128-481: Colortrak was a trademark used on several RCA color televisions beginning in the 1970s and lasting into the 1990s. After RCA was acquired by General Electric in 1986, GE began marketing sets identical to those from RCA. GE sold both RCA and GE consumer electronics lines to Thomson SA in 1988. RCA televisions with the Colortrak branding were mid-range models; positioned above the low-end XL-100 series but below
256-411: A Video Cassette Recorder , LaserDisc player , or with use of an RCA SelectaVision CED videodisc player to the television. For example, early composite video-equipped RCA sets were to coincidentally be tuned to Non-broadcast channel 91 to display a composite video signal, if a set was equipped with more than one input, subsequent inputs are designated to channels 92 to 95, which are usually accessed from
384-630: A brand name only; the various RCA trademarks are currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment and Vantiva , which in turn license the RCA brand name and trademarks to several other companies, including Voxx International , Curtis International, AVC Multimedia, TCL Corporation and Express LUCK International, Ltd. for their various products. RCA originated as a reorganization of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (commonly called "American Marconi"). In 1897,
512-511: A $ 490 million company loss. Sperry Rand 's UNIVAC division took over the RCA computer division in January 1972. Univac did not want the Spectra computers because they were similar to its own 9000 series; instead, they wanted RCA's computer customer base. On January 1, 1965, Robert Sarnoff succeeded his father as RCA's president, although the elder Sarnoff remained in control as chairman of
640-400: A 60%–40% ratio in output between the two companies. Although the patent cross-licensing agreements had been intended to give the participants domination of equipment sales, the tremendous growth of the market led to fierce competition, and in 1925 RCA fell behind Atwater Kent as the leader in receiver sales. RCA was particularly hamstrung by the need to coordinate its sales within the limits of
768-607: A commercial version of his prototype system could be produced in a relatively short time for $ 100,000. Following what would actually be many years of additional research and millions of dollars, RCA demonstrated an all-electronic black-and-white television system at the 1939 New York World's Fair . RCA began regular experimental television broadcasting from the NBC studios to the New York metropolitan area on April 30, 1939, via station W2XBS, channel 1 (which evolved into WNBC channel 4) from
896-535: A company whose holdings included motion picture theaters. The theaters in which RKO had an interest provided a potential market for the RCA Photophone sound systems. RCA ownership of RKO stock expanded from about one quarter in 1930 to about 61% in 1932. RKO encountered severe financial problems, going into receivership from early 1933 until 1940. RCA sold its holdings in the studio to raise funds for its basic operations. After years of industry complaints that
1024-406: A cross-licensing agreement, effective July 1, 1921, that included a concession that 40% of RCA's equipment purchases would be from Westinghouse. Following these transactions, GE owned 30.1% of RCA's stock, Westinghouse 20.6%, AT&T 10.3%, and United Fruit 4.1%, with the remaining 34.9% owned by individual shareholders. In 1930, RCA agreed to occupy the yet-to-be-constructed landmark skyscraper of
1152-434: A fully independent company. As a result, GE and Westinghouse gave up their ownership interests in RCA, while RCA was allowed to keep its factories. To give RCA a chance to establish itself, GE and Westinghouse were required to refrain from competing in the radio business for the next two and one-half years. RCA began television development in early 1929, after an overly optimistic Vladimir K. Zworykin convinced Sarnoff that
1280-418: A high revolution rate, is necessary to enable the encoding of video signals with bandwidth of a few megahertz, compared to a maximum of 20 kilohertz for an audio-only signal—a difference of two orders of magnitude. Also, while the undulations in the bottom of the groove may be likened to pits, it is important to note that the spacing of vertical wave crests and troughs in a CED groove is continuously variable, as
1408-859: A high-powered Alexanderson alternator , built by General Electric (GE), at the American Marconi transmitter site in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It proved to be superior for transatlantic transmissions to the Spark-gap transmitters that had been traditionally used by the Marconi companies. Marconi officials were so impressed by the capabilities of the Alexanderson alternators that they began making preparations to adopt them as their standard transmitters for international communication. A tentative plan made with General Electric proposed that over
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#17327945413981536-522: A joint new company, RCA initially had little true interest in the phonograph record business. The management of RCA was interested essentially in Victor's superior sales capabilities through the record company's large network of authorized distributors and dealers, as well as the extensive, efficient manufacturing facilities in Camden, New Jersey . Immediately following the purchase of Victor, RCA began planning
1664-471: A limited market of amateur radio enthusiasts. By 1922, the rise of broadcasting had dramatically increased the demand for radio equipment by the general public, and this development was reflected in the title of RCA's June 1, 1922, catalog, "Radio Enters the Home". RCA began selling receivers under the "Radiola" name, marketing equipment produced by GE and Westinghouse under the production agreement that allocated
1792-534: A major producer of vacuum tubes, which were branded Radiotron in the United States. Especially after the rise of broadcasting, they were a major profit source for the company. RCA's strong patent position meant that the company effectively set the selling prices for vacuum tubes in the U.S., which were significantly higher than in Europe, where Lee de Forest had allowed a key patent issued to him to lapse. RCA
1920-406: A major proponent of the 8-track tape cartridge , which it launched in 1965. Initially, the 8-track made a huge and profitable impact on consumers of recorded music. Sales of the 8-track tape format began to decline during the late 1970s when consumers increasingly favored the 4-track compact cassette tape format developed by Philips . RCA was one of a number of companies in the 1960s that entered
2048-452: A pause feature, though it blanked the screen rather than displaying a still image; many players featured a "page mode", during which the current block of four successive frames would be repeatedly displayed. Since CEDs were a disc-based system, they did not require rewinding. Early discs were available only in monophonic sound, but many later discs were issued in stereo sound. (Mono CED discs were packaged in white protective caddies, while
2176-475: A short distance from the match site, and operating under the call letters WJY . For the broadcast White and Sarnoff telephoned commentary from ringside, which was typed up and then read over the air by J. Owen Smith. The demonstration was a technical success, with a claimed audience of 300,000 listeners throughout the northeast. RCA quickly moved to expand its broadcasting activities. In the fall of 1921, it set up its first full-time broadcasting station, WDY , at
2304-547: A similar agreement with China in 1932. RCA claimed this was breach of contract on the grounds that its 1928 agreement had given it exclusive rights. The dispute went to arbitration, and in 1935 a decision, issued in Radio Corporation of America v China , concluded the Mackay concession was valid, because the earlier RCA concession had not granted exclusive rights. The introduction of organized radio broadcasting in
2432-776: A simple receiver using a curtain rod as an antenna, matching, at a small fraction of the cost, the performance of the massive alternator transmitters. In 1926, Harold H. Beverage further reported that a shortwave signal, transmitted on a 15-meter wavelength (approximately 20 MHz), was received in South America more readily during the daytime than the 200-kilowatt alternator transmissions. The Alexanderson alternators, control of which had led to RCA's formation, were now considered obsolete, and international radio communication would be primarily conducted using vacuum tube transmitters operating on shortwave bands. RCA would continue to operate international telecommunications services for
2560-449: A spiral groove on both sides. The groove is 657 nm wide and has a length of up to 19 km (12 mi). The discs rotate at a constant angular speed during playback (450 rpm for NTSC , 375 rpm for PAL ) and each rotation contains eight interlaced fields, or four full frames of video. These appear as spokes on the disc surface, with the gap between each field clearly visible under certain light. This meant that freeze frame
2688-612: A station's normal transmission frequency – Westinghouse's Frank Conrad unexpectedly found that in some cases the harmonics could be heard farther than the primary signal, something previously thought impossible, as high-frequency shortwave signals, which had poor groundwave coverage, were thought to have a very limited transmission range. In 1924, Conrad demonstrated to Sarnoff that a low-powered shortwave station in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania could be readily received in London by
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#17327945413982816-447: A transmission rate of a billion or more bits of information a second ... Eventually, a global communications network handling voice, data and facsimile will instantly link man to machine—or machine to machine—by land, air, underwater, and space circuits. [The computer] will affect man's ways of thinking, his means of education, his relationship to his physical and social environment, and it will alter his ways of living. ... [Before
2944-401: A two-year period the Marconi companies would purchase most of GE's alternator production. However, the U.S. Navy objected to the plan, fearing British domination in international radio communications and the national security concerns this raised. The Navy, claiming support from U.S. President Woodrow Wilson , looked for an alternative that would result in an "all-American" company taking over
3072-402: A vinyl substrate, nickel conductive layer, glow-discharge insulating layer and silicone lubricant top layer. Failure to fully solve the stylus/disc wear and manufacturing complexity forced RCA to seek simpler construction of the disc. The final disc was crafted using PVC blended with carbon to make the disc conductive. To preserve stylus and groove life, a thin layer of silicone was applied to
3200-500: Is an analog video disc playback system developed by Radio Corporation of America (RCA), in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using a special stylus and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records. First conceived in 1964, the CED system was widely seen as a technological success which was able to increase the density of a long-playing record by two orders of magnitude . Despite this achievement,
3328-645: Is similar to that of CED. RCA began developing the videodisc system in 1964, in an attempt to produce a phonograph-like method of reproducing video under the name 'Discpix'. Research and development was slow in the early years, as the RCA CED team originally consisted of only four men, but by 1972, the CED team had produced a disc capable of holding ten minutes of color video (a portion of the Get Smart episode "A Tale of Two Tails", re-titled "Lum Fong"). The first CED prototype discs were multi-layered, consisting of
3456-897: The Rockefeller Center complex, 30 Rockefeller Plaza , which in 1933 became known as the RCA Building (renamed the GE Building in 1988 and currently known as the Comcast Building after Comcast acquired NBC). This lease was critical for enabling the massive project to proceed as a commercially viable venture—David Rockefeller cited RCA's action as being responsible for "the salvation of the project". RCA's primary business objectives at its founding were to provide equipment and services for seagoing vessels, and "worldwide wireless" communication in competition with existing international undersea telegraph cables. To provide
3584-427: The capacitance between the stylus and the conductive carbon-loaded PVC disc. This varying capacitance in turn alters the frequency of a resonant circuit , producing an FM electrical signal, which is then decoded into video and audio signals by the player's electronics. The capacitive stylus pickup system which gives the CED its name can be contrasted with the technology of the conventional phonograph . Whereas
3712-509: The cathode ray-tube (CRT) picture tube itself. The rapid rise of radio broadcasting during the early 1920s, which provided unlimited free entertainment in the home, had a detrimental effect on the American phonograph record industry. The Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey , was then the world's largest manufacturer of records and phonographs , including its popular showcase "Victrola" line. In January 1929, RCA purchased
3840-486: The remote control . Later models abandoned this design, favoring A/V inputs which were accessible by pressing the channel up/down buttons, or A/V inputs which were controlled by their own button. After Thomson SA acquired the GE and RCA brand names, they began designing a new chassis for RCA and GE televisions, which debuted in 1993 models. Instead of using a tuner module soldered to the circuit board, Thomson decided to integrate
3968-504: The 1970s, RCA's seemingly impregnable stature as a leader in technology, innovation and home entertainment began to weaken as the company attempted to expand beyond its main focus of the development and marketing of consumer electronics and communications into a diversified multinational conglomerate. Additionally, RCA began to face increasing domestic competition from international electronics firms such as Sony , Philips , Matsushita and Mitsubishi . RCA suffered enormous financial losses in
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4096-545: The American Marconi assets. In April 1919, two naval officers, Admiral H. G. Bullard and Commander S. C. Hooper , met with GE president, Owen D. Young and requested a suspension of the pending alternator sales to the Marconi companies. This would leave General Electric without a buyer for its transmitters, so the officers proposed that GE purchase American Marconi, and use the assets to form its own radio communications subsidiary. Young consented to this proposal, which, effective November 20, 1919, transformed American Marconi into
4224-419: The CED is an analog medium . Usually, the term "pits", when used in the context of information media, refers to features with sharply defined edges and discrete lengths and depths, such as the pits on digital optical media such as CDs and DVDs . In order to maintain an extremely light tracking force, the stylus arm is surrounded by coils, which sense deflection, and a circuit in the player responds to
4352-415: The CED stylus enables the use of a fine groove pitch (i.e. fine spacing of adjacent revolutions of the spiral), necessary to provide a long playing time at the required high rotational speed, while also limiting the rate of disc and stylus wear. The disc is stored inside a caddy, from which the player extracts it when it is loaded. The disc itself is surrounded by a "spine", a plastic ring (actually square on
4480-449: The CED system fell victim to poor planning, various conflicts with RCA management, and several technical difficulties that slowed development and stalled production of the system for 17 years—until 1981, by which time it had already been made obsolete by laser videodisc ( DiscoVision , later called LaserVision and LaserDisc ) as well as Betamax and VHS video cassette formats. Sales for the system were nowhere near projected estimates. In
4608-500: The CED system in March 1981, 50 titles were initially available; along with RCA (which included the company's partnership with Columbia Pictures plus Paramount and Disney releases), CBS Video Enterprises (later CBS/FOX Video ) produced the first 50 titles. Eventually, Disney , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Paramount Pictures , MCA , Vestron Video , and other labels began to produce CED discs under their own home video labels, and did so until
4736-590: The FCC adopted a standard for color television that had been promoted by CBS, but the effort soon failed, primarily because the color broadcasts could not be received by existing black-and-white sets. As the result of a major research push, RCA engineers developed a method of "compatible" color transmissions that, through the use of interlacing, simultaneously broadcast color and black-and-white images, which could be picked up by both color and existing black-and-white sets. In 1953, RCA's all-electronic color television technology
4864-425: The FCC stepped in to limit its broadcasts. Following the adoption of National Television System Committee (NTSC) recommended standards, the FCC authorized the start of commercial television broadcasts on July 1, 1941. The entry of the United States into World War II a few months later greatly slowed its deployment, but RCA resumed selling television receivers almost immediately after the war ended in 1945. In 1950,
4992-655: The GE/Westinghouse production quotas, and often had difficulty keeping up with industry trends. However, the company made a key advance in early 1924 when it began selling the first superheterodyne receivers, whose high level of performance increased the brand's reputation and popularity. RCA was the exclusive manufacturer of superheterodyne radio sets until 1930. All RCA receivers were battery powered until late 1927 when plug-in AC sets were introduced, providing another boost in sales. RCA inherited American Marconi's status as
5120-481: The Jedi had to be released on two CED discs. All three of these examples were typically available on one VHS/Betamax cassette. RCA had projected that by 1985, CED players would be in nearly 50% of American homes, but the sales of players continued to drop. RCA cut the prices of CED players and offered incentives to consumers such as rebates and free discs, but sales only slightly improved. RCA management realized that
5248-536: The NBC name and remained under RCA ownership until 1986. For two decades the NBC radio network's roster of stars provided ratings consistently surpassing those of its main competitor, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). But in 1948, as the transition from radio to television was beginning, NBC's leadership came under attack due to what became known as the "Paley raids", named after the president of CBS, William S. Paley . After World War II
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5376-493: The Radio Corporation of America. The decision to form the new company was promoted as a patriotic gesture. The corporate officers were required to be citizens of the United States, with a majority of the company stock to be held by U.S. citizens. Upon its founding, RCA was the largest radio communications firm in the United States. Most of the former American Marconi staff continued to work for RCA. Owen Young became
5504-656: The Roselle Park, New Jersey company plant. By 1923, RCA was operating three stations—WJZ (now WABC ) and WJY in New York City, and WRC (now WTEM ) in Washington, D.C. A restriction imposed by AT&T's interpretation of the patent cross-licensing agreements required that the RCA stations remain commercial free, and they were financed by profits from radio equipment sales. Beginning in 1922, AT&T became heavily involved in radio broadcasting, and soon became
5632-490: The U.S. entered the war in December 1941. During World War II, RCA was involved in radar and radio development in support of the war effort, and ranked 43rd among United States corporations in the value of wartime military production contracts. One such contract was to outfit the battleship USS Texas with a 400-megahertz pulse radar set, using technology developed by RCA acoustics scientist, Irving Wolff . During and after
5760-651: The United States entered World War II, the cornerstone was laid for a research and development facility in Princeton, New Jersey called RCA Laboratories. Led for many years by Elmer Engstrom , it was used to develop many innovations, including color television , the electron microscope , CMOS -based technology, heterojunction physics, optoelectronic emitting devices , liquid crystal displays (LCDs), videocassette recorders , direct broadcast television, direct broadcast satellite systems and high-definition television . RCA plants switched to war production shortly after
5888-480: The United States; JVC retained the 'Victor' and "His Master's Voice" trademarks for use in Japan only. In 1955, RCA sold its Estate brand of large appliance operations to Whirlpool Corporation . As part of this transaction, Whirlpool was given the right to market "RCA Whirlpool" appliances through the mid-1960s. RCA manufactured equipment for repairing radios, such as oscilloscopes. RCA Graphic Systems Division (GSD)
6016-767: The Victor Talking Machine Company; this acquisition became known as the RCA Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America, and included ownership of Victor's Japanese subsidiary, the Victor Company of Japan (JVC), formed in 1927 and controlling interest in The Gramophone Company Ltd. (later EMI Records ) in England. RCA's acquisition of the Victor company included the western hemisphere rights to
6144-477: The Videodiscs in a composite analog signal which is encoded into vertical undulations in the bottom of the groove, somewhat like pits. These undulations have a shorter wavelength than the length of the stylus tip in the groove, and the stylus rides over them; the varying distance between the stylus tip and the conductive surface due to the depth of the undulations in the groove under the stylus directly controls
6272-533: The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, Limited, was founded in London to promote the radio (then known as "wireless telegraphy") inventions of Guglielmo Marconi . As part of worldwide expansion, in 1899 American Marconi was organized as a subsidiary company, holding the rights to use the Marconi patents in the United States and Cuba. In 1912 it took over the assets of the bankrupt United Wireless Telegraph Company , and from that point forward it became
6400-619: The acting president of the National Amateur Wireless Association (NAWA), an organization originally formed by American Marconi which had been inherited by RCA. White agreed to recruit the NAWA membership for volunteers to provide assistance at the listening sites, and also enlisted David Sarnoff for financial and technical support. RCA was authorized to set up a temporary longwave radio station, located in Hoboken
6528-437: The area of vacuum tube technology and GE needed access to additional patents before its new subsidiary could be fully competitive. During this time American Marconi had been steadily falling behind others in the industry. The two companies entered into negotiations which resulted in a series of mutually beneficial cross-licensing agreements between themselves and various other companies in the industry. On July 1, 1920, an agreement
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#17327945413986656-549: The attic or basement. RCA Victor began selling the first all-electric Victrola in 1930 and in 1931 the company attempted to revitalize record sales with the introduction of 33 1 ⁄ 3 revolutions-per-minute (rpm) long play records, which were a commercial failure during the Great Depression, partly because the Victrolas with two speed turntables required to play them were exorbitantly expensive, and also because
6784-399: The audio performance of the new records was generally poor; the new format used the same groove size as existing 78 rpm records, and it would require the smaller-radius stylus of the later microgroove systems to achieve acceptable slower-speed performance. Additionally, the new long-play records were pressed in a pliable, vinyl-based material called "Victrolac" which wore out rapidly under
6912-471: The board. The younger Sarnoff sought to modernize RCA's image with the introduction in late 1968 of what was then a futuristic-looking new logo (the letters 'RCA' in block, modernized form), replacing the original lightning bolt logo, and the virtual retirement of both the Victor and Nipper/"His Master's Voice" trademarks. The RCA Victor Division was renamed RCA Records; the 'Victor' and 'Victrola' trademarks were no longer used on RCA consumer electronics. 'Victor'
7040-603: The caddies for stereo discs were blue.) Other discs could be switched between two separate mono audio tracks, providing features such as bilingual audio capability. Like the LaserDisc and DVD, some CEDs feature random access, allowing users to quickly move to certain parts of the movie. Each side of a CED disc could be split into up to 63 "chapters", or bands. Two late RCA players (the SJT400 and SKT400) could access these bands in any given order. Unlike its laser-based counterparts,
7168-429: The chairman of the board of the new company. Former American Marconi vice president and general manager E. J. Nally become RCA's first president. Nally was succeeded by Major General James G. Harbord , who served from 1922 until January 3, 1930, when Harbord replaced Owen Young as chairman of the board. David Sarnoff, who was RCA's founding general manager, became its third president on the same day. RCA worked closely with
7296-435: The chapters in a CED are based on minutes of the film, not scenes. Novelty discs and CED-based games were produced whereby accessing the chapters in a specified order would string together a different story each time. However, only a few were produced before the halt of CED player manufacturing, and CEDs are much more prone to wear and tear compared to LaserDisc. In comparison with LaserDisc technology, CEDs suffered from
7424-436: The company made a wide-ranging series of acquisitions, including Hertz (rental cars), Banquet (frozen foods and TV dinners ), Coronet (carpeting), Random House (publishing) and Gibson (greeting cards). However, the company was slipping into financial disarray, with wags calling it "Rugs Chickens & Automobiles" (RCA), to poke fun at its new direction. CED videodisc The Capacitance Electronic Disc ( CED )
7552-419: The contemporaneous LaserDisc format. LaserDiscs are read optically with a laser beam, whereas CED discs are read physically with a stylus (similar to a conventional phonograph record ). The two systems are mutually incompatible. RCA used the brand name " SelectaVision " for the CED system, a name also used for some early RCA brand VCRs , and other experimental projects at RCA. The Video High Density system
7680-675: The costs of providing programming threatened to exceed the funds available from equipment profits. The problem was resolved in 1926 when AT&T unexpectedly decided to exit the radio broadcasting field. RCA purchased, for $ 1,000,000, AT&Ts two radio stations, WEAF and WCAP in Washington, D.C., as well as its network operations. These assets formed the basis for the creation of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), with ownership divided between RCA (50%), General Electric (30%), and Westinghouse (20%) until 1930, when RCA assumed 100% ownership. This purchase also included
7808-435: The course of almost all films as only sixty minutes of video could be stored per side (75 mins on UK PAL discs due to the slower rotation speed); if a feature ran over two hours, it would be necessary to spread the feature over two discs. In some cases, if a movie's theatrical running time was only slightly longer than two hours, studios would often trim short scenes throughout the movie and/or employ time compression (speeding
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#17327945413987936-524: The cross-licensing agreements between RCA, GE, and Westinghouse had in effect created illegal monopolies, the U.S. Department of Justice brought antitrust charges against the three companies in May 1930. After much negotiation, in 1932 the Justice Department accepted a consent agreement that removed the restrictions established by the cross-licensing agreements, and also provided that RCA would become
8064-431: The disc as a lubricant. CED videodiscs were originally conceived as being housed in jackets and handled by hand similar to LP records, but during testing it was shown that exposure to dust caused skipped grooves. If dust was allowed to settle on the discs, the dust would absorb moisture from the air and cement the dust particle to the disc surface, causing the stylus to jump back in a locked groove situation. Thus, an idea
8192-460: The disc as it is extracted. Once the caddy has been withdrawn by the person, the player loads the disc onto the turntable, either manually with all SFT and most SGT prefix RCA players or automatically with the RCA SGT-250 and all other models and brands of players. When playback has been started, the player spins the disc up to speed while moving the pickup arm over the disc surface and lowering
8320-425: The disc. However, playing the disc several times would generally solve this problem. Unlike VHS tapes, CEDs (along with LaserDisc) required a disc flip (however, some LaserDisc players were able to read both sides of the disc without physically flipping the disc, achieved by moving the laser from one side of the disc to the other, but this still resulted in a pause of playback during the change) at some point during
8448-603: The discontinuation of players. Less than a year after this announcement, the sale of discs began to decline, prompting RCA to abandon videodisc production in 1986, after only two years. The last titles released were The Jewel of the Nile by CBS/Fox Video , and Memories of VideoDisc , a commemorative CED given to many RCA employees involved with the CED project, both in 1986. CEDs are conductive vinyl platters that are 30.0 cm (11.8 in) in diameter. To avoid metric names they are usually called "12 inch discs". A CED has
8576-478: The dominant radio communications company in the United States. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the federal government took control of most civilian radio stations to use them for the war effort. Although the government planned to restore civilian ownership of the radio stations once the war ended, many United States Navy officials hoped to retain a monopoly on radio communication even after
8704-450: The early 1920s resulted in a dramatic reorientation and expansion of RCA's business activities. The development of vacuum tube radio transmitters made audio transmissions practical, in contrast with the earlier transmitters which were limited to sending the dits-and-dahs of Morse code . Since at least 1916, when he was still at American Marconi, David Sarnoff had proposed establishing broadcasting stations, but his memos to management promoting
8832-541: The end of disc manufacturing in 1986. Capacitance Electronic Disc's competitors, Philips/Magnavox and Pioneer, instead manufactured optical discs, read with lasers. On April 4, 1984, after sales of only 550,000 players, RCA announced the discontinuation of CED videodisc players. RCA's losses since the product's introduction were eventually estimated at $ 650 million. The huge financial losses partially resulted in General Electric 's acquisition of RCA in 1986, and
8960-418: The end of that same year, David Sarnoff, after being incapacitated by a long-term illness, was removed as the company's chairman of the board. He died in December 1971. RCA's exit from the mainframe computer market in 1971 marked a milestone in its transition from electronics and technology toward Robert Sarnoff's goal to diversify RCA as a multinational business conglomerate . During the late 1960s and 1970s,
9088-701: The end of this century, these forces] will coalesce into what unquestionably will become the greatest adventure of the human mind." RCA marketed a Spectra 70 computer line that was hardware, but not software, compatible with IBM's System/360 series. It also produced the RCA Series, which competed against the IBM System/370 . This technology was leased to the English Electric company, which used it for their System 4 series, which were essentially RCA Spectra 70 clones. RCA's TSOS operating system
9216-620: The extra run time out of the film) in order to avoid the expense of issuing two discs. This problem was not unique to CEDs: LaserDiscs presented the same difficulty, and some longer features, such as The Ten Commandments (1956), still required more than one tape or disc in the VHS, Beta, and LaserDisc formats. There were no two-disc UK PAL releases. Less significant disadvantages include lack of support for freeze-frame during pause, since CEDs scanned four frames in one rotation versus one frame per rotation on CAV LaserDisc, while computer technology
9344-409: The fact that they were a phonograph-style contact medium: RCA estimated that the number of times a CED videodisc could be played back, under ideal conditions, was 500. By comparison, a clean, laser rot -free LaserDisc could, in theory, be played an unlimited number of times (although repeated or careless handling could still result in damage). Since the CED system used a stylus to read the discs, it
9472-467: The federal government and felt it deserved to maintain its predominant role in U.S. radio communications. At the company's recommendation, President Wilson appointed Rear Admiral Bullard "to attend the stockholders' and director's meetings... in order that he may present and discuss informally the Government's views and interests". The radio industry had been making technical advances, particularly in
9600-454: The first of five RCA plants to produce Madame X vacuum tubes, which included a proximity fuse used to electronically detonate its payload when it was in range of its target, as opposed to relying on a direct hit. James V. Forrestal, former secretary of the Navy said, "The proximity fuse had helped blaze the trail to Japan. Without the protection this ingenious device has given the surface ships of
9728-425: The fleet, our westward push could not have been so swift and the cost in men and ships would have been immeasurably greater." Greatly miniaturized Nuvistor tubes were a last major vacuum tube innovation, along with General Electric's Compactron , and were meant to compete with the newly introduced transistor. By 1975, RCA had completely switched from tubes to solid-state devices in their television sets, except for
9856-550: The heavy tonearms then in use. In 1934, following the debacle of its long-play record, RCA Victor introduced the Duo Jr., an inexpensive, small, basic electric turntable designed to be plugged into radio sets. The Duo Jr. was sold at cost, but was practically given away with the purchase of a certain number of Victor records. The Duo Jr.'s rock-bottom price helped to overcome the national apathy to phonographs, and record sales gradually began to recover. Around 1935, RCA began marketing
9984-495: The high-end Dimensia and Colortrak 2000 series. RCA discontinued the Colortrak name in the late 1990s, with newer models badged as the Entertainment Series. During the early 1980s, RCA responded to increased demand for component televisions with monitor capabilities by adding composite and S-video inputs to the Colortrak lineup. These inputs allowed owners to easily connect a stereo audio/video source, like
10112-405: The iconic Nipper /" His Master's Voice " trademark. RCA Victor popularized combined radio receiver-phonographs, and also created RCA Photophone , a movie sound-on-film system that competed with William Fox 's sound-on-film Movietone and Warner Bros. ' sound-on-disc Vitaphone . Although early announcements of the RCA and Victor merger stressed that the two firms were linking equally to form
10240-745: The idea for sales of a "Radio Music Box" had not been followed up at the time. Around 1920, a small number of broadcasting stations began operating, and soon interest in the innovation was spreading nationwide. In the summer of 1921, a Madison Square Garden employee, Julius Hopp, devised a plan to raise charitable funds by broadcasting, from ringside, the July 2, 1921 Dempsey-Carpentier heavyweight championship fight to be held in Jersey City, New Jersey. Hopp recruited theaters and halls as listening locations that would charge admission fees to be used as charitable donations. He also contacted RCA's J. Andrew White,
10368-653: The industry, in 1941 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) promulgated a rule designed to force NBC to divest one of them. This order was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, and on October 12, 1943, the NBC-Blue network was sold to candy magnate Edward J. Noble for $ 8,000,000, and renamed "The Blue Network, Inc." In 1946 the name was changed to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The "Red" network retained
10496-419: The international service, the company soon undertook a massive project to build a "Radio Central" communications hub at Rocky Point, Long Island , New York, designed to achieve "the realization of the vision of communication engineers to transmit messages to all points of the world from a single centrally located source". Construction began in July 1920, and the site was dedicated on November 5, 1921, after two of
10624-404: The laser lens for fine tracking, both guided by an optical sensing device, which is the analogue of CED stylus-deflection sensing coils. For the CED player, this tracking arrangement has the additional benefit that the stylus drag angle remains uniformly tangent to the groove, unlike the case for a phonograph tonearm , in which the stylus drag angle and consequently the stylus side force varies with
10752-408: The mainframe computer field to challenge the market leader International Business Machines (IBM). Although at this time computers were almost universally used for routine data processing and scientific research, in 1964 Sarnoff, who prided himself as a visionary, predicted that "The computer will become the hub of a vast network of remote data stations and information banks feeding into the machine at
10880-519: The mainframe computer industry and other failed projects including the CED videodisc system. Although the company was rebounding by the mid-1980s, RCA never regained its former eminence and was reacquired by General Electric in 1986. This was during the Jack Welch era of GE and Welch began selling off or liquidating most of RCA's assets, retaining only NBC and government services. Today, RCA exists as
11008-674: The majority of its stock was in foreign hands, and the British already largely controlled the international undersea telegraph cables. This concern was increased by the announcement in late 1918 of the formation of the Pan-American Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Company, a joint venture between American Marconi and the Federal Telegraph Company , with plans to set up service between the United States and South America. The Navy had installed
11136-528: The manufacture of radio sets and components on Victor's Camden assembly lines, while decreasing the production of Victrolas and records. The entire phonograph record industry in America nearly foundered after the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression . During the nadir of the record business in the early 1930s, the manufacture of phonographs and records all but ceased; extant older phonographs were now obsolete and many had been relegated to
11264-449: The mid 1970s—with their longer storage capacity and recording capabilities—posed a major threat to the system. However, development of CED continued. When the forthcoming system was formally announced in late 1979, RCA had projected annual sales of between five and six million players and 200 to 500 million videodiscs. The company had expected to sell 200,000 players by the end of 1981, but only about half that number had been sold, and there
11392-538: The modernistic RCA Victor M Special, a polished aluminum portable record player designed by John Vassos that has become an icon of 1930s American industrial design. In 1949, RCA Victor released the first 45 rpm "single" records, as a response to Columbia Records successful introduction of its microgroove 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm " LP " format in 1948. As RCA Victor adopted Columbia's 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm LP records in 1950, Columbia then adopted RCA Victor's 45 rpm records. RCA also made investments in
11520-586: The movie industry, but they performed poorly. In April 1928, RCA Photophone, Inc., was organized by a group of companies including RCA to develop sound-movie technology. In the fall of 1927, RCA had purchased stock in Film Booking Office (FBO), and on October 25, 1928, with the help of Joseph P. Kennedy , the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation (RKO) studio was formed by merging FBO with Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation (KAO),
11648-519: The new Empire State Building transmitter on top of the structure. Around this time, RCA began selling its first television set models, including the TRK-5 and TRK-9, in various New York stores. However, the FCC had not approved the start of commercial television operations, because technical standards had not yet been finalized. Concerned that RCA's broadcasts were an attempt to flood the market with sets that would force it to adopt RCA's current technology,
11776-464: The new industry's most important participant. From the beginning, AT&T's policy was to finance stations by commercial sponsorship of the programs. The company also created the first radio network, centered on its New York City station WEAF (now WFAN ), using its long-distance telephone lines to interconnect stations. This allowed them to economize by having multiple stations carry the same program. RCA and its partners soon faced an economic crisis, as
11904-517: The nickel-like compound used for manufacturing the discs was not sturdy enough. Signal degradation was also a problem, as handling the discs was causing them to deteriorate more rapidly than expected, baffling engineers. 60 minutes per side rendered it impossible for most movies over 120 minutes to be released on one CED disc. Many popular films such as some of the James Bond series, Mary Poppins , Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Return of
12032-419: The outside edge) with a thick, straight rim-like edge, which extends outside of, and latches into, the caddy. When a person inserts a caddy containing a disc into the player, the player captures the spine, and both the disc and the spine are left in the player as the person pulls the caddy out. The inner edges of the opening of the caddy have felt strips designed to catch any dust or other debris that could be on
12160-423: The performers, while Sarnoff professed his indifference to the defections, stating at an annual meeting that "Leadership built over the years on a foundation of solid service cannot be snatched overnight by buying a few high-priced comedians. Leadership is not a laughing matter." RCA acted as the sales agent for a small line of Westinghouse and GE branded receivers and parts used by home constructors, originally for
12288-432: The phonograph stylus physically vibrates with the variations in the record groove, and those vibrations are converted by a mechanical transducer (the phono pickup) to an electrical signal, the CED stylus normally does not vibrate and moves only to track the CED groove (and the disc surface—out-of-plane), while the signal from the stylus is natively obtained as an electrical signal. This more sophisticated system, combined with
12416-497: The proposed twelve antenna spokes had been completed, and two of the 200-kilowatt alternators installed. The debut transmissions received replies from stations in 17 countries. Although the initial installation would remain in operation, the additional antenna spokes and alternator installations would not be completed, due to a major discovery about radio signal propagation. While investigating transmitter "harmonics" – unwanted additional radio signals produced at higher frequencies than
12544-525: The remainder of its existence, through its subsidiary RCA Communications, Inc., and later the RCA Global Communications Company. In 1975, the company formed RCA American Communications , which operated its Satcom series of geostationary communications satellites . International shortwave links were in turn largely supplanted by communications satellites, especially for distributing network radio and television programming. At
12672-665: The right to begin commercial operations. NBC formed two radio networks that eventually expanded nationwide: the NBC-Red Network , with flagship station WEAF, and NBC-Blue , centered on WJZ. Although NBC was originally promoted as expecting to just break even economically, it soon became extremely profitable, which would be an important factor in helping RCA survive the economic pressures of the Great Depression that began in late 1929. Concerned that NBC's control of two national radio networks gave it too much power over
12800-480: The signals from these coils by moving the stylus head carriage in steps as the groove pulls the stylus across the disc. Other coils are used to deflect the stylus, to finely adjust tracking. This system is very similar to—yet predates—the one used in Compact Disc players to follow the spiral optical track, where typically a servo motor moves the optical pickup in steps for coarse tracking and a set of coils shifts
12928-563: The spring of 1984, RCA announced it was discontinuing player production, but continued the production of videodiscs until 1986, losing an estimated $ 650 million in the process. RCA had initially intended to release the SKT425 CED player with their high end Dimensia system in late 1984, but cancelled CED player production prior to the Dimensia system's release. The format was commonly known as " videodisc ", leading to much confusion with
13056-538: The stylus onto the beginning of the disc. When Stop is pressed, the stylus is lifted from the disc and returned to its parking location, and the disc and spine are lifted up again to align with the caddy slot. When ready, the slot is unlocked, and the caddy can be inserted and withdrawn by a person, now with the disc back inside. CED players, from an early point in their life, appealed to a lower-income market more than VHS , Betamax , and LaserDisc . The video quality (approximately 3 MHz of luma bandwidth for CED )
13184-478: The system would never be profitable and on April 4, 1984, announced the discontinuation of production of CED players. Remaining stocks of players were sold by dealers and liquidation retailers for as little as $ 20 each. Unexpectedly, demand for the videodiscs themselves suddenly became high immediately after the announcement; RCA alerted dealers and customers that videodiscs would continue to be manufactured and new titles released for at least another three years after
13312-434: The tax rate for annual incomes above $ 70,000 was 77%, while capital gains were taxed at 25%. Paley worked out an accounting technique whereby individual performers could set up corporations that allowed their earnings to be taxed at the significantly lower rate. Instead of NBC responding with a similar package, Sarnoff decided that this accounting method was legally and ethically wrong. NBC's performers did not agree, and most of
13440-508: The time RCA was founded in 1919, all radio and telegraphic communication between China and the US, including official messages, were sent through either German radio or British cable links. The U.S. Navy lobbied RCA to seek a concession for a radio link to China, however the company was reluctant because its other concessions were already operating at a loss. This link began operation in 1928. The Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company of California signed
13568-450: The tonearm angle, which in turn depends on the radial position on the record of the stylus. Whereas for a phonograph, where the stylus has a pinpoint tip, linear tracking is merely ideal to reduce wear of records and styli and to maximize tracking stability, for a CED player linear tracking is a necessity for the keel-shaped stylus, which must always stay tangent to the groove. Furthermore, the achievement of an extremely light tracking force on
13696-428: The top stars, including Amos and Andy , Jack Benny , Red Skelton , Edgar Bergen , Burns and Allen , Ed Wynn , Fred Waring , Al Jolson , Groucho Marx and Frank Sinatra moved from NBC to CBS. As a result, CBS boasted of having sixteen of the twenty top-rated programs in 1949. The consequences would carry over to television, where CBS maintained its newfound dominance for decades. Paley had personally worked to woo
13824-406: The tuner into the board itself. Due to the heating and cooling cycles of the circuit board and tuner from normal use, the solder connections between the tuner and the board would fail, causing an intermittent picture or no signal from the coaxial connector. This is easily repairable by desoldering the tuner shield and re-flowing new solder to each connection inside. RCA The RCA Corporation
13952-479: The upper dozen or so top-rated programs" and "The popular programs, to put the matter bluntly, have very little appeal for him." RCA professional video cameras and studio gear, particularly of the TK-40/41 series, became standard equipment at many American television network affiliates, as RCA CT-100 ("RCA Merrill" to dealers) television sets introduced color television to the public. In 1941, shortly before
14080-519: The war, RCA set up several new divisions for defense, space exploration and other activities. The RCA Service Corporation provided large numbers of staff for the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line . RCA units won five Army–Navy "E" Awards for Excellence in production. Due to the hostilities between Japan and the United States during World War II , the Victor Company of Japan became an independent company after seceding from RCA Victor in
14208-470: The war. Contrary to instructions it had received, the Navy began purchasing large numbers of radio stations. When the war ended, Congress rejected the Navy's efforts to have peacetime control of the radio industry and instructed that the Navy return the stations it had taken control of to the original owners. Due to national security considerations, the Navy was particularly concerned about returning high-powered international stations to American Marconi, since
14336-528: Was Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown . Fifteen months later, RCA released the SGT200 and SGT250 players, both with stereo sound while the SGT-250 was also the first CED player model to include a wireless remote control . Models with random access were introduced in 1983. Several problems doomed the RCA CED videodisc system long before it was even announced. The introduction of VCRs and home videotape in
14464-515: Was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America . It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse , AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Company . In 1932, RCA became an independent company after the partners were required to divest their ownership as part of the settlement of a government antitrust suit. An innovative and progressive company, RCA
14592-403: Was adopted as the standard for the United States. At that time, Sarnoff predicted annual color television sales would reach 1.78 million in 1956, but the receivers were expensive and difficult to adjust, and there was initially a lack of color programming, so sales lagged badly and the actual 1956 total would only be 120,000. RCA's ownership of NBC proved to be a major benefit, as that network
14720-406: Was also a pioneer in the introduction and development of television, both black and white and especially color television . Throughout most of the company's existence, RCA was closely identified with the leadership of David Sarnoff . He became general manager at the company's founding, served as president from 1930 to 1965, and remained active as chairman of the board until the end of 1969. During
14848-682: Was an early supplier of electronics designed for the printing and publishing industries. It contracted with German company Rudolf Hell to market adaptations of the Digiset photocomposition system as the Videocomp, and a Laser Color Scanner. The Videocomp was supported by a Spectra computer that ran the Page-1 and, later the Page-II and FileComp composition systems. RCA later sold the Videocomp rights to Information International Inc. RCA Victor became
14976-514: Was comparable to or better than a VHS-SP or Betamax-II video, but sub-par compared to LaserDisc (about 5 MHz of luma bandwidth). CED players were intended to be "low-cost" because they cost around half as much to manufacture as a VCR and had fewer precision parts. The discs themselves could be inexpensively duplicated, stamped out on slightly-modified audio LP record presses. Like VCRs, CED videodisc players had features like rapid forward/reverse and visual search forward/reverse. They also had
15104-407: Was developed in which the disc would be stored and handled in a plastic caddy from which the CED would be extracted by the player so that exposure to dust would be minimized. After 17 years of research and development, the first CED player (model SFT100W) went on sale on March 22, 1981. A catalog of approximately 50 videodisc titles was released at the same time. The first title to be manufactured
15232-419: Was impossible on players without an expensive electronic frame store facility. A keel-shaped stylus with a titanium electrode layer rides in the groove with extremely light tracking force (65 mg) and an electronic circuit is formed through the disc and stylus. Like an audio turntable, the stylus reads the disc, starting at the outer edge and going towards the center. The video and audio signals are stored on
15360-497: Was instructed to promote its color program offerings; even so, it was not until 1968 that color television sales in the United States surpassed those of black-and-white sets. While lauding the technical prowess of his RCA engineers who had developed color television, David Sarnoff, in marked contrast to William Paley, president of CBS, did not disguise his dislike for popular television programs. His authorized biography even boasted that "no one has yet caught him in communion with one of
15488-410: Was little improvement in sales throughout 1982 and 1983. The extremely long period of development—caused in part by political turmoil and a great deal of turnover in the high management of RCA—also contributed to the demise of the CED system. RCA had originally slated 1977 as the release date for the videodisc system; at that point, discs were not able to hold more than 30 minutes of video per side and
15616-842: Was made with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), which purchased 500,000 shares of RCA, although it would divest these shares in early 1923. The United Fruit Company held a small portfolio of radio patents and signed two agreements in 1921. GE's traditional electric company rival, the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Corporation , had also purchased rights to some critical patents, including one for heterodyne receiving originally issued to Reginald Fessenden , plus regenerative circuit and superheterodyne receiver patents issued to Edwin Armstrong . Westinghouse used this position to negotiate
15744-413: Was necessary to regularly change the stylus in the player to avoid damage to the videodiscs, while worn and damaged discs also caused problems for consumers. When a disc began to wear, video and audio quality would severely decline, and the disc would begin to skip. Several discs suffered from a condition called "video virus", where a CED would skip a great deal due to dust particles stuck in the grooves of
15872-516: Was not advanced enough at the time to outfit the player with a framebuffer affordably. However, a "page mode" was available on many players that would allow those four frames to be repeated in an endless loop. CEDs were also larger than VHS tapes, thicker than LaserDiscs, and considerably heavier due to the plastic caddies. CED players were manufactured by four companies—RCA, Hitachi , Sanyo , and Toshiba —but seven other companies marketed players manufactured by these companies. Upon release of
16000-516: Was now restricted to the labels and album covers of RCA's regular popular record releases, while the Nipper/"His Master's Voice" trademark was seen only on the album covers of Red Seal records. In 1969, the company name was officially changed from Radio Corporation of America to the RCA Corporation , to reflect its broader range of corporate activities and expansion into other countries. At
16128-513: Was responsible for creating a series of innovative products, ranging from octal base metal tubes co-developed with General Electric before World War II, to miniaturized Nuvistor tubes used in the tuners of the New Vista series of television receivers. The company began work on a secret project for the U.S. Navy called Madame X in September 1942. The Bloomington, Indiana, plant was one of
16256-489: Was the dominant electronics and communications firm in the United States for over five decades. In the early 1920s, RCA was at the forefront of the mushrooming radio industry as a major manufacturer of radio receivers , and the exclusive manufacturer of the first superheterodyne sets. The company also created the first nationwide American radio network, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). RCA
16384-506: Was the first mainframe, demand paging, virtual memory operating system on the market. By 1971, despite a significant investment, RCA had only a 4% market share, and it was estimated that it would cost around $ 500 million over the next five years to remain competitive with the IBM/370 series. On September 17, 1971, the RCA board of directors announced its decision to close its computer systems division (RCA-CSD), which would be written off as
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