Sony Jumbotron Image Control System (1998) [pdf]
20 points
3 days ago
| 3 comments
| pro.sony
| HN
avidiax
7 minutes ago
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You can get something very similar in your home today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBd7_uxrq6c
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xattt
3 days ago
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A couple of interesting takeaways:

- Pre-LED Jumbotrons used CRT pixels called "Trinilite" elements. This was a proprietary Sony technology where each sub-pixel or "cell" was a miniaturized CRT assembly. Each resolved one pixel each.

- A "maximum" NTSC configuration consisting of 40 units wide would result in a horizontal resolution of just 640 dots.

- The display needed a calibration using a “Screen Alignment Unit” (the JME-SA200). This unit used a remote modem chain involving a "cellular phone" and "digital data card." This means that Jumbotron techs could dial in over 1998-era mobile networks to geometrically align a stadium-sized wall of vacuum tubes as they sat in the middle of said stadium.

I also found the format of the manual interesting, because it follows the same style of consumer-grade Sony devices from that period.

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Nextgrid
47 minutes ago
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zdimension
1 hour ago
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Off-topic, but this ongoing trend of brands getting TLDs is really starting to infuriate me. It's not what TLDs are for! Sony is a Japanese company, so it should use sony.com or sony.jp.
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ralph84
14 minutes ago
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There's no inherent reason to restrict the number of TLDs. The best way to combat rent seeking from registries is to allow any organization that has the technical capability to operate a registry.
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ErneX
44 minutes ago
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That’s not what the ICANN thinks, and this started in 2012:

https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/about/program

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