Re: [Rollei] OT: Re: What did you do in the war? (long)

["R. R. Creason" <rcreason >]

Very interesting Richard.  I had a lot of experience as a movie
projectionist in the mid to late '40s.  It was easy to tell the WE sound
track from the RCA.  Just from looking at the WE soundtrack, I always
thought it's frequency response would be better.  It looked much like
spectral lines while the RCA looked like a modulated envelope.  The WE had
fine spectral lines and looked like it had more HF content.  Was this the
reason for the better sound?

Bob C.


>    This loudspeaker was supplied by Western Electric as part
> of its early broadcasting equipment. The cone is external
> and operated by a pin link to a moving vane type movement.
>   Previous loudspeakers were essentially a single headphone
> coupled to a horn of the sort used on acoustical
> phonographs.
>   The moving coil cone speaker of the type well known today
> was invented by Edward W. Kellogg of the General Electric
> research lab. Because it requires an enclosure to work
> properly it was not immediately popular. Kellogg also worked
> on the sound on film system developed at GE. This was
> aquired by RCA when the company was formed and marketed as
> the RCA Photophone System. Teh existence of this system, a
> rival of the Western Electric method, was one reason RCA
> invested in RKO. Western Electric had the motion picture
> market sewn up and RCA was looking for a way of exploiting
> their system. Until about 1935 RKO was the only major studio
> using RCA equipment. When the first WE licensing contracts
> expired Warner Brothers chose RCA probably because they were
> bitter about the way Western Electric / ATT killed Vitaphone
> and because RCA had a better deal as far as royalties. Over
> the next couple of decades RCA found its way into more and
> more studios.
>   Western Electric stuff sounded better but WE also wanted
> an excessive footage royalty.
>   Gee-Whiz, what obscure stuff I have stuffed into my brain.
> No wonder I can't remember where I park my car.
>
> ---
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles, CA, USA
> dickburk  
>
>
>

------------------------------