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Today is World Television Day. It has been years
ever since the conceptualization of the idea of a Television. There isn't a single Founding Father of Television. Of
course, most groundbreaking technologies lack a sole inventor. The history of television comprises
the work of numerous engineers and inventors in several countries over many
decades.
However, there are some
allegations that the famed Telephone inventor, Alexander Graham Bell could have
probably had an idea on what would become what is now a Television. In fact the
rush to create television was started by a rumor.
In
1880 Alexander Graham Bell, the famed inventor of the telephone, sealed
documents related to his latest invention and gave them to the Smithsonian
Institution. When word got out that his mystery invention was called the
“Photophone,” many people assumed that Bell had figured out how to mechanically
send pictures from one point to another. Many had no doubt gotten the idea that
such an invention was in the works after seeing illustrations of the fictional
“telephonoscope” in the December 9, 1878 issue of Punch magazine.
This reminds me of my sister’s place. Some years back, she became jealous of
her nemesis who she never let know was one when she went to her house and saw
her having a 45” Screen. She became uneasy, envy and jealousy clogged
her thoughts (he rants and blubber betrayed he feelings) and she swore to buy something bigger just to boost her bruised
ego. She bought a 60” Flat Box just to quench her thirst for something she
had really wanted.
Apparently she was not the only jealous mortal who had a 'kiwaru' in her throat. When kids of her neighbors went
to her house, one kept complaining to her that the 32” they had was a pale
shadow of the 60" mounted on her wall with TV brackets. The last time we talked
all her neighbors had Flat Screen TVs more than 50” in size. Perhaps the
greatest tragedy that befalls most parents is the notion of their children pestering
them to acquire electronics or cars that neighbors have and they don’t.
But one of the most intriguing and palpitating exuberance of modern wastrelness
in terms of purchasing televisions was when I saw a certain woman on TV having
an 80” in her living room, 75” TV in her
Bedroom and the other three bedrooms each having 60” TVs all connected to pay
TV. I don’t have the nerves to talk about the exotic and indigenous furniture, the
capacious entertainment system not forgetting the fuel guzzlers that had
adorned the parking lot oozing sheer opulence and trepidation. This auspicious
residence in tucked somewhere within the precincts of blissful Nairobi novelty suburbs.
In today’s world, TV has greatly revolutionized the way people behave and act.
Charlie Chaplin, an iconic figure in the film industry, he of the famed silent
era was a real force to reckon with in the history of TV. He was funny,
meticulous and business conscious. I bet Mr. Bean is a scion of the old bloke
as his films are ideally a replica of ‘The Tramps’ movies which were mainly of
the silent era.
Currently, the broadcasting of TV channels has taken a new dimension. A time
will come when TV will be like radio and owned by all and sundry. Pay TVs and
free to air TV are really changing the dynamics in the global
arena in terms of how acquired content is being broadcasted or aired. The programming cake is now shifting as most TV
stations are transiting into an eon where mediocrity has now become an issue in
the Television industry. This is courtesy of the free to air TV channels which
are threatening to reduce the slice of advertisement revenue most of the main
stream and pay television stations have had a clout on for some time.
The history of television cannot be summarized without the mention of Black and
White TV sets which was not pleasing to the eye as people like relating to
more eye catching and colorful motion pictures. This called for the advent of
Color TVs. Indeed the greatest technical challenges of introducing color broadcast television was the desire to conserve bandwidth, potentially three
times that of the existing black and white standards, and not use an excessive amount of radio spectrum.
Some
facts about TV
The
first practical demonstrations of TV, however, were developed using
electromechanical methods to scan, transmit, and reproduce an image. As
electronic camera and display tubes were perfected, electromechanical
television gave way to all-electronic systems in nearly all applications.
The
first national live television broadcast in the U.S. took place on
September 4, 1951 when President Harry Truman's speech at the
Japanese Peace Treaty in San FFrancisco was transmitted
over AT&T 's transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system
to broadcast stations in local markets.
The
first commercially made electronic television sets with cathode ray tubes were
manufactured by Telefunken in Germany in 1934, followed by other makers in France
(1936), Britain (1936), and America (1938).
The
availability of storage media such as video cassettes (mid-1970s),
laser-discs (1978), DVDs (1997), and high-definition Blu-ray
Discs (2006) enabled viewers to
use the television set to watch recorded material such as movies and broadcast
material. Internet television has seen the rise of television programming
available via the Internet through services such asiPlayer, Hulu and
Netflix.
The
present and future
My, how times have changed. Nowadays, picture quality has
significantly improved across all types of displays, but with all of their
recent technological advancements, there’s more to consider than ever before:
Stick with 2D, or go 3D? What about active vs. passive 3D? How about LED TVs? What
is a Smart TV? And what’s with all this Ultra HD and OLED stuff anyway? Does it
have Wi-Fi? This digital age is making it more and more prudent
to aptly and widely consult in the event one opts to
but a set.
We live in a time when it's hard to define what
television is precisely. Is television defined by the device you're watching it
on? Is television defined by the length of a certain piece of visual media? Am
I using television if I chat with someone through a TV screen over the
internet? The thing is, it's always been that way. The history of the future of
television is particularly messy because no one at any given time has been
happy with defining exactly what it is.
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