Television, a scientist's dream since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, became a reality on April 7th, 1927 when both the voice and image of US Secretary of Commerce - and future President - Herbert Hoover were transmitted from Washington to the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York.
At this point, television was still five years away from any practical use and it was the world's phone companies, not the few existing radio stations, that perceived it as a threat to their dissemination of information. This is why the Bell company was so keen to be in on the new medium from the start. This was a remarkable indicator from day one as to where the technology was headed. In the near future, TV companies will provide domestic phone services and phone companies will bring you TV.
On November 2nd, 1936, the BBC broadcast its first television programmes, from Alexandra Palace, London. Adele Dixon, a popular singer at the time, greeted it as: "A mighty maze of mystic magic rays, all about us in the blue . . . "
That particular TV revolution lasted less than three years. With the advent of the second World War, BBC Television suddenly ceased broadcasting on September 1st, 1939 in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon. That same cartoon was shown in full on June 8th, 1946 when television re-opened to cover the Victory Parade.
Within a couple of years, BBC was broadcasting two hours of television a day. The press however, while generally welcoming the development, worried that BBC would soon run out of ideas with which to fill 14 hours a week.
Wind forward 50-odd years. The several-hundred-channel, 24-hours-a-day, world of digital television is now a reality. Some Irish households already have it via satellite from the UK, and within a couple of years we are all likely to have some form of digital TV, be it cable, terrestrial or satellite.
We no longer wonder if the allotted programme time can be filled and only occasionally consider whether it will be any good. Welcome to a new TV age, which Channel 4's Big Brother has given us just a taste of. While Big Brother is a product of terrestrial, analogue television, programmes which use multiple cameras to observe people going about their daily lives are likely to be a more common feature of new digital stations.
So, why is the future of TV digital? Partly because analogue TV has just about reached its limit. There is little possibility for further channels, picture quality is as good as it can get and Teletext and subtitle services provide only the barest amount of information.
Because it compresses a television picture into a much smaller bandwidth, digital is a more efficient way of sending television signals, allowing suppliers to offer additional channels and interactive services such as banking, e-mail, Internet access and phone lines. Digital pictures are clearer and sharper, and the stereo sound is CD quality.
In just over a year's time there will be four digital television companies operating in Ireland. Three of these will operate as cable digital suppliers: the multinational NTL (formerly Cablelink); Irish Multi-channel, which operates principally in Cork and Limerick; and Eircom, which is updating its phone network to carry television signals. In addition to this, there will be a digital terrestrial television company which will use what are currently RTE masts.
A typical digital service offers a "menu" of different types of programming, such as news, films and children's broadcasts. Using the remote control to click into one of these leads to a display of all the channels offering this kind of programming, showing what is on each channels now, in half an hour's time and in an hour's time.
Once you pick a channel, there are many and vast changes to what has been available until now. One of the immediate benefits is "interactivity" - a word you'll be hearing a lot more of. This, for example, allows you at the touch of a button to follow a different news story to the one being presented "live". You can also opt for headlines only, or a continuous feed of the weather forecast, for example.
On a sports channel, you can watch earlier goals and highlights you have missed or want to see again, and it also allows you to view the action from different camera angles whenever you want. Any incident during a match can be replayed 30 seconds after it has happened.
According to Vic Wakeling, managing director of Sky Sports, "the digital revolution is not just about more channels. It's about having a different way of watching television and of choosing how you want to watch television. This is the future and it is a unique way of watching football."
With movies, you need not worry if you miss the start of the best film of the night, as it will be starting on another channel 15 minutes later and again on another 15 minutes after that.
Gerry Reynolds, controller of digital channels at RTE, is upbeat about the oncoming revolution. "People will be very well served by digital channels. They will give them something different and distinctive," he said.
TV3's director of operations in technology, Peter Ennis, is more cautious. "There's no great public clamour [for digital TV]. I think it's going to be a hard sell. There are aspects the public are going to resist, such as needing a set-top box to record videos from digital," he said.
Obviously, with up to 300 channels being made available here in the coming years, the vast majority of them will not be Irish. Many people will be wondering what this means for Irish-produced content. According to Dwyer McCaughley, digital TV manager at NTL, they need not worry. "The advent of digital TV will offer Irish programme makers greater opportunities and will facilitate local content. The increased capacity on the network will pave the way for additional channels, which will mean a greater need for additional programmes. We are confident Irish programme makers will fill the extra capacity with quality content," he said.
Gerry Reynolds echoes the point. "I think quality is the key, and I think Irish is the key. RTE is a very strong brand and we'll be producing content when the delivery system is ready, early next year. We'll start supplying a news service, with a lot of regional input, as soon as we can," he said. RTE also plans to provide an education/learning channel and a youth channel as early as possible.
By the time the State broadcaster gets up and running in the digital world, however, NTL says it will be well into "Phase 1" of its three-year digital timetable. Irish Multi-channel, meanwhile is due to begin a trial run of its service in 500 Cork homes in the coming weeks. Each is likely to offer 40-50 channels initially.
TV3 currently has no set timetable for digital television. "It is difficult to know at this stage. We're still waiting to see what revisions there are to the 1999 Broadcasting Bill. We're holding fire until we see the Bill, but we will be involved in digital," says Peter Ennis.
The cost of the coming digital services is anything but clear at this stage. No one seems willing to commit to a price structure without first seeing what competitors are likely to offer. However, the set-top box needed to bring the digital signal to TVs was provided free in the UK. If, as in the UK, different companies offer broadly similar channel packages, few people are likely to be willing to pay even a small fee if another operator is offering the initial connection free.
ONdigital, the UK digital terrestrial company, charges £9.99 sterling a month for 10 "free to view" channels and six additional channels of the viewer's choice, along with a free shopping channel. Adding all of Sky's sports and movie channels costs an extra £20 sterling a month.
The price structure here might be vague, but one thing is certain: television as we know it is on its last legs. Given the digital sets which will come on the market to take advantage of the new services, your current TV may soon be used only for watching old video tapes.
Padraig Collins can be contacted at pcollins@irish-times.com