20 YEARS AGO IN S&VC
Nov 1, 2003 12:00 PM,
Mark Johnson
A look back at Sound & Video Contractor‘s November 1983 edition reveals a mixed bag of technology information, business information, and a few interesting application and installation profiles. The cover story about modular amplifiers featured some background on models manufactured by Altec and Spectra Sonics. In the last of a three-part series about TV security systems, Elmer Smalling III completes the signal flow with a discussion about switching systems, video recording, broadband distribution, and the control center.
The practical application of Smalling’s series is detailed in an article about the closed-circuit TV surveillance system install at Lock and Dam No. 1 on the Mississippi River, between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.
Author Dan Markley explored the Chicago Archdiocese Instructional Television Fixed Site microwave system, which was developed as the most cost-effective solution to transmit information and materials to more than 400 schools within the Roman Catholic school district of Chicago.
Readers could also check out a story about the replacement of coax with fiber-optic cable to link the studios, the sports facilities, and the Center for Continuing Education at WNDU-TV at the University of Notre Dame. Miles of fiber-optic cable were used, with three of the runs more than a mile long each and one run just under a mile.
Business aspects of the contracting industry for this issue covered advertising in the Yellow Pages, the first part in a series on contract bonding and an overview of some then recent rules issued by the FCC for low-power television broadcasting.
Other items of note in the issue included the results of a survey of Sound & Video Contractor readers: 57 percent of the respondents were contractors/installers, almost 30 percent were consultants, and a little more than 21 percent were designers. Almost 65 percent of the readers worked on audio-related installs, and almost 40 percent were involved with security or A/V systems. About 22 percent of S&VC readers accounted for teleconferencing and telephone systems.
The issue also featured some interesting ads, including one from Swintek. At that time, Swintek wireless microphone systems enjoyed popularity for use in broadcasting. The company is still around, but a major focus of the company is surveillance systems (transmitters, repeaters, receivers, and video systems) for use on covert operations for law enforcement.
A popular horn and driver brand at the time, Emilar, was an asset of E3MC that was purchased by Plus One Engineering in 1992. Plus One has been repairing and rebuilding much of the original Emilar tooling as well as developing new products.
Industrial Research Products advertised its modular Voice-Matic automatic mic mixer. Now operating under the acronym IRP, it still sells Voice-Matic automated mixing systems as well as wireless conferencing systems mics and amplifiers. The focus is on audio products for conferencing. On its current Web site, IRP has some Voice-Matic products listed under Product Archives. Then parent company Knowles is, among other things, a manufacturer of transducers for the hearing health industry.
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