Play Meter

from the editor
A statement made by Joe Robbins, executive vice president of
Empire Distributing Co., in our April issue pointed out the need for
a breakthrough in the phonograph market, 'something that will put
more money in the cash box.' I wholly agree with Mr. Robbins and
would like to take the matter one step further and suggest that the
breakthrough will be a coin-operated phonograph that can provide
a heavv 'disco' sound and. at the same time. offer not taped music
but full size [33 1 13 rpm] album programming to the customer.
This 'phonograph of the future' would be capable of offering both
45's and long-playing albums.
Why albums? Because literally millions of albums are sold every
single day. Without a doubt, the 18 years and over portion of the
jukebox market is album oriented and seeks music that simply isn't
available on 45's. The result is a disenchanted market. Proof is in
the continuing increase in the number of disco locations where a
location-owned, manually operated sound system pumps out LP
sounds all night.
To many of you the idea of a coin-operated phonograph that can
play normal size LP's might seem a bit remote. Not so; the
technology exists now. Seeburg has already produced a home
stereo that contains a record playing mechanism accomodating 50
full-size albums. But that means only that an album playing
mechanism exists. And in spite of its sophisticated digital selection
system, the Seeburg home unit had a selection limitation. The
player could select only a side of an album, not a particular song or
cut on a particular side. My theoretical jukebox would definitely
have to overcome this problem and offer the customer any
particular cut or series of cuts on any of the 100 album sides
available to him. In addition, the title display would have to display
accurately and attractively all these possible selections. Is that
possible today? Read on.
I was out recently visiting with a local operator friend who
happens to be a connoisseur of sound. While I was at his house
experiencing his novel system worth thousands of dollars, he
showed me a brochure he'd received in the mail from Audio
Dynamics Corp., New MiHord, Conn., who has now, on the
market, a turntable that enables the player to pre-select particular
cuts [or a series of cuts] on any album side without touching the
tone arm. [See this month's cover.]
The principle is quite simple. The tone arm emits a tiny beam of
light that is f()cused downward. When the light passes over the
smooth surface at the beginning of an album or in between cuts, the
light is reflected back up to a sensing device on the tone arm. If, for
example, the third song on a side is selected, when the light is
reflected back up to the tone arm the third time, the arm releases
downward and begins playing there. At the end of the cut,
provided the following cut is not selected, the light is reflected once
again and the tone arm is triggered upward off the playing surface.
We now have a mechanism and a selection system for our new
jukebox. But, what about a program display? Assuming we use
the Seeburg mechanism, the title holder would have to display 50
different albums along with the songs on both sides of those
albums. Although this could be done by using enlarged title strips,
a more advanced and attractive mehtod of display could be
employed.