From Black and White CRTs to rolling OLED panels: Journey of television
Televisions have become an essential part of our lives. They have become so common that we have forgotten how all this began. It was not all colourful and crispy from the start. Initial days of television had a limited number of channels whereas now we have a plethora of high-definition channels along with apps that can be directly installed on our TVs.
Let’s take a time machine and travel back in time to see how all this began and how innovation helped a niche technology in becoming a necessity in every household.
Televisions in its early stages 1800-1926
Initially, televisions were mechanically operated, which means they mechanically scanned images and those images transmit onto a proper screen. Since they used to go through such a process, they provided a very limited use.
These mechanical televisions used rotating disks at both transmitter and receivers. In order to transmit images, a camera was placed in a dark environment and a very bright light was thrown on the disk. The whole setup required a lot of equipment and it was quite costly to build.
Electronic Televisions (1927)
In the year 1927, 21-year-old Philo Taylor Farnsworth invented the first electronic television in the world. His thoughts on making a television were that he wanted to make an invention that could capture moving images, transform those images into code, then move those images in radio waves to various devices.
His invention made people think that televisions can go way beyond mechanical TVs. Various other scientists had their own views about how television should work. Eugene Polly, an employee at Zenith Electronics, created the first-ever remote control. The first TV with a remote control entered the market in 1950. It was not anywhere close to the remotes we have today. Instead, it was connected to the TV using a wire.
The television industry saw the real potential when the first commercial was aired on July 1, 1941, in the United States. The advertisement was about Bulova, a watchmaker. The company offered 9 USD (Rs. 645) to the channel for the 10-second advertisement. The advertisement was given by the watchmaker Bulova. Keeping inflation in mind, that is around USD 163 (roughly Rs. 12,000) in today’s money.
Colour Televisions (1954)
After many years of black and white televisions, a Colour TV finally arrived in the market. In March 1954, Westinghouse produced the first colour TV set. In its initial days, only 500 units were available, and it was priced at around Rs. 6,000 at that time. After this, two American companies RCA and General Electronics introduced colour TVs priced at around Rs. 5,000.
Televisions in India
India received its first television by an engineering student, B Sivakumaran. He showcased his TV at an exhibition in Chennai. The television used a cathode-ray tube, but it wasn’t ready for broadcasting. The first family to own a television in India was the wealthy Niyogi family from Kolkata.
As for the first TV channel, the history was created by Doordarshan in 1959. The channel was initially called Television India and they renamed the channel to Doordarshan in 1975. At its early days, the channel aired for only half an hour for three days a week. The company finally started broadcasting daily in 1965. It gained even more popularity when TV serials like Ramayana and Mahabharata were introduced in 1986.
Modern Televisions
Televisions have been growing ever since. We have seen a lot of improvements and developments in the TV space. With more and more brands manufacturing TV’s, they started to become quite popular. With innovation, companies were able to fit panels on flat screens called Plasmas.
Later, they started working on making the televisions thinner and bigger. Even the technology behind the display panel improved. While LCDs gained popularity in the mid-2000s, now TVs come with LED or OLED panels, which gives a way more crisp viewing experience.
