By Kenneth K. Kaylor, Philips Broadcast Equipment Corp.
We believe that cable television can presently fill a need in the home that the networks and the big independent TV stations have long ago forgotten even existed. Each of us wants to feel that we belong to our own local community, that we know the people, the mayor, the police chief or school principal, the minister or the Boy Scout leader. We are interested in what's going on at Little League because our kid pitches on a team. We want to know about the "sit-in" at the high school because our Number One Girl is in the senior class now.
There is no commercial advantage to the TV station for this type of programming, but the CATV operator can supply a channel for this public service at low cost and at a profit too!! Now to do it, he has to be able to run almost any type of audio-visual material available today from 16min sound movies to picture post cards! He has to be able to interview the horseshoe champ or the beauty queen and run it all back two or three times for those who missed it the first time through!!
He has to generate almost any type of programming from almost any type of location in relatively little time and at a very low cost. One of the most appropriate ways to accommodate these goals is through the use of a self-powered remote unit (Figure # 1). However, the criteria for most broadcast style mobile color television cruisers places them well out of the financing capability of even the larger CATV operations. We would like to steal a page from some of the early broadcasters and discuss with you the design of a low cost color remote unit for CATV use.
Many users will have differing requirements depending upon their location, size and climate. We will concentrate on the reasons for the selection of specific equipments and design goals so that individual companies may select those concepts which most nearly meet their needs.