ABSTRACT
Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are not transmission tools like satellites and fiber optic cables, but combined with those transmission methods they have dramatically altered television production local, national, and global in terms of both equipment and coverage. When you combine the country-jumping, continent-jumping speed of satellites and light-weight fiber optic cable with the facility of solid-state CCD cameras, you can see just how much the world has opened up for global TV producers and directors. First developed by Bell Laboratories in 1969, CCDs have been much researched and used by NASA. Cameras made with CCDs are lighter, smaller, easier to handle, and more rugged. The resolution and quality of pictures from solid-state cameras aren't as good as those from a tube camera, but except in a highly controlled studio setting no one seems to care.
