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Watching a WSJ-Segment about Airline-Loyalty-Programs I stumbled over this picture of what seems to be a room full of desks (*1) with two rather large terminals or screens upfront:

Room with lots of accounting desks and two pyramid styled terminals or screens Does anyone know or have a trace about those terminals/screens?

It may originate from the late 70s/early 80s. Hard to say if they are terminals, or stand alone screens. It's hard to say, but they seem to be mounted to a rather large, fitting base, which would make a terminal (at least a special output only one) more likely.

What made me itch is an uncanny likenesses to the first PET prototype and a little less to its later incarnation:

PET Prototype [Picture taken from Chuck Hutchins blog entry about the Prototype]

*1 - Hard to tell ich accounting, phone hotline, booking or similar service as such setup has been used in many companies for many purpose all around the world since the late 1960s.

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Lear Siegler ADM 42 terminal

Using google lens on this photo finds it's a stock image that is also used e.g. in the this New York Times article (also available via archive.org), where a larger part of the terminals is visible:

enter image description here

And there you can read that it is an Lear Siegler ADM 42 terminal.

This kind of design was widespread at this time, so it's no surprise that others like the PET prototype look similar.

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    re "widespread" - indeed, see the DEC VT05.
    – dave
    Commented Nov 17 at 13:39
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    My boss selected the ADM42 for our office Alpha Micro system (10 terminals) in the '80s because he said it looked like Star Trek. No driver was available. He didn't care, make it work, he said. I got the source code for a Hazeltine 1500 terminal driver, learned WD16 assembler and adapted the driver using stone knives and bear skins. It worked.
    – MTA
    Commented Nov 18 at 0:17
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    @MTA: I'd rather say it looks like "Dark Helmet"'s helmet (Spaceballs)
    – Olivier Dulac
    Commented Nov 18 at 16:43
  • @MTA so fancy, we were still in the bone clubs and grass loincloths at the time.
    – jwenting
    Commented Nov 19 at 9:39
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    @Theodore I wouldn't be surprised if it's not showing an airline's office... and Sabre would have used IBM terminals.
    – dirkt
    Commented Nov 21 at 17:38

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