dimes
on the family canary and washes
it down with a jar of whipping
cream its expression will not be-
tray any more self-satisfaction
than is to be noted around the
|RCA premises. You get the notion
that the FEC approval of CHS
color for commercial television
was just a silly little error of no
consequence which will fade away,
before the Truth.
Confidence Fills
The Air Around RCA
The air was thick as London
fog with calm confidence the other
day when RCA invited the press
in for the first of a series of field
tests of It's color TV system in New
York. You got the distinct i'm
preston. listening to the question:
and-answer session following the
demonstration, that the tint row
was teapot tempest beneath the
dignity of an infallible laboratory.
"We have done just what we
said we would do" ran the tenor
|of the RCA remarks. when we
first showed this system, we said
there was room for improvement
in color television, just as there is
room for improvement in black
and-white. We said our system
was the one which could be i'm
proved and would be improved,
and we have proved it,"
The RCA battle plans are a
carefully guarded secret. The
broadcasting industry devotes al
most as much (if not more) time
to intramural gossip as to enter
tanning and informing the public,
but it seems fairly certain that
CHS will find out what the RCA
is up to- when it reads it in the
papers.
Don't admit a thing, is the RCA
watchword.
Now RCA is not a benevolent
institution and it has not poured
a lot of money into color television
just to give DR.. E. w. Engstrom,
vice president in charge of re-
search, an interesting hobby. Yet
you'd think it hadn't occurred to
RCA yet to take this matter up
again with the FEC.
There is no timetable" says
DR.. Engstrom in reply to a query.
The system merely is to be field
tested to demonstrate that it is
everything sDr. Engstrom and his
associates already know it is.
isn't it true" some one sug-
gests, thinking of CHS color re-
ceivers promised for fall, "that time
is a factor? Don't you have to
do something positive before the
end of the year or not at all, be-
cause after that 1t will be tool
late?" Frank M. Folsom, presi-
dent of RCA, has the official an
swer for that:
There's lots of time between
now and the end of the year."
Engineers Know Now
What System Must Do
AS a present or prospective tele-
your life is likely to be
affected by these plans RCA isn't
talking about. There's no way of
forecasting the future for you, but
this RCA confidence is significant.
It reflects a faith in the dot
sequential color system which
seems firmer than it ever has
been.
It is hard to foresee anything
but approval Of the system when
1t is submitted to the FEC, which
is certain to happen in due course.
Having once been rebuffed, the
ACA engineers know what short
comings the FEC found with the
system previously and they know
exactly what 1t will have to bel