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The Vocaltone demonstration theatrette at
their King Street premises was available for
hire and was frequently used by film
distributors to exhibit their preview
programmes. ¬

Footnote

As theatres began closing by the late 1950’s,
those installed with Western Electric sound
systems purchased on a lease arrangement
were offered outright ownership of each item
of sound equipment for the sum of one
pound apiece but, by this time, most of this
equipment, although still doing its job, was
adapted right up until the recent demise of from view. In 1937, Vocaltone was
cinema projector manufacture. liquidating equipments on a tender basis in really obsolete.
order to call in their debts. At its peak, the
It was designed to be attached between the Vocaltone system had been installed in over Credits:
intermittent sprocket and the take-up sprocket 110 situations located in country towns
of the film projector head. In order for good throughout most of the Australian states. Images Ross King collection
stable sound reproduction, the intermittent
movement of the film had to be filtered out, or
“flutter” would be reproduced as the film was
transported past the optical scanning light
beam at the rate of 24 frames per second.
Another of the common issues with
mechanical sound reproducing apparatus is
that of “wow”. Should there be any
unevenness in the transport of film over the
sound drum, “wow” would result - very hard
to detect with speech, but easy to detect in
music, particularly when the sound of piano or
violin is being reproduced.

The letter from Kennedy’s Pictures of
Winton, Queensland to Milne’s Films,
Elsternwick, attests to these problems with the
Vocaltone soundheads.

The later addition of a flywheel improved the
sound reproduction. However, by this time,
other alternatives had appeared on the market
and, within a few years, Vocaltone sound and
other similar inventions that were unable to
attract sufficient financial backing or sales
during the depression years had all but faded

CINEMARECORD # 90 37