From: JOSEPH P. CROTTY BELL SYSTEM EXHIBIT NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR World's Fair, New York Tel: 212-370-9320 UNPRECEDENTED COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES IN OPERATION AT THE WORLD'S FAIR The finest, most modern communications services available anywhere in the world have been provided by New York Telephone at the World's Fair. A network of underground cables -- long enough to stretch four times around the world -- crisscrosses the Flushing Meadow fairgrounds as the nerve system for unprecedented communications services at the Fair. Some of the services include: -- Touch-Tone telephones for push-button calling -- World's largest closed-circuit color TV network -- Provisions for telecasting from every part of the Fair -- A network of emergency telephones -- Advanced design telephone booths at convenient locations Telephone engineers began planning for the Fair four years ago when they plodded through muddy swamplands trying to envision the 646-acre site after its transformation into the giant spectacle it is today. Estimates of communications requirements of the Fair parti- cipants and visitors were made, and an underground conduit system designed and installed. The conduit carries one-half billion conductor feet of telephone cable and 150,000 feet of television cable. Providing communications at all locations was not always as routine as installing conduit and placing cable in it. For example, to serve a boathouse on the far side of the lake, telephone installers rented a boat, rowed across the lake, and strung cable out behind the boat. A key link in the Fair's communications services is a new switching center built in Corona last year. From this building -- which also serves nearby communities -- are channeled all World's Fair telephone calls. Estimates are that these may average 175,000 or more a day. A major telephone feature provided through the building is Centrex service for the business telephones at the Fair. Centrex allows incoming calls to reach extensions directly without going through a switchboard attendant. Public telephones at the Fair are attractive and readily available. The 1,400 public telephones feature the Bell System's newly developed Touch-Tone service which speeds calling by re- placing the dial with push buttons. The public telephones include blue and white outdoor phone booths called Serpentines and 10 larger family booths which permit "hands-free" calling for groups of people. Compact "one man" booths located throughout the Fair and in most exhibits have white telephones on a stainless steel facing which is mounted flush to the wall. Fair visitors can dial all their own telephone calls. New operator-manned consoles called traffic service positions, have been installed in the Forest Hills telephone building to permit callers to dial station-to-station, person-to-person, collect and credit card calls. "Ship-to-Shore" telephone service at the World's Fair marina permits yachtsmen to make calls from their boats. About 300 emergency reporting telephones are located through- out the Fair. Security guards and visitors use the telephones to summon police, fire or medical aid. The calls go to a dispatcher who has direct communications with the Fair's emergency services. Acre for acre, the Fair should be the most televised spot on earth. Complete facilities for telecasting as many as 38 simultaneous programs have been provided. In addition, a closed- circuit color TV network carries special events and public service announcements to 200 receivers around the Fairgrounds. The job of meeting the Fair's television requirements has been equivalent to duplicating the television facilities in mid- Manhattan, the East Coast's major video program center. TV stations are able to originate telecasts from any of 62 terminal locations around the site. To provide this service, New York Telephone installed over 28 miles of coaxial and video cable that feed into a completely-equpped television operating center in the Bell System Exhibit. Standard transmitting equipment has been repackaged for portability, so needed transmitters can be brought to any of the TV terminals in short order. The telecasts are monitored and circuits tested at the television operating center. Activities in this main switching station are in full view of visitors, who are able to watch six TV monitors carrying shows in progress, as well as the technicians responsible for proper transmission. From the operating center, programs are beamed to Manhattan and thence to the nation by means of the microwave tower and antenna, which reach 140 feet into the sky adjacent to the Bell Pavilion. Transistorized microwave transmission equipment is located in the glass-enclosed base of the tower.