The Los Angeles Conference Equipment Exhibit

The 1975 SMPTE Equipment Exhibit was the largest our Society has ever held, with some 160 booths housing 110 exhibitors. Noteworthy was the increase in the amount of video equipment shown (as compared to even two years ago). Among the types of equipment shown were compact cameras and recorders intended for Electronic Newsgathering (IVC, RCA, Sony, Toshiba); editing control systems for helical scan ENG tapes in the U-Matic cartridge format (Convergence Corp., National Video Corp., Sony, Television Research International); compact time-code generator using the SMPTE-sponsored time code (TRI); high-quality production video recording equipment and accessories (Ampex, IVC); an exceptionally compact frame-storage video signal synchronizer (Quantel); and high-quality telecine equipment, including a new 35mm high-speed film projector, a 16mm cartridge film projector, and a state-of-the-art telecine chain with automatic color-balance control (RCA). — An outstanding application of electronic technology to motion-picture technique was seen in the Cinema Product Cinevid system. Here, an extremely small TV camera is used to provide what could be called an electronic viewfinder for a film camera. — The variety of film-editing equipment at the show indicated a high degree of mechanical and optical sophistication and a tendency toward multi-plate and multi-screen operation. — Of the motion-picture equipment on exhibit, there was a significant amount of super-8 hardware in evidence. Although much of this was not new equipment, it had not appeared previously at SMPTE shows. For this reason, we have collected the super-8 equipment in a special category below. — The information for this report was gathered from a variety of sources. Many of the exhibitors were helpful in supplying technical data and summaries about their products. And a number of members attending the Conference took the time to give us their opinions on the show. We are grateful for their help and will look for it again next year.

Print ISSN
Published
1975-11
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J06866