IIntroduction to Television Systems I Information S Sheet I.

INTRODUCTION TO TELEVISION SYSTEMS Television, means to see at a distance in our practical television system. the visual information in the scene is converted to an electric video signal for transmission to the receiver Then the image is reassembled on the fluorescent screen of the picture tube (Fig 1-1) In monochrome television the picture is reproduced as shades of white gray and black. In color television, the main parts of the picture are reproduced in all their natural Color, a, combinations of red, green, and blue Originally, the techniques of television were developed for commercial broadcasting, which started in 1941 The ability to reproduce pictures electronically has proved so useful though that many more applications of television are used now for education industry, business, and visual communications in general The main applications are described briefly in the following topics: Television broadcasting Television broadcast channels Color television Cable television CATV) Closed-circuit television (CCTV) Picture phone Facsimile Satellites for worldwide television CRT numerical displays Video recording Development of television broadcasting

Chapter

1.1 Television Transmission The method of transmitting the amplitude-modulate picture signal is similar to the more familiar system of the radio broadcasting. In both cases, the amplitude of an RF carrier wave is made to vary with the modulating voltage. The modulation is the base band signal. Television broadcasting is really like a radio system, but includes both picture and sound; the associated sound signal is transmitted by frequency modulation (FM) on the separate carrier wave in the same broadcast channel as the picture signal. Note that the term picture signal is used here to mean modulated carrier wave. The video signal is the signal for a picture tube. The video signals for television correspond to the audio signal for sound system.

Created by

D Dr. Nel PermitezEVOC TV SERVICINGPage 6 of 6

IIntroduction to Television Systems I Information S Sheet 1-2 Television Broadcasting Television broadcasting began in 1945 when the FCC assigned the VHF channels 2 to 13 now used. Channel 1 was broadcast at 44 to 50 MHz, but now this freq. has been assigned to mobile radio services because of interference problems. The 1st popular TV receiver was RCA model 630 TS, marketed in 1946 at about $400. It used 30 vacuum tubes, including a monochrome picture tube with a 10 inch. Round screen. 2 important ckts. 1st used in this receivers were the fly back high voltage supply fed from the horizontal output ckt. And the automatic frequency control (ACF) for synchronization of the horizontal scanning. Bec. of the fly back high voltage supply at the anode of the picture tube, there is no light on the screen unless the horizontal deflection circuits are operating normally. In the modern receivers, the horizontal output ckts. also feeds low voltage supplies to the amp. The benefit is less power consumption for greater freq. With AFC, the loss of horizontal synchronization makes the picture break into diagonal segments with diagonal black bars, The AFC has the advantage of being almost immune to noise pulse interference. The term-broadcasting means to send out in all directions as illustrated in Fig 1 2- the transmitting antenna radiates electromagnetic radio waves that can be picked up by the receiver antenna. For commercial television broadcast stations the service area is about 25 to 75 m in 11 directions from the transmitter the radiation is in the form of two rf carrier waves, modulated by the desired information. Amplitude modulation (AM) is used for the picture signal. However, frequency modulation (FM) is used for the sound signal. Referring to Block diagram of television broadcasting system, see that the desired sound for the televised program is converted by the microphone to an audio Signal which is amplified for the sound-signal transmitter. For transmission of the picture, the camera tube converts the visual information into electrical signal variations A camera tube is a cathode-ray tube with a photoelectric image plate A common type is the vidicon camera tube shown it Figure below. The electrical variations fro, the camera, tub, records the video signal which Contains the desired picture information The video signal is amplified and coupled to the picture-signal transmitter for broadcasting to receivers in the service area Separate carrier waves are used for the picture signal and sound signal, but they are radiated by one transmitting antenna. Furthermore, the picture and sound signals are included in the broadcast channel for each station A television
Created by

Chapter

D Dr. Nel PermitezEVOC TV SERVICINGPage 6 of 6

IIntroduction to Television Systems I Information S Sheet channel for a commercial broadcast station is made 6 MHz wide to include both the picture and sound At the receiver also. One, antenna is used for the picture and sound signals The receiving antenna intercepts the radiated picture and sound carrier signals which are then amplified and detected in the receiver The detector output includes the desired video signal containing the information needed to reproduce the picture. Then the recovered video signal is amplified and coupled to a picture tube that converts the electric signal back into light.

Chapter

Block Diagram of Television Broadcasting System

Vidicon Camera Tube (Length is 6 in.)

Created by

D Dr. Nel PermitezEVOC TV SERVICINGPage 6 of 6

IIntroduction to Television Systems I Information S Sheet 1-3 Television System The standards described here are those National Television System Committee (NTSC). This group, formed by the electronic industries association, also prepared the standards for monochrome standards in 1941. The NTSC color television system was adopted in 1954. Historically, color television broadcasting began experientially in about 1949 with 2 competing systems by RCA and CBS. The CBS system used a mechanical color wheel with red, green, and blue filters sequential fields. This method used scanning freq. that were not compatible with monochrome broadcasting. The RCA system used compatible scanning standards. The CBS system was adopted for a short time in 1951 but was used very little. Then the NTSC prepared new standards based on the RCA system. After field trials, the NTSC color television system was adopted by the FCC. The NTSC color television system is standard in the united states, Canada, Japan and many countries in the western hemisphere. In Europe, the main color television systems are phase alternation by line (PAL) and SECAM. The PAL system is similar to the NTSC system, but for each successive line one component of the chrominance signal is reversed in polarity. The purpose is to average any errors in hue phase. This system is used in Germany and European countries. SECAM is a French system with a sequential technique and memory storage. In this method, 2 chrominance signals are transmitted, one at a time, for successive lines. Note that other countries many have scanning standards and a channel width diff. from those of the U.S. also, the color subcarier freq. of 3.58 MHz in the NTSC system is essentially for a 6MHz broadcast channel. Why Did This Happen?

Chapter

In order to work TV receivers require a source of field timing reference signals. These are signals that tell the TV receiver to be ready to receive the next picture in the stream of images. Early set designers decided to use the Mains power supply frequency as this source for two good reasons. The first was that was with the older types of power supply, you would get rolling hums bars on the TV picture if the mains supply and power source were not at exactly the same frequency. The second was the TV studios would have had enormous problems with flicker on their cameras when making programmes. There are two Mains power frequencies widely used around the world, 50 Hz and 60 Hz. This immediately divided the worlds TV Systems into two distinct camps, the 25 frames per second camp (50 Hz) and 30 frames per second camp (60 Hz).
Created by

D Dr. Nel PermitezEVOC TV SERVICINGPage 6 of 6

IIntroduction to Television Systems I Information S Sheet Later the 60 Hz camp made small adjustment and changed the field rate to 59.94 Hz when they added colour to the signals. The issue of field frequency remained sufficiently deep rooted in both TV Standards that the vested interest remained long after the original technical justification had gone. The biggest compatibility problems between TV standards related to the field of rate; these are also the hardest problems to solve. Beyond the initial divide between 50 and 60 Hz based systems, further sub-divisions have appeared within both camps since the inception of Colour broadcasting. The majority of 60 Hz based countries use a technique known as NTSC originally developed in the United States by a committee called the National Television Standards Committee. NTSC (often scurrilously referred to as Never Twice the Same Colour) works perfectly in a video or closed circuit environment but can exhibit problems of varying hue used in a broadcast environment. This hue change problem is caused by shifts in the colour sub-carrier phase of the signal. A modified version of NTSC soon appeared which differed mainly in that the sub-carrier phase was reversed on each second line, this is known as PAL, standing for Phase Alternate Lines (it has a wide range of facetious acronyms including Pictures At Last, Pay for Added Luxury (re: cost of delay line), and People Are Lavendar) PAL has been adopted by a few 60 Hz countries, most notably Brazil. Amongst the countries based on 50 Hz systems, PAL has been the most widely adopted. PAL is not the only colour system in widespread use with50 Hz: the French designed a system of their own- primarily for political reasons to protect their domestic manufacturing companies- which is known as SECAM, standing for Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire. The most common facetious acronym is System Essentially Contrary to American Method, SECAM was widely adopted in Eastern Block countries to encourage incompatibility with Western transmissions- again a political motive. In general, since the field and scan rates are identical; you can expect to get a monochrome picture from a PAL video recording replayed on SECAM equipment, and vice versa. Transmission frequencies and encoding differences make equipment incompatible from a broadcast viewpoint. Transcoders between PAL and SECAM, while often difficult to find, is reasonable cheap.

Chapter

Created by

D Dr. Nel PermitezEVOC TV SERVICINGPage 6 of 6

IIntroduction to Television Systems I Information S Sheet Advantages and Disadvantages NTSC/ 525 Advantages Higher Frame Rate Atomic Colour Edits Less inherent picture noise NTSC/ 525 Disadvantages Lower number of scan Lines Smaller luminance signal bandwidth Susceptibility to hue fluctuation Lower Gamma Ratio Undesirable Automatic Features PAL/ 625 Advantages Greater number of scan lines Wider luminance signal bandwidth Stable hues Higher Gamma Ratio PAL/625 Disadvantages More flicker Lower signal to noise ratio Loss of colour Editing accuracy Variable Colour Saturation SECAM/ 625 Advantages Stable Hues and Constant Saturation Higher number of scan lines SECAM/ 625 Disadvantages Greater flicker Mixing of two synchronous SECAM colour signals is not possible Patterning Effects Lower monochrome bandwidth Incompatibility between different versions of SECAM

Chapter

Created by

D Dr. Nel PermitezEVOC TV SERVICINGPage 6 of 6