Boxoffice-August.02.1976

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will aLitomatically transmit the transfer
tone over the telephone when the announcement
ends, permitting the caller to
speak his message over the phone immediately.
For the message receiving tape, greater
length is of course required. The length
you need is determined by the number of
calls you would normally receive while absent
from your office. A good average
length for most professional and business
applications would be 30 minutes. Some
economy models have shorter message tape
lengths, and other such as those used in
order-taking use reel-to-reel cartridges of
up to two hours. It normally is not practical
to have a remote command capability with
these longer play machines. The lower
priced machines also may put a specific
limit to the length of message they will receive
on any single call, such as 30 or 60
seconds. That often is practical, although
the user does run the risk of losing parts
of some messages.
Most quality machines have message
tapes that do not place a specific time limit
on any one call, so a caller could take the
entire tape for his message, as long as he
did not pause longer than about ten seconds.
A voice-controlled tape such as this automatically
disconnects at that point. In practice,
you'll find that most messages left are
about 30 seconds in length, giving capacity
for a good many messages.
in
Remote Command
The user finds still greater sophistication
machines having remote command capabilities.
The most basic is the ability to retrieve
your message remotely, from any outside
telephone, local or long distance. The
"command" is issued by a compact batteryactivated
accessory held against the mouthpiece
of the telephone to deliver a signal
over the wires. That signal is coded to that
machine, which will respond only to that
signal to rewind its message tape and play
back accumulated messages to the caller.
The manufacturers have come a long way
here, too, in recent years. In the earlier
models (and in some present-day economy
units as well), the message could be retrieved
by delivering a single tone of a specific
frequency. The user was supplied with
an accessory for this, but an unauthorized
per.son actually could pick up messages
from such a machine by simply whistling
the correct tone into the telephone, or even
depressing the right button on a touch-tone
console.
In our later models, we supply an accessory
that delivers two tones coded to that
machine at very rapid intervals. Both the
tones and the interval must be exactly right
to activate the machine. Such a combination
of tones would be virtually impossible to
counterfeit, protecting the confidentiality
of your messages.
Still greater sophistication is required ol
the machine that adds other remote com-
56
mand functions, which also enhance its
value to many users. One of our models,
for example, offers four remote command
functions: (1) retrieval of messages. (2) variable
back-spacing of message tape, (3) erasure
of accumulated messages, and (4)
change of announcement message.
If you have never used an answering machine
before, you hardly could anticipate
the need for another capability that is
available
on some machines but not on others.
Normally, the user does not bother to erase
old messages, knowing that they will be
erased automatically when new ones are
received over that section of the tape. On
some days, however, you will receive more
messages than on others. This means that
last the several messages received on your
busiest day will not be erased at all, until
another such day comes along. In the meantime,
you retrieve messages that have been
left for you not only on that day, but include
at the end some older messages received,
for example, a week before. Thinking that
these are new ones, you (or an employee)
call back a second time to the persons who
left those earlier messages. It can be confusing
as well as time-consuming.
There is a way that this possibility can
be circumvented in machines that have
been built to avoid it. Through a timer cap
in the circuitry, the machine will play back
only the new messages just received, once
the machine has been reset to accept new
messages and even one new message has
been received on the machine.
Developed more recently than the answer-and-record
machine is the call diverter.
This is also connected to your telephone
and, as its name suggests, it will divert calls
to another telephone number. For it to be
of adequate value you should be able to
program any telephone number into it and
have it make the transfer either locally or
long distance when the machine is switched
to the divert position. It should also be possible
to re-program the machine for a new
number within a very few seconds. That's
(almost) all there is to it.
The earlier call diverters were electromechanical
devices that seized the incoming
call and made the transfer through their
relays and switches in a very audible manner.
This has a tendency to disturb some
callers unless they know what is going on.
For this reason, our earlier model diverter
had a tape recorder through which the caller
could be informed by a previously recorded
message that his call was being transferred.
The later models are electronic, permitting
faster and quieter operation and a very
compact, space-saving chassis. They can
be programed quickly and easily by a light
touch on the pushbuttons on the console.
There should also be some means of protecting
against accidental touching of those
buttons after programing, such as a transparent
plastic shield to slide over the console.
The user should also be able to check
the accuracy of his programing, as by a
digital readout window.
There is another risk with an electronic
call diverter against which it should be protected.
Since the number is stored in the
unit's memory bank, it requires a contmuing
pressure of electricity to keep that number
in storage. If there is even a momentary
loss of current, the number will be
automatically erased and no transfer will
be possible.
As a prospective purchaser, then, you
should be sure that the machine you buy
has a battery backup feature. Almost imperceptibly,
there are such momentary
losses in power supply more often than is
realized. However, with the automatic battery
back-up, electric power from the battery
is supplied instantaneously in case of such
power loss, for adequate duration of battery
operation.
Speed of Call
Transfer
The speed of transfer of the call is also
a consideraiton to the user. It would be best
to have the call diverted almost instantaneously,
and machines can be designed to do
exactly that when connected to touch-tone
telephones. Unfortunately, only about 18
per cent of the telephones in this country
are presently on touch-tone systems. A machine
designed for instantaneous transfer
would not be workable with dial telephones,
which are still in the majority. The electronic
call diverter can still transfer calls
in about half the time of the electro-mechanical,
which means in five to six seconds,
with either a dial-up or touch-tone telephone.
That still leaves a short time lapse that
could confuse some callers. There are several
ways to accommodate this which are
entirely practical, and it is desirable that
the purchaser be given a choice. One method
is to employ the tape recorder with announcement
option is to let the caller hear
the transfer tones, which resemble tinkling
chimes. Another option is the ring-through
adaptor, which simulates the ringing of a
telephone a time or two before the transfer is
completed and the real telephone sound
comes onto the line. These may be minor
points but they give the user the chance to
choose the" features that will be best for his
purposes.
To today's theatre operator, the means
are now at hand to keep himself in touch
electronically, day or night, with the customers
(as well as with key employees)
whose continuing patronage is the life's
blood of his business.
Peter J. Grant is vice-president of marketing
for Ford Industries, Inc.. Portland.
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The MODERN THEATRE SECTION