Today is World Television Day. It is interesting to know that there is a day to celebrate that Electronic box, either yours is big or small, coloured or monochrome, or is even of a more recent technological model.

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The United Nations (UN) World Television Day is annually observed in many places around the world on November 21. The day recognizes that television plays an important role in presenting different issues that affect people. The first World Television Forum was staged by the United Nations in December 1996, and it was out of this event that World Television Day was born. The forum brought together leading figures from the media industry to analyse the growing impact that television had on decision-making and public opinion when it comes to issues of peace, security, economic and social development and cultural change enhancements around the globe.

The purpose of the day is the pursuit of happiness as a fundamental human goal.
Television is one of the most influential forms of media for communication and information dissemination. It is used to broadcast freedom of expressions and to increase cultural diversity.

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Television Set

A television set, otherwise known as television, TV, TV set, television receiver, or telly, is a device that combines a tuner, display and loudspeakers for the purpose of viewing television.

Tele means distant or transmission over a distance. Therefore, the idea of tele-vision means viewing from a distance.

A Brief History of Television

The invention of the television was the work of many individuals. Introduced in the late 1920s in mechanical form using the Nipkow disk, television became a popular consumer product after World War II in electronic form, using Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT). In 1897, J.J. Thomson, an English physicist, in his three famous experiments, was able to deflect cathode rays, a fundamental function of the modern CRT. The earliest electronic television sets were manufactured in Germany (in 1934), France (in 1936), Britain (in 1936) and America (in 1938). The cheapest model was a 12-inch (30cm) screen display.

The first mass-produced television set. Image Source

During the first decade of the 21st Century, CRT “picture tube” display technology was almost supplanted worldwide by flat panel displays. By the early 2010s LCD TVs, which increasingly used LED-backlit LCDs, accounted for the overwhelming majority of television sets being manufactured.

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Television Display Types

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

A typical CRT. Image Source

It is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns (a source of electrons or electron emitter) and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beams(s) onto the screen to create the images. In television sets and computer monitors, the entire front area of the tube is scanned repetitively and systematically in a fixed pattern called a raster. An image is produced by controlling the intensity of each of the three electron beams, one of each additive primary colour (red, green and blue) with a video signal as a reference.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

A generic LCT TV. Image Source

LCD televisions are television sets that use Liquid-crystal displays to produce images. LCD televisions are much thinner and lighter than cathode ray tube of similar display sizes. When manufacturing costs fell, this combination of features made LCDs practical for television receivers. In the mid-2010s LCDs became by far, the most widely produced and sold television display type.

Plasma

A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays 30 inches (76cm) or larger. They are called “plasma” displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent lamps.

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED)

OLED TV Image Source

This is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor is situated between two electrodes. Generally at least one of these electrodes is transparent.
An OLED display works without a backlight. Thus, it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than a liquid-crystal display (LCD). In low ambient light conditions, such as a dark room, an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than an LCD.

Take some time out today to appreciate the invention of the television set and its role in the enhancement of world peace, economy social development and culture.

Television has made information dissemination effective and of better accuracy as it conveys both still and moving pictures and sound. It has also encouraged progressive revolutions in various parts of the world. Though it could be argued by some to have demerits, one cannot imagine a world without television.

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Can you imagine The World without television? What would it feel like?

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References:
Wikipedia Television
Wikipedia History of Television