RCA Photophone was the trade name given to one of four major competing technologies that emerged in the American film industry in the late 1920s for
synchronizing electrically recorded audio to a motion picture image. RCA Photophone was an
optical sound
Optical sound is a means of storing sound recordings on transparent film. Originally developed for military purposes, the technology first saw widespread use in the 1920s as a sound-on-film format for motion pictures. Optical sound eventually ...
, "variable-area"
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
exposure system, in which the
modulated
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the ''carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informatio ...
area (width) corresponded to the
waveform
In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time, independent of its time and magnitude scales and of any displacement in time.David Crecraft, David Gorham, ''Electronic ...
of the
audio
Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to:
Sound
*Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound
*Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum
*Digital audio, representation of sound ...
signal. The three other major technologies were the
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one th ...
sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent syste ...
system, as well as two "variable-density"
sound-on-film
Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog ...
systems,
Lee De Forest
Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor and a fundamentally important early pioneer in electronics. He invented the first electronic device for controlling current flow; the three-element "Audion" triode va ...
's
Phonofilm
Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s.
Introduction
In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film process, ...
, and
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
-
Case's
Movietone.
When
Joseph P. Kennedy
Joseph Patrick Kennedy (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He is known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was the patriarch of the Irish-American Ken ...
and other investors merged
Film Booking Offices of America
Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), registered as FBO Pictures Corp., was an American film studio of the Silent film, silent era, a midsize producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began in 1918 as Robertson-Cole, an ...
(FBO) with the
Keith-Albee-Orpheum
The Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation was the owner of a chain of vaudeville and motion picture theatres. It was formed by the merger of the holdings of Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee II and Martin Beck's Orpheum Circuit.
Hist ...
theater chain and
Radio Corporation of America
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
, the resulting movie studio
RKO Radio Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...
used RCA Photophone as their primary sound system. In March 1929, RKO released ''
Syncopation
In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "place ...
'', the first film made in RCA Photophone.
History and licensing
In the early years following
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
,
Charles A. Hoxie Charles A. Hoxie (1867–1941) creator of the pallophotophone at General Electric, and is credited as one of the inventors of sound film, and as father of the "talking picture".
During his career (1912–32) at General Electric, he devised a so ...
working at
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
(GE) developed a photographic film recorder, initially to record transoceanic wireless telegraphy signals. However, this recorder was later adapted for recording speech and was used in 1921 to record speeches by President
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...
and others which were broadcast over Station WGY (Schenectady). This recorder was called the ''
Pallophotophone
The pallophotophone (coined from the Greek root words ''pallo'', to oscillate or shake; ''photo'', light; and ''phone'', sound, therefore literally meaning "shaking light sound") was a photographic sound recording and playback system developed by G ...
''.
In 1925, GE began a program to develop commercial sound-on-film equipment based on Hoxie's work. Unlike the
Phonofilm
Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s.
Introduction
In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film process, ...
and
Movietone systems in which the audio modulated the intensity of a recording lamp which exposed the soundtrack, thus creating a variable-density track, the GE system employed a fast-acting
mirror galvanometer
A mirror galvanometer is an ammeter that indicates it has sensed an electric current by deflecting a light beam with a mirror. The beam of light projected on a scale acts as a long massless pointer. In 1826, Johann Christian Poggendorff devel ...
to create a variable-area soundtrack. A number of demonstrations of this system, now known as Photophone, were given in 1926 and 1927. The first public screenings with this system were of a sound version (music plus sound effects only) of the silent film ''
Wings
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expresse ...
'' which was exhibited as a road-show in around a dozen specially equipped theatres during 1927.
In 1928, RCA Photophone Inc was created as a subsidiary of RCA (itself then a GE subsidiary) to commercially exploit the Photophone system. The RCA system continued to use the ''galvanometer'' until the 1970s, when it became technically obsolete. The Western Electric system continued to use the ''light valve'', and, under successor ownership, is still used to this day.
For nearly half a century, motion picture sound systems were licensed, with two major licensors in North America, RCA and Western Electric (Northern Electric, in Canada), which licensed their principal sound element (original track negative) recording systems on a non-exclusive basis. In general, motion picture producers elected to license one or the other. In a few cases, where mergers had occurred, a producer might be licensed for both. For many years, it was customary to "brand" a film with its sound system, variously as "RCA Sound Recording", "Western Electric Recording", or similar brands, often including the corporate logo of the licensor (''Meatball'' for RCA; ''The Voice of Action'' for Western Electric; ''Li Westrex'' for the post-1956 divestiture of Western Electric under Litton Industries' ownership). Such branding ceased in about 1976, particularly after nearly all optical sound recording (for release prints) had been converted to Westrex's stereo variable-area system from RCA's and Westrex's mono systems, although there were a few examples of such branding thereafter (mainly Westrex.)
Many years later, the Photophone trademark would be reused by the Western Electric/Westrex stereo variable-area system, after both the Western Electric and Westrex trademarks became unavailable due to corporate asset sales by the disintegrating Bell System, but the Western Electric/Westrex stereo variable-area system continued to be marketed by a successor, and it is still serviced and supported to this day, although it is no longer branded as Photophone.
Comparison of (mono) variable-area and variable-density
Although variable-density sound system recording is usually associated with Western Electric and variable-area sound system recording is usually associated with RCA, these relationships are not cast into stone.
Both variable-area systems and variable-density systems were marketed by both RCA and Western Electric, the Western Electric ''light valve'' being capable of producing either variable-density or variable-area depending on which ribbon axis was parallel to the film motion, and the RCA ''galvanometer'' was capable of producing either variable-area or variable-density depending upon the particulars of the optical system.
Roughly equal measured and perceived quality was available from both systems and from both manufacturers. Neither recording system nor manufacturer was clearly superior to the other, except where specific customer end-to-end processes made one system/manufacturer more consistently superior to the other system/manufacturer.
Variable-density was preferred for Technicolor sound prints as this process utilized a silver gray-scale "key" record, thereby creating a
CMYK
The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...
color image, and the
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
was also a silver gray-scale record, which greatly facilitated variable-density (and made variable-area rather difficult). The "key" record was deleted from most
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
prints after 1944, thereby creating a CMY color image, but Technicolor's strong preference for variable-density continued long thereafter.
Variable-density was finally abandoned as customer preferences for "dual-bilateral" variable-area soundtracks emerged in the late 1950s. This required changes to some laboratory processing and quality controls, but the real reason for variable-density's demise was yet to come.
Stereo variable-area
In the early-1970s, there was renewed interest in improving the quality of optical film soundtracks.
As a consequence by the early 1970s several individuals and organizations were considering improvements to the dated technical standards used for optical sound on 35mm film. In particular both
Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (often shortened to Dolby Labs and known simply as Dolby) is an American company specializing in Noise reduction#In audio, audio noise reduction, Audio data compression, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and ...
and
Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
were investigating the use of
Dolby noise reduction on optical soundtracks.
In the mid-1970s, Westrex Corp. (a wholly owned subsidiary of
Litton Industries
Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States named after inventor Charles Litton Sr.
During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. ...
since 1956, and the successor to Western Electric's cinema sound business unit) re-introduced the ca. 1938 "four ribbon" light valve, and the ca. 1947 RA-1231 sound recorder.
When originally introduced in 1947, the RA-1231 could be configured as a mono 35mm variable-density or variable-area recorder, or a mono 16mm variable-density or variable-area recorder, at the customer's option. However its basic electro-optical arrangement could also be used to create a time-aligned, two-channel variable-area version,
[Two, three or four time-aligned tracks were theoretically possible, and one implementation did, indeed, offer four time-aligned discrete tracks. The four-track experiment was not repeated. All subsequent implementations were two discrete, time-aligned tracks.] and this then became the industry standard device for recording stereo variable-area optical soundtracks.
Variable-density's fate was then sealed as these stereo optical sound prints (as contrasted with stereo magnetic sound prints or mono optical sound prints) became a marketing imperative.
When encoded utilizing Dolby Laboratories' technology (itself originally being in part licensed from
Sansui), the discrete L and R channels of Westrex's stereo variable-area system were renamed "Left Total" and "Right Total", and when decoded utilizing Dolby's Cinema Processor these produced the L, C, R and S sound image first commonly used by Fox's
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
magnetic stereo system in 1953.
Stereo optical sound prints are compatible with films with any aspect ratio and with normal print film stocks with
KS-type film perforations, whereas stereo magnetic sound prints require film stocks with the narrower
CS-type film perforations. Film with
CS-type perforations can only be run on a projector fitted with special narrow-toothed sprockets or permanent damage will be done to the film. An alternative is LaVezzi's
VKF ("Very Kind to Film") sprockets, which perform optimally on KS- as well as CS-perforated prints. Stereo variable-area, therefore, provided for the first time stereo film prints of ''any'' aspect ratio (1.37:1/Academy through 2.35:1/CinemaScope, inclusive) which could be run without damage on any normal 35mm cinema projector.
Nearly all original track negatives (OTNs) are now produced as stereo variable-area, and the former Western Electric (Westrex) system has been renamed Photophone and has become the de facto standard for analogue optical soundtracks, world-wide.
The fully implemented case of stereo variable-area (i.e., 4-2-4 encoding/decoding) produces a stereo 3.1 track.
The partially degenerate case of stereo variable-area (i.e., no 4-2-4 encoding/decoding, but discrete left total/left and right total/right) produces a stereo 2.0 track.
The fully degenerate case of stereo variable-area (i.e., no 4-2-4 encoding/decoding, and left total/left equal to right total/right) produces a conventional "dual-bilateral" mono 1.0 track.
RCA Photophone system abandoned – Westrex (stereo) variable-area system renamed Photophone
Once the ability to record stereo tracks became a commercial imperative for sound-transfer facilities the RCA system was abandoned as it was incapable of producing time-aligned stereo sound negatives, whereas the Western Electric/Westrex recorders with the ca. 1938 4-ribbon light valve (RA-1231, e.g., but ''not'' RA-1231A) were inherently capable of producing time-aligned sound negatives.
The Westrex system was renamed Photophone after the Western Electric and Westrex registered trademarks were sold by
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
and
Litton Industries
Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States named after inventor Charles Litton Sr.
During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. ...
, respectively, to others, for uses other than cinema sound systems.
Renaming the Westrex system to Photophone was facilitated by the demise of RCA's cinema sound business unit, by the hand of
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
, RCA's acquirer, and by its failure to protect the Photophone trademark.
The Westrex system, briefly renamed Photophone, is still in use, with more than 100 systems currently in active service, world-wide. Some users, including
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
and Warner Bros., have multiple systems. The RCA system is essentially defunct.
The Westrex system also has the capability of producing a DTS time-code track along with its native stereo variable-area tracks, or DTS time-code alone for use with 70mm and "special venue" prints.
Photophone brand abandoned
The re-use of the Photophone brand was relatively short-lived. After the closure of the immediate successor to Litton, the RA-1231 recorder and its supporting electronics were taken over by yet another successor.
See also
*
Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner
Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner (also known as Joseph T. Tykociner; 5 October 1877, in Włocławek, Congress Poland – 11 June 1969, in Urbana, Illinois, United States) was a Polish engineer and a pioneer of sound-on-film technology.
In 1921 he bec ...
*
List of film formats
This list of motion picture film formats catalogues formats developed for shooting or viewing motion pictures, ranging from the Chronophotographe format from 1888, to mid-20th century Film format, formats such as the 1953 CinemaScope format, to m ...
*
Movietone
*
Pallophotophone
The pallophotophone (coined from the Greek root words ''pallo'', to oscillate or shake; ''photo'', light; and ''phone'', sound, therefore literally meaning "shaking light sound") was a photographic sound recording and playback system developed by G ...
*
Phonofilm
Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s.
Introduction
In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film process, ...
*
Photokinema
''Photo-Kinema'' (some sources say ''Phono-Kinema'') was a sound-on-disc system for motion pictures invented by Orlando Kellum.
1921 introduction
The system was first used for a small number of short films, mostly made in 1921. These films presen ...
*
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
*
Sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent syste ...
*
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one th ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Barrios, Richard. ''A Song in the Dark'' (London & New York:
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1995)
* Coe, Brian. ''The History of Movie Photography'' (Westfield, NJ: Eastview Editions, 1981)
* Enticknap, Leo. ''Moving Image Technology: From Zoetrope to Digital'' (London: Wallflower Press 2005)
*
Eyman, Scott
Scott Eyman (born March 2, 1951) is an American author, and former book editor and art critic of ''The Palm Beach Post''. He is a frequent book reviewer for ''The Wall Street Journal'' and ''Film Comment,'' and was a contributor for ''The New York ...
. ''The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926–1930'' (New York:
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
, 1997)
*
Gomery, Douglas. ''The Coming of Sound'' (London & New York:
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
, 2005)
External links
List of Early Sound Films 1894–1929 at Silent Era websiteAlfred Hitchcock and Anny Ondra in Sound Test for ''Blackmail'' (1929) filmed in RCA Photophone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rca Photophone
History of film
Film sound production
Film and video technology
Motion picture film formats
RCA brands
Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners