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The first edition of Television Technical Theory - Unplugged was a 275-page spiral-bound publication called Citytv/MuchMusic Television Operations Technical Reference Manual: An Inquiry Into Things Enigmatic. Quite a mouthful. A labour of love, it was the result of almost two years of part-time work - a personal quest into the way that television works. Though the book was printed in late1991 at Citytv, it all started two years before, when I realized that there was no single inexpensive source of information that would explain how the television system worked as a whole. Moreover, it was important that I described the operation of this complex place in plain English. A derivation of this volume was used when I began teaching at Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1994. By 1995, technology had been advancing by its usual leaps and bounds, so the book was completely reformatted in August of that year. The book was re-titled to reflect its new role as the main reference notes for the BRD 218/228 Television Technical Theory course I was teaching. A somewhat updated version, encompassing Digital Video and compression technologies, was rewritten and reformatted for the fall of 1996. The chapter on DTV: The Future of Television was added in 1998. In 1999, Version 4 went through another title change to more clearly reflect its general audience: Television Technical Theory: Unplugged and was first published on the Internet. With this new release into the planet's online computers, it was, and still is, a small token of my appreciation to the dozens of people who have contributed to its development over the last decade, and a dedication to those countless individuals who have worked in the industry with me over the last twenty-five years. Version 5.0 is a revamped edition with additional illustrations and updated text. And so, what you have here in no way resembles the first publication of almost ten years ago. Anyone interested in television technology should enjoy Television Technical Theory: Unplugged. The more you know about something, the better you are able to appreciate it. In our business this is especially true. The place we call a television station requires the cooperation of dozens of individuals to get a show on the air. This work is yours to do with what you will. If you have a paper bound copy, I especially encourage writing in the margins, colouring in the pictures - anything that will make the book your own personal passport into the world of television technology. If you are accessing this work from somewhere in the world beyond Ryerson University, please help yourself. I only ask one thing in return: use this knowledge, in some small way, to help out a friend, your community, or an organization, to help make our world a slightly better place for all of us. I hope that it becomes a handy reference for things technical in your televised world. Enjoy!
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