Chapter 79 Prelude: Test Run of Television

Three days before the start of the exhibition, Alexander arrived at Moskva where the headquarters of Imperial Dynamic Systems Corporation is located.

In the Grand Kremlin Palace, Alexander was having a briefing with Philip Ainsworth, the director of the Imperial Dynamic System Electronics Division.

“So, Philip. You told me that you require six months to prepare for the launch of the television. What is the message that I received from you last week?”

“As stated in that letter, sir, we are ready to launch the product now. My calculations were wrong and underestimated the spirits of the workers working under my division,” Philip explained and continued. “There’ll be a Ruthenian National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in three days and we figured that this is the perfect time to introduce the television. I’ve called you here to help us advertise it by having you as our model.”

“Eh? Me?”

“Sir, everyone in the Ruthenia Empire knows you’re the founder of the Imperial Dynamic Systems. And if people were to buy our product, it must be you presenting it to them.” Philip reasoned.

“When was it again?” Alexander asked.

“In three days,” Philip answered.

“Three days…hmm,” Alexander hummed in thought. “I have an appointment in Nizhnevartovsk in three days to oversee the construction of the oil refinery,”

“Ah…is that so,” Philip gazed downcasted and Alexander saw his shoulders drop slightly.

Alexander sighed. For the past six months, he’s been on a lot of trips across the regions of the Ruthenia Empire, visiting locations where large crude oil reserves have been found. Not only the oil reserves but the ongoing massive nationwide construction happening in Ruthenia right now.

Basically, Alexander is swamped with work and hasn’t had much time for socialization lately.

That being said, Alexander couldn’t turn Philip down because this is a huge moment for him and the company. He understands the value of marketing. Him, being the model of the television, could prove effective in the eyes of the people because right now, he’s popular.

Well, he can just push back his trip to Nizhnevartovsk and attend this fanfare.

“Okay, for the sake of the television, I’ll go along with whatever you’ve planned,” Alexander crossed his arms. Philip smiled happily, then proceeded to give Alexander the details regarding the plan to use the television for advertisement.

***

One hour later, Philip and Alexander arrived at the broadcasting studio of Imperial Dynamic Systems.

The cameras, the staff, and the set. Everything is prepared just like Philip promised.

Philip gave Alexander a brief tour of the entire place. It was quite big and the layout was also quite simple. The setup wasn’t really complicated either. All the electronics were set up neatly on one side and there was even a small office where the director, sound engineers, and broadcast engineers, are present, prepping things that need to be done.

There was a sofa placed in the center of the studio where Alexander sat after nodding to each of the staff who bowed and welcomed him.

When Alexander took a seat, he looked around at everything. This place will bring birth to one of the most important inventions of mankind. Everyone that participated in this project, the workers and the staff will become part of history.

‘The Morning Breakfast Television Show.’, Alexander privately joked in his head. Thomas laughed inside the Tsar’s mind, memories of turning on the television early in the morning on weekdays, only to be disappointed by adults on sofas talking about things instead of morning cartoons.

Philip approached Alexander with a file in his hand.

“Sir, our stations in Kiev, St. Petersburg, Riga, Helsinki, Moskva, and Minsk are ready to receive the transmission. We will conduct a test run in ten minutes with you as the model,” Philip informed.

“Sounds fine with me,” Alexander replied and gestured for Philip to proceed.

After Philip left the room, Alexander rubbed both of his hands to calm his nerves. Normally speaking to a big crowd like in his speeches, his exhibition in his original world, conventions, has been a walk in the park for him. But somehow, he can’t help but feel nervous about him facing the camera that’ll be broadcasted to different stations. Maybe because he just introduced television, an important technological piece of the modern world. He might not be nervous but excited about the prospect of himself being live on television. Not just any live broadcast but the first broadcast of this world.

Ten minutes later, Philip hailed Alexander by flicking his finger.

“Sir…are you ready? We’re all set,” Philip said while giving Alexander a thumbs up.

“Yeah,” Alexander replied, exhaling deeply and getting off the sofa to face the television camera.

“Okay, let’s do this…we’ll broadcast in 5…4…3…2…1, go!” Philip signaled, causing Alexander to fix his tie and clear his throat.

He stared at the television camera, its cold lenses staring silently at him, and spoke.

“Hello, this is Alexander Romanoff, the Emperor of the Ruthenia Empire and the founder of the Imperial Dynamic Systems. If you’re seeing and hearing me from your television, it means that it is working. I want to congratulate you all for taking part in this project. Your hard work deserves the best possible outcome,” Alexander paused briefly and continued speaking.

“Today marks a new era where we can bring ourselves together closer. This is the end of the age where we can only hear the voice of the speaker but see them as well…”

As Alexander continued speaking in front of the television camera, the studios from each city gaped upon the sights of Alexander making gestures on the television almost instantaneously and in real-time.

“It’s His Majesty!”

“This is the power of television!”

“It’s amazing! We can see and hear him clearly!”

“This test is a success!”

…

Now you might be wondering how early television transmission or broadcasting works. To give you some insights, let’s start with the television itself. The electron gun in the cathode ray tube shoots a stream of tiny negative particles at the face of the field. The fluorescent coating on the screen glows where the electron beam strikes.

Moving on to the television camera that Alexander is facing, there is this material called image orthicon. Inside it is an electron gun that shoots out a speedy stream of electrons, a target for picking up electrical charges, and a sensitive plate for capturing the image formed by the lens. When the lens forms an image on the sensitive plate, it sets up a charge on the target, attracting the stream of electrons; upon contact, the electron returns to the field which will be then transmitted and televised.

Confused? Let’s try an example, let’s imagine a single dot. In the camera tube, the lens forms an image of the dot on the plate, setting up a charge on the target. According to the brightness of the image, the electron beam is changed when it returns from the target. This changed beam is amplified and sent out by the tube. In the television transmitter, this picture image is amplified and combined with a very high-frequency carrier wave produced by a carrier wave generator.

The carrier wave with the fluctuation caused by the image of the dot goes to the transmitter antenna located above the studio where it is radiated.

The receiver antenna picks up the wave and sends it down the lead-in wires to the receiver of the television where it’ll strike the fluorescent face hard enough to make a dot on the receiver screen.

But television is more than a dot, it’s a whole picture that moves. To understand how television makes pictures that move, think of this.

When you’re reading this chapter, you don’t read the whole page at once. You read it word by word, swinging your eyes across line after line.

In the TV tube, the beam of electrons can do much the same, only it’s reading at 30 000 000 m/s or ? the speed of light. They are affected by magnetic fields of deflecting coils which cause the electron to sweep back and forth across the target. They can also make the beam swing up and down. Together, they swing the beam across one line then back to cross another lower down and still another lower. In short, the beam looks at each point of the picture and it varies according to the brightness of each point.

The movement of the beam in the camera is accurately timed in the tv transmitter by a sync generator, which generates synchronizing pulses. These pulses are also sent out over the air as part of the video signal. In the receiver of the television, these pulses synchronize the sweep of the electron beam to the station being received. And as the beam sweeps back and forth line after line, the strength of the beam keeps changing, modulated by the video signal. In short, the camera and the receivers in the television watching the moving image are electronically linked together.

However, the very high and ultra-high frequencies cannot be received beyond the horizon, thus limiting the tv reception.

So sometimes, television transmitters are linked by a coaxial cable that carries a tv signal. Or by relay stations, where it receives a signal through its antenna, boosted stronger, and transmitted to the next station.

So how does the television station in other cities pick up the signal broadcasted and transmitted in Moskva? By cable.

“Cut!” Philip announced and ended the transmission.

“How was it?” Alexander asked.

“It’s good, sir. The television works!”

Alexander let out a satisfied smile “This is just the start…we’ll be bringing a lot of marvels such as television into the world. We’ll make the Ruthenia Empire the symbol of the modern world.”