Page 34 - Sphere No.27 (Sep 2010)

32 Sphere
Then & Now
•
Switched On
While televisionwas invented in the 1920s, it wasn’t until the
1940s in the US and Europe that television sets started to become
affordable in the home. They comprised large cabinets housing
tiny screens, the picture was black and white, channels (not that
there were many) were changed by clunking a dial round, and
fathers spent an inordinate amount of time adjusting the aerial
a few millimetres this way or that to strive for a decent picture.
Then... While the first American TV show was broadcast
in 1930, TVs did not really come to Hong Kong until the 1950s,
and even then few homes had their own sets. Instead, people
would go to their local shop and pay five cents to watch TV
for hours. It soon became a focal gathering point in the
neighbourhood. Hong Kong’s first free-to-air television
broadcaster, Rediffusion Television (renamed Asia Television)
was launched in 1957 and it was joined in 1967 by Television
Broadcast Limited (TVB), which soon made itself popular
by airing mass appeal shows such as Enjoy Yourself Tonight.
Now... After colour in 1953, developments in the wonderful
world of TV came thick and fast. Cabinets got smaller and
screens larger, channels sprouted and in came remote controls
and surround sound. Home entertainment took on a new turn
with the advent of the video player, DVDs and Blu-ray. TV sets
changed from cumbersome boxes to flat screens – though
the size of the screen itself turned monumental – and wall-
mounted. The latest must-have is 3D television. Forget about
those clunky 3D effects you used to get in 1950s movies such
as It Came from Outer Space. New technology in 3D has made
jaw-dropping wonders like Avatar possible, and now that
technology is available in the home... reality TV indeed!
Main Photo: Public Records Office, Government Records Service