Research

Television Broadcast Technology

  • Baird: The Birth of Television  
    This site, edited by Richard G. Elen (former editor of Broadcast Sound and a writer on broadcasting history), features articles about inventor John Logie Baird and the early days of television.
  • Experimental Television Center  
    The website for the Experimental Television Center in Owego, New York, provides basic information on the Center's founding and history, as well as information on grants and residencies. Another resource is the ETC's Video History Project, which aims to document and research video art and community television in urban as well as rural communities across the United States.
  • Eyes of a Generation  
    This "virtual museum" created by Bobby Ellerbee and J.R. Smith includes photographs of TV cameras and broadcast equipment from private collections, technical information, historical background, and discussion forums.
  • Google Patents  
    Search for patents by keyword or inventor and view them in their entirety. A great tool for finding out about the invention of moving image technologies.
  • Moving Image Collection Catalog  
    The Museum of the Moving Image's collection contains artifacts from every stage of producing, promoting, and exhibiting motion pictures, television, and digital media -- currently more than 130,000 objects. Holdings include licensed merchandise, technical apparatus, still photographs, production design materials, costumes, fan magazines, publicity materials, and video and computer games. The online catalog currently contains over 4,000 silent-era and licensed merchandise entries.
  • RCA TV Equipment Archive  
    A hobbyist maintains this website, which is full of photos and information about television cameras and broadcast equipment from RCA.
  • Television Collection in the National Media Museum  
    Images of televisions, TV cameras, and other technological devices important to the history of television broadcasting.
  • Television History: The First 75 Years  
    This website provides a wealth of primary documentation on the history of television in the form of advertisements and newspaper clippings. Also features a photographic guide to television sets through the decades.
  • TV Heroes  
    A site edited by Richard G. Elen that features profiles and interviews of pioneering TV engineers, directors, tycoons, announcers, technicians, and more. Focused primarily on the UK.
  • VideoActive: Creating Access to Europe's Audiovisual Heritage  
    VideoActive has created a consortium to facilitate interaction between moving image archives and academic institutions, with an emphasis on television preservation.