What The Tech?! Television

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30 Apr 2024

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Being part of today’s connected world can be pretty convenient. Google gives us a vast array of knowledge straight to our handset, and thanks to instant messaging and email, we can get a message across the globe at almost light speed. These changes to everyday technology allow us to be more productive, more informed and more connected to the people within our circle.

However, when carrying a smartphone, it’s easy to overlook some of the earlier technology that helped us get to this point. While primitive by today's standards, things like the printing press, the telegraph and shortwave radio were all important steps on the path to a fully connected world.

In this article, we’ll be exploring a medium that dominated our lives for decades. It changed the way we engaged with news, provided us with the ability to see man’s first steps on the moon and was even responsible for providing us with new foodstuffs. It’s time to check out the good old television.

The Early Beginnings & WW2

It’s important to realise before we start that the word “Television” can actually refer to two completely different things. The first is the good old box that has been a central piece in home lounge rooms for decades. The second refers to the actual mode of television transmission. Effectively a radio signal that carries both visual and audio components, television has had many uses outside the home in both commercial and military capacities.

The first proper experiments around TV began in the early 1900s with crude experiments that focused on digital signals and receivers. While these early systems were basic they still showed promise despite the technology not really being particularly good for the time. Like radar and radio, it would take the research boom that came with wartime activities for the concept of television to be leveraged reliably.

However, this didn't stop all success and the concept was properly field-tested in 1909. This early design was extremely cumbersome though, with angled mirrors, and hardware that was effectively designed to be an electronic retina.
An early 1920 televisor. Source: Wikipedia

Despite this success though, it was clear that more research would be needed as the transmitted image had a resolution of around 8x8 pixels, a far cry from even standard definition resolutions that we see today. And, this research also was quite widespread, with France, the United Kingdom, the USA and Russia all carrying out research into the suitability of video transmission mediums.

So, in the early days right through to the 1950’s, Monochrome (Black and White) television was the norm. Despite this, the concept of Colour television was being researched while black and white was being implemented. Despite the fact that no colour systems were available to the general public at the time, the concept of multi-colour broadcasts was deemed to be achievable and research continued along that path.

Unfortunately, the war economy left little room for civilian luxuries, and because of this research stagnated as the bulk of productivity was directed toward the war effort. The concept of general wartime progression of technology though meant that despite this ban, the progression in other fields (eg Radar & Vaccum Tubes) provided an overlap in the development of television in the post-war era.

The Space Race

One of the biggest boosts to the television era came in the 1950s, with the implementation of colour and the televising of the Space race to the general public.

The first colour broadcast was in 1954 however it wouldn’t be until the mid-1960s that the American public would transition across to using full-colour systems. This change came in 1965 when around half of all programs were scheduled to be broadcast in colour, and more consumer units were available for purchase on the shelves.

These changes allowed for the slow integration of TV into our culture, and our cultural changes reflected this. One of the best examples of this was the rise of the term “TV Dinner”. Using wartime technology around food processing, the concept of a meal in a tray eaten in front of the television was a novelty at the time, but for better or worse it became a part of our cultural lexicon for decades to come.

The TV Dinner. It’s dinner, with your TV. Source: Wikipedia

The biggest consumer boost to television though came with the arrival of the space race. While earlier mediums relied on things like broadcasting to paint a picture to listeners, the concept of TV didn’t need any of that and allowed viewers to witness some of the world's most iconic events. The landing of Apollo 11 on the moon being broadcast live to anyone with a capable set subsequently allowed a huge part of the world's population to share in the excitement being built by NASA at the time.

Slow Scan Television broadcasts allowed the world to see the first lunar landing. Source: Wikipedia

Like anything in life though, once the initial excitement wore off the concept of going to space was deemed to be almost trivial and eventually the number of viewers that these live broadcasts would attract came to reflect this attitude. By the time Apollo 13 would have its moment in the spotlight, many users had moved on to other broadcasts of interest.

One other thing that’s worth mentioning is that while today, we get scheduled broadcasts, back then TV was considered to be a form of live entertainment. This meant that hosted shows were all the rage and even the delivery of news became a big deal, leading to the concept of live news and the news anchor becoming a regular face during the daily broadcasts.

Walter Cronkite was a familiar face to Americans for decades. Source: Wikipedia.

Military, Medical & Science

As you’d expect the introduction of transmissible video would lead to some pretty significant advancements in other fields as a result.

The first candidate for success was the military and like the civilian world, they’d use television for multiple purposes as well. Providing the means to provide conferencing services the military also saw the value in TV-guided weapons and as such, large numbers of these systems would be procured by the military. These TV-guided weapons were some of the first guided weapons. Their increased accuracy would eventually mean that weapons could become smaller due to the odds of successfully being able to hit a target.

The AGM-62 Walleye used an onboard TV transmitter for guidance purposes. Source: Wikipedia.

We’d also see video feeds becoming essential parts of space-based observation systems and even aviation-based targeting and surveillance pods as well.

This allowed for things like night operations to become more viable, provided a way to integrate the thermal camera into mainstream use and increased the ability to functional surveillance for battlefield purposes.

In the medical field, TV feeds provided new ways to provide imaging to patients and helped make the concept of Keyhole surgery possible via endoscope cameras that were capable of providing a usable feed outside the body. This would help life expectancy and provide faster and less intrusive ways to conduct life-changing surgeries and imagery, a trend that continues to this day.

This Endoscopic capsule records a video feed internally to provide minimally invasive diagnostic services in healthcare. Source: Wikipedia

One of the biggest winners from the television era though was the world of science, and it was the clear winner for many reasons. Not only did TV provide science with the ability to conduct vast amounts of research using space-based optics, but it also allowed media and data to reach consumers, shining a light on the way that we saw the world through a scientific lens.

People like David Attenborough were able to explore the world and share this experience with millions of viewers the world over and because of this, these viewers were able to increase their understanding of the environment and the wildlife that lived within it.

Landsat Data has been used for decades. This is Hawaii. Source: Wikipedia

It’s fair to say that television was a cultural success for this reason, it allowed the world at large to look outside their backyard to see what life could be like on other continents and under the sea.

In Closing

While TV has been around for decades now, we’ve still seen it go through some distinct evolutions throughout this timeframe. The early days of TV were mostly live broadcasts, before moving to scheduled services as the technology progressed and started to become a legitimate form of entertainment.

We also saw the introduction of satellite-based services, that would allow viewers to receive broadcasts from other countries and even live broadcasts that were transmitted via satellite.

Then we moved to today's world where the concept of live TV has decreased in popularity, with people preferring streaming services or other sources of media over live broadcasts.
Interestingly enough though, what was once old can often become new again and with that said, some of the most popular broadcasts in today’s era are often the live format ones in a shift back to popular programs of old. It’s no coincidence though that these remain pretty popular to those of the older generation, which was raised on the concept of live broadcasting.

While the popularity of broadcast and free-to-air television will probably continue to diminish in importance over the years, the importance of TV-style video feeds in our connected world will remain relevant for a long time to come.

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