We here at FTC sure do love our FTC Vision. But before we could get to the point to provide our customers with the absolute best television experience humanly possible, a few things had to happen. And for all of our TV goodness, we can thank one Mr. John Walson.
Since its birth in 1948, cable television, which was formerly known as Community Antenna Television (CATV), has made many strides to get to the current great service FTC provides through FTC Vision.
The service was started by Mr. Walson and his wife Margaret in the spring of 1948 through the Service Electric Company they formed in the mid-1940s to sell, install and repair General Electric appliances in the Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania area. In 1947, the Walsons also began selling television sets. However, Mahanoy City residents had problems receiving the three nearby Philadelphia network stations with local antennas because of the region's surrounding mountains. With necessity being the mother of invention, Walson erected an antenna on a utility pole on a local mountain top that enabled him to relay the signal of the Philadelphia stations to those within his neighborhood.
Walson connected the mountain antennae to his appliance store via a cable and modified signal boosters and in June 1948, he connected the mountain antennae to both his store and several of his customers' homes that were located along the cable path, thus beginning the nation’s first CATV system.
Recognized by the U.S. Congress and the National Cable Television Association as the founder of the cable television industry, Walson was also the first cable operator to use microwave rays to import distant television stations, the first to use coaxial cable for improved picture quality and the first to distribute pay television programming like Home Box Office (HBO).
From here, flash forward to the late 1990s and the advent of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), which is the platform your viewing of FTC Vision is transmitted.
IPTV is a state-of-the-art digital television service that has signal delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats. Only the content the subscriber requests is streamed to the home, and, as a result, channel capacity is virtually unrestricted. A true value of the service is increased content and functionality, including personalization and the opportunity for future interactivity.
The first show to be broadcast in this manner was ABC's World News Now in 1994. It was done so via a precursor to IPTV, the CU-SeeMe videoconferencing software.
Now as we move into the next decade of the 21st century, we at FTC are proud to be on the cutting edge of television technology with FTC Vision. Our service provides you with more channels, features and a more enhanced viewing experience than traditional cable television.
To learn more about FTC Vision, click here .
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