The modern landscape of LED displays showcasing video and images at an ultra-high-definition resolution is the result of nearly a century of developments, evolutions and pioneering efforts in broadcast technology.

Whilst many are aware of John Logie Baird and his pioneering, experimental work in television broadcasting, colour television and even video recording, there are many fascinating firsts in the world of broadcasting that happened far earlier than you may expect.

First Television Broadcast Event

The BBC first broadcast experimental television broadcasts as early as 1929, with regular programming beginning in 1932 and the BBC Television Service launching in 1936.

It used both Mr Logie Baird’s 240-line electromechanical system and a 405-line Marconi-EMI system, technically making it the world’s first regular high-definition television service, although this is only relative to the limited systems of the era.

The first programme on a dedicated TV channel was, naturally, ‘Opening of the BBC Television Service’ at 15:00 on 2nd November 1936, which introduced the new system for the few thousand early adopters who had televisions at the time.

The first major broadcast event, however, was in May 1937 with the coronation of King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth (better known as the Queen Mother), broadcast to at least 9000 homes in the London area.

First Colour Television Broadcast

Whilst Mr Logie Baird had experimented with colour television as early as 1929, technical issues with scaling up colour broadcasts meant that it would take until July 1967 for the first major colour broadcast to be shown, with that year’s Wimbledon tennis championships being broadcast on BBC 2.

It was a hit but would take until 1969 for colour broadcasts to be regularly seen on the two main television channels of the time, ITV and BBC1.

First High Definition Broadcast

High definition is a term that has been used with abandon, making it difficult to find a precise definition of high definition, but if we definite it roughly by its modern definition of 720p-1080p, then the first high definition system was developed in France in 1948.

The system, which technically was broadcasting at 736i would seldom be able to actually broadcast at that quality.

The first colour HDTV broadcast that was recorded and transmitted in HD was the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, using Japanese broadcaster NHK’s Hi-Vision system. The system was then also used for the 1988 Olympics from Seoul and the 1990 World Cup.