-----Original Message-----
From David Breneman: "And predating radio.  AT&T was also involved in
developing public address equipment.  There's an interesting article here
about a non-radio "broadcast" AT&T did from Arlington Cemetery to Madison
Square Garden for Armistice Day in 1921:
http://homepage.mac.com/oldtownman/recording/armistice.html"

Well maybe it WASN'T Bell Labs!

"...The equipment had been first tested in public auditoriums during 1916 at
Madison Square Garden in New York and at the Velodrome in Newark. It proved
to be superior to the Magnavox system developed by Peter Jensen that was
used for Woodrow Wilson's speech in San Diego. The AT&T system was used at
the 1920 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco's Civic Auditorium.
On March 4, 1921, a crowd of 125,000 heard the inauguration address of
President Harding spoken into one of the new condenser microphones and
amplified over loudspeakers at the Capitol in Washington D. C..."

Now we know where the term "public address" came from! I've also read in
articles from the late 1920s that the reason AT&T went along with licensing
"speech input" technology to RCA was because they had been pursuing what is
now called cable radio and TV! The reason it was never introduced during
the early '30s was the depression.

Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.562.4346 http://www.bobolhsson.com http://audiomastery.com