ABSTRACT
Being at the front end of the television production chain, television cameras not only perform the basic functions of converting optical into electrical energy and generating the video signal, but also set the upper limit of picture quality that the chain is able to offer. All subsequent units that handle the video signal in different ways (amplifying, distributing, recording, or using it to achieve some special effects) cannot improve its quality; they can only introduce some more or less objectionable degradations. These degradations are particularly apparent in the case of analog production and distribution chains. The quality of the picture signal is, in principle, better protected in all-digital chains, but bear in mind that even these chains are not 100% transparent, especially if they encompass cascaded compression codecs. Consequently, to assess the quality, or the level of transparency, of any given television production and distribution chain, it is the video signal at the output of the camera to which we should compare the picture at the output of the system.
