We all watch it every day and take for granted everything it has, but have you ever paused to ponder for a moment how the actual programming you see on your TV is created and then delivered to viewers like you? You may be surprised at all the things that go into broadcasting your TV program. Of course it all starts with a program being created and then recorded but once all that work is done, the footage itself is left to the broadcasters, who then have the task of sending it to their viewer’s family.

How does TV broadcasting work?

The first thing broadcasters have to do is upload programs to their satellite dish at the broadcasting station. Every channel has a broadcasting station and if it is a program like CNN, they not only send out the recorded material gathered in the field but they also do live broadcasts. For this they will have a newsroom as well as several other studios on their premises. There are basically two ways a signal can be sent to a subscriber or viewer and that is by analog or digital signals.

The analog signal is the lowest quality signal and that’s what you get if you watch standard format TV with a standard antenna like rabbit ears placed on top of the TV and some cable providers still use it too. The reason that this is an inferior signal is because the signal can’t be cleared of all the static and other “debris” it picks up on its way to your TV the way digital signals can. This is why standard analog format TVs have tuners that are used to isolate the signal as cleanly as possible once it is received on the TV set.

The digital signal is sent after the signal itself is converted into a digital code and it is this code that is then sent to the viewer. Once the digital or “encoded signal arrives at the viewer’s satellite dish, it can then be” cleaned “in the receiver which is programmed to only recognize and receive the coded signal. The atmosphere in which the signal is moving is full of so much static traffic and signals that it is inevitable that more than what is sent to you will arrive and that is why digital signals produce the best picture and sound available. Of course there is now the option of receiving high definition programming which is also sent digitally.

Television through Time

However; High definition programming uses a different coding system that is much more data intensive, because digital signals carry more information. A high definition TV screen has twice the number of pixels in it arranged in vertical lines of resolution and this is what produces the image on the TV screen. Double the pixel count does not translate to twice the precision and difference in the picture, because you get six times the resolution in a high-definition TV set. 

Check out out latest blog post Benefits and Benefits of Voice Broadcasting