Readers Sound Off on TV Technology Advances

摘要

The results of our recent Linkedin survey on the most significant technologies affecting the television industry over the past 30 years are in and it's a tie between the DTV transition and the rise of the internet. HDTV ran a close second, followed by media consolidation and the growth of cable and satellite. There was also significant agreement on one choice that wasn't in the survey: The invention of the CCD that revolutionized camera technology as well as advances in microprocessors. "Charge-coupled devices took about 50 pounds off the cameras," said one survey respondent. "Without cheap, almost free, computing power, compression like we routinely experience today would not be possible," said another. Bill Hayes, director of engineering with Iowa Public Television, perhaps said it best when summing up the past 30 years: "Digital television changed virtually every component and system used to acquire, create, modify and distribute content. I can't think of anything that had a more significant impact on the technologies that we work with on a daily basis."