Geek Out - How television led to streaming video on your mobile phone - Liam Westley - NDC Oslo 2024

Early television used cathode ray tubes (CRTs) with electron guns firing at phosphor-coated screens through shadow masks to create images

Color TV evolution required complex engineering to handle three color signals (red, green, blue) while maintaining compatibility with black & white sets

Different TV standards emerged globally:

• NTSC in US (29.97 fps)
• PAL in Europe (25 fps)
• SECAM in France

LCD technology revolutionized displays by using:

• Polarized light
• Liquid crystals that twist to control light transmission
• Color filters for RGB

Video compression developments:

• JPEG for still images led to MPEG for video
• MPEG uses I-frames (complete pictures) and tracks changes between frames
• Compression considers human vision’s sensitivity to brightness over color

Broadcast transmission evolved from analog to digital:

• Satellite signals use polarization to double channel capacity
• Digital TV requires complex encoding/decoding
• Multiple channels multiplexed together

Modern OLED technology eliminates need for backlights by directly emitting light

Key video concepts:

• Interlacing (alternating scan lines)
• Fields vs frames
• Frame rate conversion between film (24fps) and TV standards

TV standards influenced early computer display resolutions (e.g., VGA 640x480)

Modern streaming builds on decades of video compression and transmission technology development