How Was Video Invented?

This video shows how video came to be what it is today. It's fascinating to learn how the concept of a fax machine invented in the 1800s was developed to become the broadcast on TV we grew up to watch and love.

It started with the concept of sending electric signals from one machine to make a copy of what was on the one on the other. 

We know how film works and what takes place to expose an analog film frame using a camera, your dad's Canon Auto Zoom 840 8mm video camera or the movies at the cinema. But, what happens with live video? How is it transmitted to be broadcast live across the world, and how did it come to be? This video dives deep into the design of a vacuum tube and how electrons were transferred through the lens and into this tube. Visual media seems to have always had budgets for the most advanced engineering and research to get the information transferred to the viewer. This was done even when the inventors couldn't have known how important and significant it would become and how it would develop at a exponential pace. 

It's good to know the history of something we often take for granted, to take a step back and appreciate what technology has given you and where it can take us as photographers and moving image specialists. 

Wouter du Toit's picture

Wouter is a portrait and street photographer based in Paris, France. He's originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He does image retouching for clients in the beauty and fashion industry and enjoys how technology makes new ways of photography possible.

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1 Comment

Problem is, how will these digitallly produced films be broadcast in 50-100 years unless there is a compatible format at that time? Unlike film where you always have an anolog original?