This article is the first in a series that will trace the technological development of high definition television. It will cover the first three of the following six major stages in this development:
Stage I (1884-1930): Development of low definition television
Stage II (1924-1934): Search for higher definition
Stage III (1934-1940): Development of HDTV
Stage IV (1937-1947): Standardization of HDTV
Stage V (1940-1967): Development and standardization of color HDTV
Stage VI (1970-1987): Development of advanced color HDTV

The global television industry is facing the most crucial and dynamic stage in its evolution. New television technologies are changing the stakes in each facet of the industry, both domestically and worldwide. Newer distribution technologies-such as direct broadcast satellites (DBS), video cassette recorders (VCRs) and cable-are in heavy competition with over-the-air broadcasting for audiences of over 600 million television viewers worldwide.

In the United States, the political and economic stakes have changed since the beginning of the development of television. The standardization and commercialization of new television technologies affect culture through social, political, economic, institutional, industrial, and aesthetic factors that influence the strategies and policies of both industry and government. Technological developments in television have brought new products and processes for manufacturers, broadcasters, and regulatory agencies.

For example, looking specifically at economics, new technological developments in reception will change the stakes of that market. Advanced forms of television receivers capable of displaying higher definition pictures will probably be available as early as 1990 (according to Tom Keller, formerly of the National Association of Broadcasters). This could mean purchases from $20 billion to $30 billion a year of HDTV consumer equipment by 1995, predicts Dr. Bill Glenn, formerly of the New York Institute of Technology.

HDTV

HDTV is defined as a television system that differs from current television systems-such as the North American and Japanese NTSC System-in the following ways: five times the increase in visual information detail, 10 times the color information, more than double the horizontal and vertical resolution, substantial improvement in picture brightness, over a one-third increase in aspect ratio (from 4:3 to 5.33:3), and sound quality equivalent to digital compact disc audio.

Although the term HDTV is now used to refer to a new development in television technology, the term "high definition" has historically been used to define a number of advances in television picture quality.

It was not unusual to read in 1934 that high definition television would do many things for the lives of its viewers; in 1987 we read similar statements about HDTV. RCA first used the term "high definition television" in its 1934 Annual Report, identifying the role HDTV would play in the commercialization of television.

Also in 1934, Vladimir Zworykin-a leading pioneer in the development of electronic television-defined the parameters for HDTV "regarding 240 scanning lines as a minimum." Overseas, a British engineering report from the Royal Television Committee in London offered a similar technical definition for HDTV. In this article, Zworykin's HDTV definition of 240 lines or greater will be used.

Stage I (1884-1930)
The Development of Low Definition Mechanical Scanning Systems

Stage I defines a period in which the first electronic picture reproduction and distribution systems were developed. Included here are mosaic facsimile devices and the evolution of sequentially scanned rotating disk mechanical systems. The latter was patented by Paul Nipkow in 1884. The Nipkow Disc produced a picture with a definition of 18 lines and was based on Roget's theory of the "persistence of vision"-the phenomenon which also makes motion pictures appear to move. These systems were the low definition predecessors of true HDTV systems.

However, any system which produced pictures of higher quality than its predecessor was considered "higher definition." Rapid improvements in resolution became evident as the number of scan lines increased with each new development. For example, Nipkow's 18 to 24 scan lines in 1884 led to 80 scan lines by RCA in 1929. Many efforts by key inventors led to technical improvements in television during this period: Nipkow, Weiller, Jenkins, Braun, D'Able, Rosing, and Campbell-Swinton, to name a few-which enabled S.C. Gilfillan to write about the electronic "home theater" in 1912, and allowed him to make predictions with confidence.

During the 1920s the development of mechanical television reached a level where demonstrations of silhouettes were shown commercially. Two pioneers in the mechanical era, John Logie Baird (England) and Charles Francis Jenkins (U.S.A.), worked on systems almost at the same time. Jenkins, who was the first president of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (predecessor of the SMPTE), demonstrated his first television device (called Radio Vision) in 1923, and went on to demonstrate it to the U.S. Navy in 1925.

In the meantime, Baird continued to develop his mechanical systems in England and became the first inventor to offer a regular television broadcast service for the BBC on September 30, 1929. The service used a Baird system of 30 lines, 12 1/2 frames/second, on a frequency of five to 10 KHz, and lasted until 1936.

Despite the concerns of certain inventors and the press, most of the rhetoric regarding the predictions for television attempted to tie the technology to goals of the highest social order-a typical categorical framework of argument for technological innovation. David Sarnoff, president of RCA and a leading promoter of television as a positive social influence, offered these predictions about television in a 1926 Saturday Evening Post article (reminiscent of his predictions for a Radio Music Box in 1916):

The whole country will join in every national
procession. The backwoodsman will be able to
follow the play of expression on the face of a
leading artist. Mothers will attend child
welfare classes in their own homes. Workers
may go to night school in the same way. A
scientist can demonstrate his latest discoveries
to those in his profession.

However, Sarnoff had to reassure radio and other media that they need not feel threatened. In 1928, Christmas shoppers in New York City were promised that television would not make radio obsolete.

Sarnoff was echoed by William Paley, president of CBS, who stressed the entertainment potential of television as early as 1929:

[I] visualize world series baseball games, automobile
and horse races, transmitted the instant that they
occur on supersized, natural color, stereoscopic
screens.

Perhaps Paley's interest in "supersized, color stereoscopic screens" was stimulated by the new alliance between CBS and Paramount in 1929. Paramount acquired 49 percent of CBS's stock in 1929-partly in response to the recent involvement of RCA in talking motion pictures through the creation of RKO Pictures and the RCA Phonophone sound process-although by 1932 Paley and associates would buy back the stock, allowing CBS to operate as an independent broadcast network.

Support for television went beyond broadcaster and advertising interests and included the motion picture industry. It should be noted here that the picture quality of 35mm motion picture film was used as a benchmark of comparison with television throughout each stage of HDTV's evolution. In 1984, television historian John Freeman gave an excellent table of pioneering efforts in the evolution of television technology to the SMPTE. Joseph Udelson, media scholar, suggests that the mechanical scanning period for television became the prospect of low definition and its attempt to fulfill public expectations for the medium. However, Udelson also illustrates that despite continued development of mechanical systems, they failed both financially and as an entertainment medium due to the fact that the profit potential of television depended on its ability to attract large audiences. Entertainment programming was essential in order to attract large audiences and this enormous expense could only be supported by revenues from manufacturers and radio broadcasting networks.

By the end of Stage I, television had greatly improved resolution from the Nipkow disk of 1884. RCA had incorporated a prototype 80-line electronic receiver by 1929, and in effect, set the agenda for the improved electronic systems prominent during Stage II. Predictions of the social effects of television were both positive and cautionary, further illustrating the prospects of television and popularity it gained as it attempted to fulfill public expectations.

Stage II (1924-1934)
The Search for Higher Definition

The period between 1924-1934 saw the refinement of mechanical scan systems and the introduction of electronic scanning in television. In the earlier years of Stage II, small firms and amateurs were making substantial contributions to television's technological evolution. By the end of the period, large corporate efforts and their professional research and development programs became dominant-signifying the huge stakes of the corporate battle for standardization and commercialization of HDTV.

In 1924, Dr. Herbert Ives, a Bell Laboratories engineer, received $250,000 to develop a mechanical long distance television system-later to be known as Bell's Picturephone in 1964-capable of two-way transmission and reception. By 1929, Ives refined his mechanical system to transmit color images and in 1930 doubled the resolution of the original 1924 device. By 1926, Dr. Ernst Alexanderson at General Electric had demonstrated a mechanical projection television device in motion picture theaters and also presented this system as a marketing tool for department stores.

The years 1928-1933 comprised a minor boom in the evolution of television-despite the limitations of the mechanical system-leading to the rapid advances in engineering and programming that would later be employed by electronic HDTV systems developed in the 1930's. For example, in 1928, Bell Labs developed a more sensitive photocell-thereby reducing the light requirements in telecasting a location scene.

However, despite the evolution of mechanically-based systems throughout Stage II (1924-1934), rapid development had also occurred in electronic scanning. Two pioneers in this field, Dr. Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth, directed the development of all electronic high definition television systems. Zworykin began his work on electronic scanning in America at Westinghouse in the early 1920s. In 1923 he patented an electron beam television pickup device called the "iconoscope." In 1929 Zworykin demonstrated an all-electronic television receiver which he called the "kinescope." Farnsworth patented his electronic camera tube, called the "Image Dissector," in 1927, and in 1931 he invented a television receiver approaching the high definition requirements of 1934-240 scan lines or greater.

By the 1930s, a transition was evident from the low definition mechanical television systems of the 20s to high definition electronic television systems of the 30s and beyond. A series of contextual factors resulted in this movement to HDTV, beyond the technical evolution of the medium. The capital expenditures for the development of television required vast sums of money which could only be properly supported by an infrastructure with the capacity for such an investment, such as major corporate ventures with firms like RCA, GE, or Bell Laboratories. Beyond capital, inventors like Farnsworth and Du Mont provided a substantial contribution to the development of commercial television and established their own successful companies in the industry. A large corporate investment was an absolute necessity for commercialization of HDTV, especially after the stock market crash of 1929. Large corporations did benefit from associations with sole inventors who were also major public figures (Bell, Edison, etc.) as well as allowing professional inventors within the corporation to become public figures, which is shown by the examples of Zworykin at RCA, Ives at Bell Laboratories, and Alexanderson at General Electric.

Udelson posits that the radio industry provided television with a series of key factors that contributed to its development: 1) Mature development of radio manufacturing corporations; 2) Mature development of broadcast facilities that already understood the economics of broadcasting; and 3) Establishment of federal agencies and government regulations specifically developing broadcast communication policy.

The major factors contributing to the development of television-financial, technical, regulatory, and programming-constitute its very formation as a complex industry. The prospect of television allowed radio manufacturers to consider other forms of diversification as well. As a by-product of its interest in television, RCA moved into the motion picture industry, with the creation of RKO Pictures and the development of RCA Phonophone-and into the phonograph industry through the merger with the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1929.

Sarnoff's plan for RCA in 1929 was to acquire the rights to manufacture radio equipment, phonographs, and motion pictures, acquiring full ownership of NBC, RCA Phonophone, RCA Victor and 49% of GM Radio Corporation, as well as real estate, machinery, plants, and the research facilities of GE and Westinghouse. The government challenged Sarnoff's plan, with RCA fearing antitrust action by the Justice Department. RCA offered a compromise that would greatly affect the development of television: the creation in 1929 of a single television research organization at the Victor Talking Machine Company plant in Camden, New Jersey, combining the engineering staff of RCA, GE, and Westinghouse.

Sarnoff was very optimistic about the impact of television and identified the year 1928 as its arrival as a true mass medium-about the same time many historians posit radio became a true commercial medium. Sarnoff predicted in 1928 that television would be "as much a part of our lives" as radio had become while also promising that television would not make radio obsolete.

Orrin Dunlap, manager of RCA's Department of Information, posits that 1931 was a key year for experimentation in higher definition television systems, listing some of the numerous technical advancements accomplished during this time: 1) Television transmissions across the Atlantic; 2) Color television experiments showing the colors of the U.S. flag on a screen the size of a postage stamp; and 3) Increased definition of both mechanical and electronic systems.

A 1931 New York Times article offered a more conservative estimate in predicting the arrival of television's commercialization-even with the prospect of higher definition electronic systems:

Radio retailers are expecting a rich harvest
to grow from the seeds of television now being
planted . . . however, . . . the reaping may not
begin in earnest for a year or more.

During this period, Zenith Radio Corporation did not believe that advertising revenue alone could support the vast amount of production and programming costs of television, and in 1931 began exploring ways of developing a system of subscription television.

By the end of Stage II, television had been transformed from the low definition efforts of independent inventors and their mechanical devices to the electronic high definition accomplishments of corporate programs-RCA, Philco, and Farnsworth leading the efforts-with large capital budgets dedicated to the development of all electronic HDTV. For example, in 1929, the formation of the RCA joint television research facility at the Victor plant in Camden, NJ, signified the tremendous effort launched by many corporations in the battle for television's full commercialization. Technically, television had evolved by 1933 to the 240 scan lines or greater that would come to signify HDTV. Other technical achievements included development of color systems by Bell Labs as early as 1929, theater television demonstrations by Baird in 1930, and the commercialization of television apparatus for live remote pickups by Marconi in 1933.

Predictions of applications for some of the developments outlined above included remote broadcasting of television in sports coverage and an optimistic view by both the press and the industry for both the programming possibilities and the size of the potential audiences for such programs. Concerns about the social effects of television echoed those of Stage I-especially regarding advertising-with the FRC having offered a cautionary note on the tremendous potential influence television could have on society.

Stage III (1934-1940)
The Development of HDTV

The period between 1934-1940 signified the development of high definition electronic television systems-those with 240 scan lines or greater. The period also was characterized by the struggle between large corporations to satisfy the demands of both the public and the government, as represented by the FCC, in order to allow the standardization and commercialization of HDTV to take place. By 1934, RCA concentrated on an all-electronic high definition television system of 243 lines utilizing interlaced scanning, an effective method used to reduce bandwidth and eliminate flickering effects by doubling the apparent picture rate.

From 1934-1940, technical improvements to the resolution of HDTV brought line resolution rates as high as 605 (Philco). During this period, two electronic HDTV systems were adopted as recommended standards: a 405 line interlaced system at 25/50 Hz by EMI/Marconi of Great Britain in 1937, and a standards recommendation of a 441 line interlaced system at 30/60 Hz by the Radio Manufacturers of America in 1938. This period was also known for other achievements such as the development of radar by the BBC; the improved color transmissions of Bell Labs, CBS, RCA, and GE; and the utilization of television in retailing, education, sports coverage, and aviation.

This period was also known for its heightened concern about the economics of television. For example, in 1939, Fortune Magazine emphasized that only large companies could develop HDTV due to the enormous expenses inherent in its development. Fortune pointed out that 441 lines of resolution in 1939 was about 50 times as clear at the resolution available in 1931. However, the article went on to say that television was still in a period of public testing and that profits could only become available when it became a volume business. Fortune recommended that both broadcasters and manufacturers needed to support each other to attract desired advertisers. However, in order to attract advertisers, one needed to have audiences, and audiences needed a supply of television sets with quality programming offered as an incentive to purchase them. The motion picture industry could have offered a quick and ample supply of feature films as programming; but Hollywood, according to Fortune in 1939, wavered between seeing television either as a market for the distribution of cinematic program material or a threatening rival for its share of audiences.

However, between 1938 and 1939, Paramount Pictures bought a 50% interest in the Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, a television manufacturing firm. Paramount enabled Du Mont to expand its research and development to the point where Du Mont entered into television broadcasting as well.

Paramount also became interested in television broadcasting and through its association with Balaban and Katz, a motion picture exhibition company, obtained an experimental license for station W9XBBK in Chicago-later to become commercial station WBKB TV.

Fortune Magazine posed a series of key questions in the 1939 articles that related directly to the commercialization of HDTV: 1) When will there be enough sets to warrant advertising? 2) When will there be enough stations in a network to warrant adequate coverage? 3) When will the FCC authorize commercial licenses?

In 1939, Fortune also contended that 441 line resolution may not have adequate definition to measure up to the entertainment quality of motion picture images; the May, 1939 article illustrated how 441 lines have only about one-fourth the resolution of 35mm film. It is important to point out that current 1125 HDTV is comparable to 35mm projected film and as such can benefit enormously by the vast amount of high definition masters already available as 35mm film. Kingdom Tyler, a television engineer with CBS during this period, equated 441 lines to the resolution of eight or 16mm home movies; however, he advocated even higher definition, actually identifying a 1000 line HDTV device that was experimentally available in 1946 and much closer to the 35mm benchmark. For the U.S., television, by 1940, did not enter into a major commercial stage because the industry needed standardization to occur first.

Resolution was only one issue that the FCC faced when it discussed the standardization and commercialization of an HDTV service. Flexibility for future improvements to the standard was also essential while keeping the price of receivers within a range affordable by the average American citizen. By 1939, the FCC Television Committee concluded that television had not entered the stage of development where the public could purchase receivers with the knowledge of a stable television service of excellent technical quality without too rapid an obsolescence factor:

By the end of Stage III, television had moved predominately to electronic high definition systems capable of far more resolution than 240 lines. Two adopted standards occurred during this period, the EMI/Marconi 405 line system and the RMA recommended standard of 441 lines, indicating the desire of large corporate manufacturers to push for the standardization and subsequent commercialization of television. Corporate financial commitments to television's development were presented to the public. The press realized these financial estimates as far too conservative and expressed additional concerns about the economics of television, this time focusing on how advertisers could foot the bill. Predictions were also offered by both the press and industry on how motion pictures could be a source of television programming that also envisioned the future relationship between the various media; the need for quality entertainment became paramount to television's success. The FCC played a major role in protecting the public against premature standardization and obsolescence of consumer equipment.

Editor's Note: In the next issue of the Review, look for the second article in this series.

Corey P. Carbonara
Corey Carbonara holds BA and MA degrees from the University of Iowa, and a PhD from the University of Texas. He received his EEC from the Omega School of Communications. He is currently professor of telecommunication and new video technologies project director at Baylor University in Texas. He has held positions at Sony Broadcast Products Company, Caterpillar Tractor Company (video producer), and Columbia Pictures in Chicago. In addition, he has worked as a television producer for a United Nations project, and as an account representative for Motorola Communications.

Dr. Carbonara has numerous professional productions to his credit. He has represented the U.S. as a technical consultant on State Department and other committees. He is vice chairman of the Systems Subcommittee (of the Taskforce on Subjective Assessment of Advanced Television Systems) for the FCC Advisory Committee for Advanced Television. He is a member of the U.S. Advanced Television Systems Committee, and of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). He served as an HDTV technical consultant to the National Association of Broadcasters for its 1987, 1988 and 1989 conventions. He is a member of the International Television Association, the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers, the Society of Broadcast Engineers, the American Society of Lighting Designers, the National Association of Broadcasters, and other professional groups.

Dr. Carbonara has published articles in the IC/2 Working Paper, the Business of Film, Religious Broadcasting and the HDTV Newsletter. In addition, he has been a speaker on the subject of HDTV and other issues at conferences and conventions around the country.