Publishing in the Electronic Era

This article was written by Iain Sproat in 1969. Published in Books and Bookmen.

I predict that the most far reaching changes in publishing in the 1970s will be brought about by greatly diversified uses of electronics. And of these uses, none will more alter the face of publishing than the process known as Electronic Video Recording, or EVR for short.
In case there remains anyone who does not know what EVR is, let me give you a brief description. A cassette, measuring roughly 7 in, x 7 in, x 1 in., and enclosing a tape which has on it both film and sound, is slotted into an attachment to a television set. The television then plays the film on its screen. Not only this: the film and the sound can be stopped in mid-flight, and studied as a still. And it can be wound only slowly, by hand, frame by frame. Or, because the tape carries two frames, side by side, you can switch from frame A to frame B and back again. As a movie, the cassette lasts approximately 50 minutes, but the whole process is so miniaturised that you can put every page of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on one-and-a-half tapes. .....