(Photo: NHK STRL)

NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) has been reflecting on its role in the development of television in Japan over the past 70 years.

The country’s public broadcaster NHK began TV broadcasting on 1 February 2023 with the launch of its Tokyo Television Station.

Apart from the Image Orthicon Camera, all broadcast equipment used at that time was designed by STRL and made in Japan. STRL had been founded more than 20 years earlier, on 1 June 1930.

This trend continued in the ensuing years, as STRL research led to a long line of tools and devices developed and made in Japan.

These included the technology needed for the launch of colour television broadcasting in 1960 and the cameras and satellite-broadcasting technology used to live-broadcast the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (pictured).

Later developments were high-vision research, research on satellite broadcasting and the launch of satellite and terrestrial digital broadcasting, including a 4K/8K satellite broadcast service.

From February, NHK has been broadcasting a variety of programmes that look back on TV’s footsteps in the past 70 years.