Black & White to Colour: The Journey of Television

Do you love binge-watching the latest web series on your Smartphone? But have you ever wondered from where this tradition or the era of television began?

Allow us to take you through this time machine to the period from where the journey of remarkable innovation began. There were and are some extraordinary breakthroughs that have shaped the Television technology in the world.

The Summer of 1927

It was in the summer of 1927 when the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird transmitted the first ever signal across 705 km of telephone lines between London and Glasgow. Then in 1928, the first transatlantic TV signal was put on air between London and New York.

There were other innovators also such as Charles Francis Jenkins & Kenjiro Takayanagi who were the harbingers of the evolutionary expedition.

Transformation in Shape and Sizes of Television Screens

From CRT to LCD TFT, we have rotated 360 degrees in a century. Today even a Smartphone is no less than a TV.

1. CRT

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) was first-of-its-kind television that was purchased by people. The origins of it are dated back to 1897. It was a cold-cathode diode, an alteration of the Crookes tube with a phosphor-coated screen that led to this displaying device. They were part of households in the late 90s and early 20s.

2. LCD & Plasma Television Sets

After the black & white TVs, it was the time to spread some colours in everybody’s life that led to another creation of flat-panel technologies. There was the option between LCD TVs and Plasma TVs. Both had their own set of qualities, out of which LCD swiped its way due to its energy efficiency and drop in prices.

Later, the LED TVs became the trend in Television technology market. The LEDs are akin to LCD technology, other than that LED are used as a small backlight as a replacement for CCFL lamps.

3. Digital TV

When audio and video are transmitted through digitally processed, multiplexed signals, a digital TV visual is formed. With the introduction of Digital TV, the epoch of set-up box began. Globally, people took a shift from analogue televisions to digital televisions. It was then the Indian soap opera was in its full swing. People had the liberty to watch as many TV shows without the stress of satellite TV subscription. The digital TVs offered broad "letterbox" picture screens; it meant that watching shows on television would be similar to watching a movie on theatre screens.

Even the High Definition Range in TVs changed the whole experience of watching movies & serials. HDR works on two aspects, the contrast ration and colour accuracy; it makes the bright parts on screen even brighter, which in turn gives more density to the images.

4. Smart Television

Life is just not about smartphones, we also need Smart TVs to keep ourselves smart and high on technology. The smart innovation in television is recent; today all manufacturers produce smart TV sets.

The internet connectivity of a TV set makes it smart. Smart TV is also known as hybrid TV allows on-demand streaming, home networking and online interactive media. The Smart TVs have an already built-in operating system.

5. OLED & QLED

Maybe the difference between OLED and QLED is just 1 letter, but both technologies have foremost dissimilarities on the nucleus level.

OLED stands for organic light emitting diodes; with OLED the requirement for backlights was replaced, the LED bulb releases light that generates the images. Whereas, QLED, the Quantum Dot LED are just minuscule molecules produce light and give-out undiluted light compared to LEDs.

The two giant TV manufacturers are the frontrunners for both the technologies; LG makes OLED TVs and Samsung have their QLED TVs to offer to the consumers.

6. 4k TV - The Latest Entrant

From HD to ultra HD or 4k TV, as they say, we have come a long way. The images on a 4k TV screen are crystal-clear with extravagant elements. The minimum resolution of Ultra HD would be of 3840 x 2160, which is four times of an HD TV and its display is of about 8 million pixels.

With ultimate picture quality, 4k Televisions are much in popularity among consumers.

The world innovation is endless, thus, after 4k we can look forward to 6k televisions.

(Source: Wikipedia)