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Editorial comment.
In October last year a rumour got about that the BBC intended to discontinue the 30-line television transmissions when their agreement with the Baird Company expired in the spring. In the following month we said that these rumours, which were still circulating, should not be taken too seriously, because the short-wave transmissions which it was suggested would replace the 30-line television could not be expected to give a service at present, but would at first be only experimental. We went on to say that if a television service was to be maintained, it would be by continuing transmissions along existing lines for the present.
The intention of the BBC to curtail the present 30-line transmissions to two instead of more a week, has recently been disclosed, their excuse for doing so being based on the assumption that there is insufficient public interest in these broadcasts.
The BBC does not seem to appreciate that so long as they have a monopoly of broadcasting they have also a responsibility to the public in the matter of television. When their more frequent transmissions began public interest was very small, but it has undoubtedly grown, and to-day there are a far larger number of enthusiasts than at any previous time, so that it seems to be a most inopportune moment to suggest a curtailment of the service when no better system has yet been made available to the public. We still regard the high definition transmissions as only experimental, and even if the transmission problems have been overcome, reception difficulties outside the laboratory have not been tackled to a point where the public can join in and take advantage of them.
In this issue we publish an article written by a prominent engineer who has had much experience with the development of television. He states the case for at continuance of 30-line transmissions, and suggests that these transmissions should be used to better advantage. He criticises the present arrangement whereby pictures far too ambitious for the system are frequently broadcast. The 30-line system can be definitely good if the subject televised is sufficiently large, but to try to put over pictures of detail merely serves to discredit the system and emphasise its limitations. In a recent issue a contributor to our Broadcast Brevities column deliberately implied dissatisfaction with 30-line transmissions in order to stimulate protests from those who are really interested in these tests. A large number of post-cards and letters has been received at our offices as a result, and in this issue we have thought it of interest to publish extracts from representative communications.
30-line Broadcasts Must Go On
We would urge the BBC to give the 30-line transmission more attention, with at least some transmissions during more convenient listening periods. High definition transmissions are on their way, but since these necessitate ultra short-wave reception, with a very restricted range for the transmitters, we cannot expect any speedy progress on the reception side, and until the short-wave transmissions can be regarded as giving an equivalent service to what is now possible on the medium broadcast band there should be certainly no curtailment of the present facilities.
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