Television History and Technology Term Paper

Introduction

Television is a large medium that comprises many programs that get information to people in a manner that no other medium knows how to. It is a medium, which cannot be equaled to any other. This can be deduced from its impact on people’s lives in an approach that internet, newspapers, and radio have not succeeded.

All people look to television for news and information more than any other media. Television has existed for over 75 years founded by various discoveries by both scientists and men. Television has evolved significantly such that viewers are currently spoilt for choice on television models and cable choices.

It evolved from “first generation Television that was not entirely electronic to the modern fully-electronic television sets system. Early television was archaic. Every action was captured through a single camera, which meant that actors had to work in intolerably hot lights; putting on black lipstick and green makeup because the cameras had a problem with white color.

History about Television

The “first” generation television systems had a display or the TV screen was characterized by a small motor with a neon lamp and spinning disc. These features only produced a shadowy reddish-orange picture that was almost equal the magnitude of business cards. The era before 1935 is referred to as the ‘Mechanical Television Era’. The earliest mechanical unit of television was developed in 1800s by a Germany student, Paul Nipkow. This was referred to as the ‘electric telescope’ and had 18 lines of resolution (Barker, 60).

Campbell-Swinton and Boris Rosing separately invented the use of cathode ray tube besides the mechanical scanner technology, to generate a fresh television system. This led to mechanical and electronic television systems. Nipkow’s inventions were a great milestone in the invention of mechanical television (Barker, 60).

In 1923, Charles Jenkins developed Nipkow’s disk idea to formulate the first handy mechanical television system (videa 1000, 11). Radiovisor Model 100, which was a complete kit of mechanical television, was being sold by 1931. In 1926 John Baird, was successful in broadcasting moving pictures using the Nipkow’s mechanical disk system. He also started the first ever TV studio. By 1934, the entire television system had moved to the electronic system, which is applicable to date.

A 21 year-old Philo Taylor Farnsworth, used Swinton’s idea to invent a successful and working module of electronic television in 1927. It eliminated the use rotating disks along other elements of mechanical television. Farnsworth developed a dissector, also scanned images using a beam of electron, and produced a simple line as his first image and a dollar sign later (Barker, 60). It is the foundation of all recent TVs.

All early TVs were black and white because color television was invented much later. Since 1900s, there have been immense discoveries in television. Attempts were made earlier by Zworykin but a triumphant color television system devised by RCA was authorized by FCC in late 1953 (Barker, 60).

Cable TV was also born during the same period and changed from Community Antenna Television (CATV). However, later on, a man by the name Louis parker came up with a television receiver that was up-to-date and changeable. The “V” formed TV antenna was invented by Marvin Middlemark. TV remote control came into being in 1956, which was developed by zenith electronics.

An initial prototype meant for plasma display or plasma TV originated in 1964 by Donald Bitzer among others. “Later there was the development of TV closed captions in 1980. These are captions hidden in the TV video signal, unseen without a unique decoder” (Doherty, 50). Web TV made its slot in television history in 1996 (Doherty, 50).

Where and how we use TV today

Television has become a very powerful tool over the years in almost all aspects of life, at home, in business, science, industry, and other fields. One of the most important uses of television is in our homes. Television is used to disseminate information everyday both from local and international sources.

Without television, people would be enclosed in environments whose happenings, changes, developments, or even probable dangers they would not understand. With the use of satellite, television enables individuals to get information from all over the world with unimaginable speed.

It is also an important agent of entertainment in our homes. Through it, we can watch films, drama, movies, and all other forms entertainment. This has become so predominant such that most people spent over 5 hours a day on television enjoying the entertainment television has to offer.

Another main area of life that has benefitted from television is in business and economics. Advertising is the main area of discussion in this case where producers have been easily linked to their potential customers. It is almost impossible to imagine how business would run without television.

It would be so difficult for producers to introduce new products or improvements to existing products to consumers. Information that is passed through television acts as a catalyst to economic development. Business forums, economic meetings, information on goods, stock and capital markets, as well as decisions pertaining to business can only be accessed through television.

Television has enhanced learning. This involves both the children and the illiterate in the society as it acts as an informative agent that can teach important lessons like science, language, and simple arithmetic. General information on health, science, economics, and modern inventions is used to create awareness to the public.

Television has also been widely used in science and industry. For instance, television systems are very helpful in cinematography, visual recording, and analyzing. It has also been used to enhance technology in security for instance through CCTV surveillance.

The television and various parts of a television

Television is defined as a system of telecommunications for transmitting and receiving visual and moving images and sound usually replicated on screens, and mainly used to show programs over a distance (Videa 1000, 11). It is derived from a mix of Latin and Greek words, “far seeing”.

Essentials of a basic television system include; an image source, which is a camera for pick-up of live images or else a flying-spot scanner, meant for broadcast of films (Videa 1000, 11). There is a transmitter for modulating one or extra radio signals having sound and picture at the same time. Another part is a receiver, which picks up the signals of image and sound from radio transmission. A display device converts electrical signals into perceptible light with an audible sound.

There are equipments meant for selecting diverse picture sources, promptly mixing images obtained from numerous sources, incorporation of pre-recorded film signals, orchestrating signals from several sources, and straight image creation by computer for intentions like station identification (Videa 1000, 11).

Display technology is used for video display for TV sets. Cathode ray tube (CRT) is the most critical component of electrical television system. They display television signals and determine the image quality and remain the conventional direct view for up to “40in (100cm) (in 4:3) and 46in (115cm) (in 16:9) diagonally” (Goldberg, 138).

A coaxial cable is a unique cable meant to transfer one or further channels of TV signals concurrently. Then there are the signals connections used to link a video device to a television. There is also a projection system in modern technology like LCD and DLP. Then there is also component video with three different RCA jacks for video connection. Finally there is a screen used for showing pictures and has taken various forms like VGA and monitors (Goldberg, 138).

Conclusion

In conclusion, television is a system of telecommunications for transmitting and receiving visual and moving images and sound usually replicated on screens, and mainly used to show programs over a distance.

Television came into being because of several inventions by various individuals. It has evolved from primitive mechanical system to electronic television system with sophisticated technology. It is important in various aspects like information, entertainment, business, economics, science, and industry. It has various parts like CRT, coaxial cable and transmitters among other features.

Works Cited

Barker, Dennis. “High-tech tubes: today’s technology delivers the best TV pictures ever.” Popular Mechanics. April 1997. Print.

Doherty, Brian. “Made in America?” Reason. August/September 1993. Print.

Goldberg, Ron. “Adding TV to the PC.” Popular Mechanics. April 1993. Print.

Videa 1000. “What is television?” 1970. Web. <http://www.radicalsoftware.org/volume1nr2/pdf/VOLUME1NR2_0013.pdf>