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September 1964 Radio-Electronics
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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The 1964 World's Fair
showcased several groundbreaking technological innovations, as reported in the
December 1964 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. Among the highlights
were the Picturephone, a precursor to modern video calls, which allowed users to
see and hear the person they were talking to in real-time. Another notable
exhibit was the Uniscope, a large-screen television system capable of displaying
high-resolution images. The fair also featured demonstrations of early computer
technology, including IBM's System/360 mainframe computer, which could perform
complex calculations and process large amounts of data. These advancements
provided a glimpse into the future of communication and computing, setting the
stage for the rapid technological progress that would define the latter half of
the 20th century. See also
The Picturephone
in Your Future.
Radio-Electronics Goes to the World's Fair
 Color TV sets all over fairgrounds are programmed
from this studio and control room at RCA pavilion. Public is invited
to watch live shows telecast from four color cameras, four all-transistor videotape
recorders and coaxial-cable rf distribution system. Pavilion also features see-yourself-on-color-TV,
with a taped delay. You see yourself twice: once live and again 15 seconds later,
exactly the same!
 Whole family of Walt Disney "audioanimatronic"
figures like "Granny" here are "cast" of 20·minute show at General Electric pavilion.
Figures are driven by electropneumatic machinery, controlled by 32-track magnetic
tape. Three closed-circuit TV monitors in background can be switched among 21 cameras
around pavilion. In case of trouble, help can come fast. Charts and counters at
right keep track of attendance.
 Teleprinter has just divulged recipe for
Swiss-cheese croquettes. Unit at National Cash Register pavilion is linked to computer
(background). Other installations at NCR make magic squares based on visitors' favorite
numbers, answer scientific questions, give information on vacation sites.
 What's inside Bell Telephone's Picturephone.
Six booths at American Tel & Tel pavilion are equipped with Picturephones so
visitors can talk to - and see-each other. (See July Radio-Electronics, page 6.)
 Elaborate sound system pipes "walking music",
announcements and coded emergency signals to 470 RCA-designed speakers concealed
in lamp posts all over grounds. System is controlled from panel which houses line
amplifiers that drive 88 75-watt power amplifiers in 16 locations around fairgrounds.
Level to each sector of fair is individually controlled, so each gets optimum sound.
Music is pre-taped on 14-inch reels; cartridge tapes carry special announcements.
Engineer Ed Mackey, above, is one of 12 who operate system.
 Fairgoers watch typist copy Russian text
into teleprinter which relays it 90 miles to IBM language-translating computer in
Kingston, N.Y. English rendering, back in a second or two, is printed out on another
machine. Overhead TV screens display Russian and English texts side by side.
 Audiovisual Learning Center Station No.
2 in U. S. Pavilion is one of three designed to display potentialities of electronic
teaching aids. Visitors can participate in learning programs. B&K 1076 Flying-Spot
Scanner televises fixed slides for display on screens like those in photo.
Sound System Sports Unusual Failure Monitor
The intricate sound system at the New York World's Fair would be a nightmare
to operate and maintain if it weren't for an ingenious system of automatic checking
and reporting designed to uncover failures and potential breakdowns immediately
and pinpoint them exactly.
 At each power amplifier location, which
is remote from the main control room and may contain half a dozen amplifiers, there
is a test chassis that includes an audio oscillator and timing mechanism. Once each
hour, the program is cut off automatically at that bank of amplifiers only, and
a short high-frequency audio pulse fed in. The input pulse is compared with the
output pulse; if everything is shipshape, fine. If not, a relay flashes a lamp on
a panel back at the master control room. The operator on duty, seeing the light,
can tell instantly where the trouble is and send a man out to investigate.
The amplifier banks also incorporate thermostats that monitor the temperature
of each unit. If an amplifier overheats (suggesting a short in a speaker line, a
gassy tube, etc.) or goes cold (because of a burned-out tube or blown fuse), again
a light flashes in the control room to pinpoint the trouble.
Jacks in patch panels at the control room make it quick and easy to substitute
a defective unit without physically removing and replacing it, or to use some other-than-normal
program routing, perhaps to bypass a dead amplifier. Flexibility and adaptability
are key ideas behind the design of this amazing system.
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