Television has taken a giant step toward transoceanic telecasts with NBC's successful pickup of a Cuban fiesta from Havana as part of its Wide Wide World program. But don't expect to receive programs from Paris, London or way stations tomorrow. Tremendous costs and equally tremendous technical problems shroud the starting date of regular programs in a haze of speculation. The Havana pickup was accomplished by beaming a signal to an equipment-packed C-47 flying a tight figure-eight pattern 170 miles from Cuba and 60 miles from Miami, at an altitude of 11,000 feet. The signal was relayed by the plane to antenna atop Miami Beach's tallest building, the 16-story Fontainebleau Hotel, from which it was sent to rest of U.S.
Thousands of American families saw the gay Cuban fiesta in the first successful transoceanic telecast. Mobile equipment, mounted in a truck, recorded the island scenes and sent them by cable up the side of a tall building to the transmitter. Below is the interior of the C-47, while in flight, showing some of the equipment used to relay the program to transmitters in Miami Beach.
TV GUIDE Chicago, Dec 31 (1955) - Jan 6. (1956)
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