TV Multichannel Sound-Savior or a New Sacred Cow?

The low quality of present-day TV sound is an imposed condition, not a technical limitation. WTIW/Channel 11 in Chicago demonstrated that in 1977 by telecasting and reproducing stereophonic television sound of the finest quality. Recent measurements made during EIA evaluations of contending multichannel TV sound proposals confirm that stereophonic TV sound of unprecendented quality can be implemented rapidly and cost-effectively using present-day transmitters and current FM technology. Because no stereophonic TV receivers are presently deployed, and stereophonic TV transmissions engineering specifications are yet to be established, the impending implementation of stereophonic telecasts presents a one-time opportunity to upgrade all TV sound by correcting longstanding obstacles that have degraded monophonic TV audio and even FM radio stereophony. Decisively grasped, this mmentary opportunity can open a new era of TV realism through creatively-programmed, dimensional-sound whose quality can rival the best. However, the chance for the emergence of such an era will be irretrievably lost, should vacillation, expedience, or preservation of sacred cows lead to mass deployment of noise-prone stereophonic TV receivers. In the fragile domain of TV stereophony such receivers will unnecessarily perpetuate and indeed intensify the need for the heavily compressed transmissions that destroy audio quality.