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Monday, August 29, 2011

SONY KX-20PS1 YEAR 1982.







Today At Obsolete Technology Tellye I'm showing a luxurious looking pro monitor !

The KX-20PS1color television  was meant to be the "analog hub" of its times.

Built as a strict monitor, it needed the adjunction of a tuner to receive TV channels and of another to decode the European Teletext. Litterature diagrams showed with much appetite the sources the KX-20PS1
was prepared to be fed with: computers, satellite and cable TV, Laserdisc, CATV, video cameras, VCRs, ektachrome-to-video converters (very expensive in those days) or video games.

It naturally boasted a Trinitron tube that naturally couldn't foresee its "Super", "Black", "HiBlack", "Wide" let alone "Wega" futures...
And although it sported a cool wireless remote control, the KX-20PS1 had still yet to gain a 'flat' tube, Nicam, PIP, POP, PAP, PDS/VPC or any other of those frivolous acronyms pros don't give a hoot about...
The KX-20PS1 sold extremely well worldwide, both on the consumer and professional sides of the market and many production companies got one - or two, or three, or more.
Surviving units can still be seen tucked away in some studios - before Sony launched the dedicated BVW line or the black ProFeel in the late 1980s, a TV monitor was nothing else than a KX-20PS1.
And if those over-worked PS1's tubes have seen better days, they are are too reminiscent of a blessed era and too good-looking, too, to be simply thrown away.
Several versions were released, even a 27" (KX-27PS1, a real bestseller in production companies), before the black ProFeel lineup came in in '87. But it is the original ProFeel, the 20PS1 that became a well remembered design landmark.

SONY'S PROFEEL TV SYSTEM Sony's latest innovation consisted (1982) of a "video separates" system called Profeel. The centrepiece was a high -quality monitor which operates in conjunction with a separate rack -type 12 -channel tuner, stereo speaker pair, VCR and teletext module. The monitor has a built-in stereo amplifier and a rack is available to hold the lot. The initial monitor has a 20in like here shown. Trinitron tube, but a 27in. version was been introduced in year 1983. The monitor itself was sold  in 1982 at about £450 in UK, the total package at some £1,000. "Profeel" comes from Sony's idea of providing for domestic users a TV installation that has a "professional feel" to it, with picture quality said to be equivalent to that of professional studio equipment. The monitor is a multi -standard one (PAL, SECAM and NTSC-4.43, the latter enabling NTSC tapes to be replayed from a suitable VCR such as the SLT7ME) and incorporates two features which Sony call dynamic contrast and dynamic colour. The former aims at improving upon the 10:1 contrast ratio from which TV systems generally suffer, employing feedback for the purpose. Dynamic colour again uses feedback, this time adjusting the colour temperature to provide true flesh tones and correct white rendition simultaneously. By keeping the various components of the system sepa- rate, Sony emphasize that the idea is for the user to be able to update his TV installation as the technology develops.

The Trinitron colour tube, designed by and used exclusively by Sony in all its colour receivers, was the first to have an in -line gun arrangement. The Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) has been slowly changing since its con- ception about 50 years ago. Since then the emitter, accelerator and focus structures at the “gun” end have been added to the vacuum tube to shape and control the amount of electrons from the gun. At the target end of the CRT, the luminescent screen is made of a phos- phor mixture. Phosphor glows white when struck by electrons. Phos- phor brightness is directly proportional to the amount of electrons that strike the phosphor. The CRT sport brightness was controllable with a gun and phosphor screen. The electron beam produced a spot of light that was stationary on the phosphor screen. Placing an electromagnetic field near the electron beam after it left the gun created movement. The spot intensity and location were now controllable and the CRT became known as the pic- ture tube. To produce a color picture on the CRT screen; three independent gun structures are used. The electron guns produce different amounts of electrons targeted to their corresponding Red, Green and Blue phos- phors. Red, Green and Blue are the primary colors for light. In 1968 the Sony Trinitron picture tube was a departure from the tradi- tional three-gun color picture tube. Three major changes to the old color tube created a distinctive Trinitron picture tube:
 1. Instead of three small electron guns, focus was improved using one large electron gun structure that all three beams pass through.
 2. Electrostatic convergence plates were added to bend the outer elec- tron beams so they would land on the corresponding red and blue color phosphor.
 3. A continuous vertical slotted aperture grill at the screen end that: • Reduces the effects of terrestrial magnetism. • Prevents adjacent and stray electrons from striking the wrong phos- phor. • Allows more electrons to pass, increasing brightness without short- ening life. • Results in a flat screen. This reduces annoying room light reflections (glare).
It has a single gun assembly with three cathodes mounted in line horizontally, a striped -phosphor screen, an aperture grill with vertical slots instead of the traditional type of shadowmask, and a faceplate with cylindrical rather than parabolic curvature. The Trinitron tube produces a very good display - some people, including the   Obsolete Technology Tellye ! - author, would say the best aven if some exceptions with the PHILIPS ERF Series. There are sound technical reasons for making this claim, for example the design of the large electron lens which provides excellent resolution. An advantage of the cylindrical in comparison with the traditional parabolic faceplate is the fact that most of the external light that falls on it is reflected away from instead of towards the viewer, thus improving the. contrast and reducing eye strain.
The Black Trinitron introduced a couple of years ago gives a further improvement in this respect (the faceplate has been darkened to a black colour). Since the first Trinitron tubes appeared in the UK in the late sixties there has not been a great deal of change in the design, though a number of improvements have been introduced. More recently we have had the Black Trinitron mentioned above and the Pan -focus gun which gives uniform focusing over the entire screen area, eliminating any need for dynamic focusing but further added in large screen models in the 70's and 80's and 90's.
The set is build with a Modular chassis design because as modern television receivers become more complex the problem of repairing the receiver becomes more difficult. As the number of components used in the television receiver increases the susceptibility to breakdown increases and it becomes more difficult to replace defective components as they are more closely spaced. The problem has become even more complicated with the increasing number of color television receivers in use. A color television receiver has a larger number of circuits of a higher degree of complexity than the black and white receiver and further a more highly trained serviceman is required to properly service the color television receiver. Fortunately for the service problem to date, most failures occur in the vacuum tubes used in the television receivers. A faulty or inoperative vacuum tube is relatively easy to find and replace. However, where the television receiver malfunction is caused by the failure of other components, such as resistors, capacitors or inductors, it is harder to isolate the defective component and a higher degree of skill on the part of the serviceman is required.
Even with the great majority of the color television receiver malfunctions being of the "easy to find and repair" type proper servicing of color sets has been difficult to obtain due to the shortage of trained serviceman.
At the present time advances in the state of the semiconductor art have led to the increasing use of transistors in color television receivers. The receiver described in this application has only two tubes, the picture tube and the high voltage rectifier tube, all the other active components in the receiver being semiconductors.
One important characteristic of a semiconductor device is its extreme reliability in comparison with the vacuum tube. The number of transistor and integrated circuit failures in the television receiver will be very low in comparison with the failures of other components, the reverse of what is true in present day color television receivers. Thus most failures in future television receivers will be of the hard to service type and will require more highly qualified servicemen.
The primary symptoms of a television receiver malfunction are shown on the picture tube of the television receiver while the components causing the malfunction are located within the cabinet. Also many adjustments to the receiver require the serviceman to observe the screen. Thus the serviceman must use unsatisfactory mirror arrangements to remove the electronic chassis from the cabinet, usually a very difficult task. Further many components are "buried" in a maze of circuitry and other components so that they are difficult to remove and replace without damage to other components in the receiver.
Repairing a modern color television receiver often requires that the receiver be removed from the home and carried to a repair shop where it may remain for many weeks. This is an expensive undertaking since most receivers are bulky and heavy enough to require at least two persons to carry them. Further, two trips must be made to the home, one to pick up the receiver and one to deliver it. For these reasons, the cost of maintaining the color television receiver in operating condition often exceeds the initial cost of the receiver and is an important factor in determining whether a receiver will be purchased.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a transistorized color television receiver in which the main electronic chassis is easily accessible for maintenance and adjustment. Another object of this invention is to provide a transistorized color television receiver in which the electronic circuits are divided into a plurality of modules with the modules easily removable for service and maintenance. The main electronic chassis is slidably mounted within the cabinet so that it may be withdrawn, in the same manner as a drawer, to expose the electronic circuitry therein for maintenance and adjustment from the rear closure panel after easy removal. Another aspect is the capability to be serviced at eventually the home of the owner.
(To see the Internal Chassis Just click on Older Post Button on bottom page, that's simple !)


 
Sony Corporation (Sonī Kabushiki Gaisha) (TYO: 6758, NYSE: SNE), or commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate with revenue exceeding ¥ 7.730.0 trillion, or US$77.20 billion (FY2010).[3] Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its eight operating segments – Consumer Products & Devices (CPD), Networked Products & Services (NPS), B2B & Disc Manufacturing (B2B & Disc), Pictures, Music, Financial Services, Sony Ericsson and All Other.These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. Its founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka derived the name from sonus, the Latin word for sound, and also from the English slang word "sonny", since they considered themselves to be "sonny boys", a loan word into Japanese which in the early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men. History Masaru Ibuka, the co-founder of Sony: In late 1945, after the end of World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bomb-damaged department store building in Nihonbashi of Tokyo. The next year, he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The company built Japan's first tape recorder called the Type-G. In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs' invention of the transistor.[8] He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company. While most American companies were researching the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka and Morita looked to apply it to communications. Although the American companies Regency[disambiguation needed] and Texas Instruments built the first transistor radios, it was Ibuka's company that made them commercially successful for the first time. In August 1955, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo released the Sony TR-55, Japan's first commercially produced transistor radio.[9] They followed up in December of the same year by releasing the Sony TR-72, a product that won favor both within Japan and in export markets, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Featuring six transistors, push-pull output and greatly improved sound quality, the TR-72 continued to be a popular seller into the early sixties. In May 1956, the company released the TR-6, which featured an innovative slim design and sound quality capable of rivaling portable tube radios. It was for the TR-6 that Sony first contracted "Atchan", a cartoon character created by Fuyuhiko Okabe, to become its advertising character. Now known as "Sony Boy", the character first appeared in a cartoon ad holding a TR-6 to his ear, but went on to represent the company in ads for a variety of products well into the mid-sixties.[8] The following year, 1957, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo came out with the TR-63 model, then the smallest (112 × 71 × 32 mm) transistor radio in commercial production. It was a worldwide commercial success.[8] University of Arizona professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D., says, "Sony was not first, but its transistor radio was the most successful. The TR-63 of 1957 cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid 1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1968. Sony's headquarters moved to Minato, Tokyo from Shinagawa, Tokyo around the end of 2006.[10][11] Origin of name When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials, TTK. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TKK.[8] The company occasionally used the acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name.[12] The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word Sonus which is the root of "sonic" and "sound" and the other was "sonny," a familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy.[7] The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958. At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name. They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approval.

By Japanese standards Sony is a comparative newcomer. It started out in May 1946, recently celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Most of the major Japanese companies in the consumer electronics field were formed much earlier. Hitachi and Toshiba for example date from the nineteenth century, Matsuhsita from the early years of the twentieth century. During those fifty years however Sony's achievements have been second to none. Sony started operations as Tokyo Tsuchin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). Its aim was "to make unique products", and to "create and introduce technologies that larger companies cannot match". One of its earliest achievements was Japan's first reel-to-reel audio tape recorder, which was launched in 1950. The tape to go with it, also developed by the company, was called Soni-tape. In 1954 the company launched the first all -transistor radio to go into production anywhere. When, in the following year, it decided to start exporting, a simple brand name that would be easily recognised in any part of the globe was required. Sony was the obvious answer, and in 1958 the company changed its name to the Sony Corporation. The Sony Corporation of America was set up in 1960. Sony UK, in 1968, brought Sony to Europe. Innovation continued apace. In 1960 Sony launched the fast fully transistorised portable TV receiver. Five years later the first open -reel video tape recorder for domestic use was introduced. The Trinitron colour system arrived in 1968. It was incredible, though typical, that Sony should develop its own colour TV tube from scratch. While relying on the traditional three primary colour phosphors and a shadowmask, the phosphors were laid down in stripes, the mask became a shadow grille, the guns were arranged in -line and the faceplate became much flatter. This was to be the way tube development would go. The Betamax VCR system was introduced in 1975. It is today generally accepted that it was the best of its time. But, as with the Trinitron system, Sony wouldn't licence it to other manufacturers. That mistake led to its demise, and wasn't repeated. The 8nun video system, which has come to dominate the camcorder field, was launched by Sony ten years later, in 1985. Meanwhile Sony had had an extraordinary success with the Walkman portable audio system, which was launched in 1979. This is claimed to have been "the single best-selling consumer electronics product ever marketed". Sony kept up the pace of development, moving on to digital systems. The MiniDisc, capable of both record and playback, arrived in 1993. In 1995 Sony was first to launch a digital camcorder. A home DV recorder is due later this year, along with a device called the DV cap: this links a DV camera to a PC for editing and image manipulation. There have been a number of other significant developments in recent times. The highly successful PlayStation established Sony in the video games market. Sony is to introduce its first PC later this year, while "a true living -room computer" is promised for next year. Plasmatron large, flat screen TV sets are already available in Japan. DVD players are another imminent prospect. All in all it has been an extraordinary story, and Sony's position at the centre of electronics development looks set to continue indefinitely. The company has combined world -class R&D capabilities, manufacturing excellence, the ability to read and to create markets, and remarkable marketing skills. The UK's main CE innovator for a long time, Amstrad, makes a sorry contrast. For a time Amstrad couldn't do anything wrong. It came up with a string of innovative ideas and products, skillfully meeting and developing user requirements. Packaged audio, wordprocessors then an IBM PC clone. There were the combined TV/VCR units, then the video Double Decker. Amstrad was in and out of audio, video and TV, always with highly competitive products. The company came up with the first Sky package at under £200. But while it came up with products that met contemporary needs, it never seemed to take root and grow. We are now witnessing its final dismemberment. Psion, the hand-held computer manufacturer, is negotiating to take over Amstrad's digital telephone interests, which fit in with its own product development programme. Amstrad's loss - making consumer electronics interests are to be split between Betacom, an affiliated company, and a new company to be called Digicom Technology. The latter will take over Amstrad's analogue satellite business and inherit a small R&D operation. How did Sony succeed, starting out with twenty employees, no machinery and negligible capital, while Amstrad simply shuffles off stage? Because Amstrad never developed a comprehensive business strategy. It came up with bright ideas, subcontracted production, stocked up then walked away as soon as the market turned.

It's the tragic story of much of UK and European industry.
R.I.P. EUROPE.

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