Bell System "Stepping Along with Television" Coaxial Cable & Microwave Broadcast System 64324 (1949)

Synopsis

Stepping Along with Television is a short 1949 film that was “part of the first hour of broadcasting following the linkup of the East Coast television networks to the Midwestern states.” The film shows how a televised production of Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty” is broadcast from a studio in New York City to homes in Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Waukesha, WI via coaxial cables and a microwave relay system. The film opens with a family sitting in their living room in Waukesha watching a ballet performance on their television. The film cuts to the broadcasting studio in New York City where the performance is being filmed. Viewers see camera men operating video cameras. Men in the control room monitor the footage and adjust the images (02:17). The film uses basic animation to show how the broadcast is then moved to a telephone communications building via underground coaxial cables. Inside, a man monitors how the image and sound is being displayed as it is then sent to Philadelphia (03:46). A man at the Pittsburg telephone building monitors the performance for quality control (04:15). Animations are used to show how the broadcast travels along coaxial cables to different cities. In Chicago, on top of a telephone building (05:30), viewers see an antennae that sends relay signals to broadcast the televised performance of “The Sleeping Beauty,” relaying the signal via wireless microwaves. Viewers see another control room, this time in Milwaukee (06:54). The…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time

11 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage