April 1947

RCA projection television 2

RCA gives a demonstration of projection television at the National Association of Broadcasters' Convention in 1947.

Photo: RCA

By now RCA's projection operates on the 525-line standard and can produce an image six feet high and eight feet wide. The live signal for this demonstration (simulated in the publicity photo above) originates from WNBT in New York and is sent from the Empire State Building to the convention centre at the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey via Philadelphia and a five-link microwave chain.

In July 1947 RCA signs an agreement with Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros for research and development of a direct-projection large-screen cinema television system. The first product is demonstrated in 1948 by both Warner Bros and Fox.
        By 1949, the RCA-Fox-Warner television projection system uses a 12-inch cathode ray tube with a 21-inch spherical mirror and correcting lens capable of throwing the picture between 45 ft and 80 ft. It is demonstrated to the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (SMPE) convention, New York.

Chronomedia 1947
Cinema-television index