Television Engineering

Lectures by

Eng. Ka’pesha
+254768620804
[email protected]

Kirinyaga University
Table of contents

1. PICTURE TRANSMISSION

2. SOUND TRANSMISSION

3. PICTURE RECEPTION

4. SOUND RECEPTION

5. SYNCHRONIZATION

6. RECEIVER CONTROLS

7. COLOUR TELEVISION

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Elements of a Televison System
Picture Transmission

• A television system is intended to extend the sense of sight beyond

its natural limits, along with the sound associated with the scene
being televised.
• The picture information is optical in character and may be thought
of as an assemblage of a large number of bright and dark areas
representing picture details.
• The information is a function of two variables, time and space.
• During scanning the conversion of optical information to electrical
form and its transmission are carried out element by element, one at
a time and in a sequential manner to cover the entire scene which is
to be televised.
• Scanning of the elements is done at a very fast rate and this process
is repeated a large number of times per second to create an illusion
of simultaneous pick-up and transmission of picture details.
• A TV camera is used to convert the optical information into a
corresponding electrical signal, the amplitude of which varies in
accordance with the variations of brightness. 2
Monochrome television transmitter

• Fig. 1 shows very elementary details of one type of camera tube

(vidicon) to illustrate this principle.

Figure 1: Basic monochrome television transmitter

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Monochrome television receiver

• Fig. 2 shows very elementary details of one type of camera tube

(vidicon) to illustrate this principle.

Figure 2: Basic monochrome television receiver

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Cont..

• An optical image of the scene to be transmitted is focused by a lens

assembly on the rectangular glass face-plate of the camera tube.
• The inner side of the glass face plate has a transparent conductive
coating on which a very thin layer of photoconductive material is
laid.
• The photolayer has a very high resistance when no lightfalls on it,
but decreases depending on the intensity of light falling on it.
• Thus depending onthe light intensity variations in the focused
optical image, the conductivity of each element ofthe photolayer
changes accordingly.
• An electron beam is used to pick up the picture information now
available on the target plate in terms of varying resistance at each
point.The beam is formed by an electron gun in the TV camera tube.
• On its way to the inner side of the glass face-plate it is deflected by
a pair of deflecting coils mounted on the glass envelope and kept
mutually perpendicular to each other to achieve scanning of the
entire target area. 5
Vidicon TV camera tube

• Fig. 3 shows that the scan is done in the same way as when reading
a written page to cover all the words in one line and all the lines on
the page.

Figure 3: Simplified cross-sectional view of a Vidicon TV camera tube

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Cont..

• To achieve this the deflecting coils are fed separately from twos weep
oscillators which continuously generate saw-tooth waveforms, each
operating at a different desired frequency.
• The magnetic deflection caused by the current in one coil gives
horizontal motion to the beam from left to right at a uniform rate
and then brings it quickly to the left side to commence the trace of
next line. The other coil is used to deflect the beam from top to
bottom at a uniform rate and for its quick retrace back to the top of
the plate to start this process all over again.
• As the beam moves from element to element, it encounters a
different resistance across the target-plate, depending on the
resistance of the photoconductive coating. The result is a flow of
current which varies in magnitude as the elements are scanned.
• Depending on the magnitude of the current a varying voltage
appears across the resistance RL and this corresponds to the optical
information of the picture.
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Path of scanning beam in covering picture area

• Fig. 4 The electrical information obtained from the TV camera tube

is generally referred to as video signal.

Figure 4: Path of scanning beam in covering picture area 8

SOUND TRANSMISSION
Sound Transmission

• The microphone converts the sound associated with the picture

being televised into proportionate electrical signal, which is normally
a voltage.
• This electrical output, regardless of the complexity of its waveform,
is a single valued function of time and so needs a single channel for
its transmission.
• The audio signal from the microphone after amplification is
frequency modulated, employing the assigned carrier frequency.
• In FM, the amplitude of the carrier signal is held constant, whereas
its frequency is varied in accordance with amplitude variations of the
modulating signal.
• As shown in Fig. 1, output of the sound FM transmitter is finally
combined with the AM picture transmitter output, through a
combining network,and fed to a common antenna for radiation of
energy in the form of electromagnetic waves.
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PICTURE RECEPTION
Picture Reception

• The receiving antenna intercepts the radiated picture and sound

carrier signals and feeds them to the RF tuner (see Fig. 2)
• The receiver is of the heterodyne type and employs two or three
stages of intermediate frequency (IF) amplification.
• The output from the last IF stage is demodulated to recover the
video signal. This signal that carries the picture information is
amplified and coupled to the picture tube which converts the
electrical signal back into picture elements of the same degree of
black and white.
• The picture tube shown in Fig. 5 is very similar to the cathode-ray
tube used in an oscilloscope. The glass envelope contains an
electron-gun structure that produces a beam of electrons aimed at
the fluorescent screen.

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Elements of a picture tube

• When the electron beam strikes the screen, light is emitted. The
beam is deflected by a pair of deflecting coils mounted on the neck
of the picture tube in the same way and rate as the beam scans the
target in the camera tube.

Figure 5: Elements of a picture tube

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Cont..

• The amplitudes of the currents in the horizontal and vertical

deflecting coils are so adjusted that the entire screen, called raster,
gets illuminated because of the fast rate of scanning. The video
signal is fed to the grid or cathode of the picture tube. When the
varying signal voltage makes the control grid less negative, the beam
current is increased, making the spot of light on the screen brighter.
• More negative grid voltage reduces the brightness. if the grid
voltages is negative enough to cut-off the electron beam current at
the picture tube there will be no light. This state corresponds to
black. Thus the video signal illuminates the fluorescent screen from
white to black through various shades of grey depending on its
amplitude at any instant.
• This corresponds to the brightness changes encountered by the
electron beam of the camera tube while scanning the picture details
element by element. The rate at which the spot of light moves is so
fast that the eye is unable to follow it and so a complete picture is
seen because of the storage capability of the human eye. 12
SOUND RECEPTION
Sound Reception

• The path of the sound signal is common with the picture signal from
antenna to the video detector section of the receiver.
• Here the two signals are separated and fed to their respective
channels.
• The frequency modulated audio signal is demodulated after at least
one stage of amplification.
• The audio output from the FM detector is given due amplification
before feeding it to the loudspeaker.

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SYNCHRONIZATION
Synchronization

• It is essential that the same coordinates be scanned at any instant

both at the camera tube target plate and at the raster of the picture
tube, otherwise, the picture details would split and get distorted.
• To ensure perfect synchronization between the scene being televised
and the picture produced on the raster, synchronizing pulses are
transmitted during the retrace, i.e.,fly-back intervals of horizontal
and vertical motions of the camera scanning beam.
• Thus, in addition to carrying picture detail, the radiated signal at
the transmitter also contains synchronizing pulses.
• These pulses which are distinct for horizontal and vertical motion
control,are processed at the receiver and fed to the picture tube
sweep circuitry thus ensuring that the receiver picture tube beam is
in step with the transmitter camera tube beam.

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RECEIVER CONTROLS
Receiver Controls

• The front view of a typical monochrome TV receiver, having various

controls is shown in Fig.6.
• The channel selector switch is used for selecting the desired channel.
The fine tuning control is provided for obtaining best picture details
in the selected channel. The hold control is used to get a steady
picture in case it rolls up or down.
• The brightness control varies the beam intensity of the picture tube
and is set for optimum average brightness of the picture.The
contrast control is actually the gain control of the video amplifier.
• This can be varied to obtain the desired contrast between the white
and black contents of the reproduced picture.The volume and tone
controls form part of the audio amplifier in the sound section, and
are used for setting the volume and tonal quality of the sound
output from the loudspeaker.

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Television receiver controls

Figure 6: Television receiver controls

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COLOUR TELEVISION
Colour Television

• Colour television is based on the theory of additive colour mixing,

where all colours including white can be created by mixing red,
green, and blue lights. The colour camera provides video signals for
the red, green, and blue information. These are combined and
transmitted along with the brightness (monochrome) signal.
• Each colour TV system* is compatible with the corresponding
monochrome system.Compatibility means that colour broadcasts can
be received as black and white on monochrome receivers. Conversely
colour receivers are able to receive black and white TV broadcasts.
This is illustrated in Fig. 7 where the transmission paths from the
colour and monochrome cameras are shown to both colour and
monochrome receivers.
• At the receiver, the three colour signals are separated and fed to the
three electron guns of colour picture tube. The screen of the picture
tube has red, green, and blue phosphors arranged in alternate dots.
Each gun produces an electron beam to illuminate the three colour
phosphors separately on the fluorescent screen. 17
Signal transmission paths

• The eye then integrates the red, green and blue colour information
and their luminance to perceive the actual colour and brightness of
the picture being televised.

Figure 7: Signal transmission paths illustrating compatibility between

colourand monochrome TV systems. R, G and B represent three camera
tubes which developvideo signals corresponding to the red, green and blue
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contents of the scene being televised
Colour Receiver Controls

• NTSC colour television receivers have two additional controls,

known as Colour and Hue controls. These are provided at the front
panel along with other controls. The colour or saturation control
varies the intensity or amount of colour in the reproduced picture.
• For example, this control determines whether the leaves of a tree in
the picture are dark green or light green,and whether the sky in the
picture is dark blue or light blue. The tint or hue control selects the
correct colour to be displayed. This is primarily used to set the
correct skin colour, since when flesh tones are correct, all other
colours are correctly reproduced.
• It may be noted that PAL colour receivers do not need any tint
control while in SECAM colour receivers, both tint and saturation
controls are not necessary.

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Assignment 1 to be submitted in 1 week time through
[email protected]

1. Why is scanning necessary in TV transmission ? Why is it carried

out at a fast rate ?
2. What is the basic principle of operation of a television camera tube ?
3. What is a raster and how is it produced on the picture tube screen ?
4. Why are synchronizing pulses transmitted along with the picture
signal ?
5. Why is FM preferred to AM for sound signal transmission ?
6. Describe briefly the functions of various controls provided on the
front panel of a TV receiver.
7. Describe the basic principle of colour television transmission and
reception.
8. Describe the function of saturation and hue controls in a NTSC
colour TV receiver.
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Project 1 to be done in groups of 6 students, presentation is
after 3 weeks final report should be sent to
[email protected]

1. Using Matlab or Python script design a simple transmitter and

receiver capable of sending and receiving audios and pictures. The
range of transmission should be at least 4 meters apart. Other
design specifications depends on the group decision. N/B this is part
of the practical session.

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