This sound recording equipment belonged to Singaporean Willie Phua (b. 1928- ), who has captured momentous events in Asia during his three-decade long career as a news cameraman for Radio Television Singapore and later Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Among the memorable footages he captured were those of the Bukit Ho Swee fire disaster, the violent race riots in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the Vietnam War and the Tiananmen protests of 1989 (Phua was recognised as one of the few cameramen who captured the footage of the lone protestor briefly held back a tank in Tiananmen Square). In November 1996, Phua received the Honorary Medal of the Order of Australia for his work which was “responsible for Australians seeing all aspects of life in Asia.” The sound-on-film recording amplifier seen here, as its name suggests, allows the optical recording of sound signals using photoelectric cells directly onto the movie film.
