Television's Pirates: Hiding behind your picture tube - Hardcover

Robert B. Cooper

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 097779802X ISBN 13: 9780977798025

Publisher: Far North Cablevision, Ltd., 2006

Synopsis

Television's development, while often attributed to major corporations such as RCA, in fact has been the culmination of unexpected efforts by individual backyard inventors. It is no coincidence the majority of such developments originated in the work shops of amateur or 'ham' radio operators using rudimentary tools and driven by the challenge from experts who insisted, 'that cannot be done - or we would have already done it.' The earliest televisors (reception sets) were amateur designed and built. The first cable television system in America was conceptualised and created by a 'ham'. And the very first reception of satellite television in a private, home environment was accomplished by amateurs. Virtually every aspect of television's development, from the late 30s through to present day delivery of television via the web, has had one or more backyard inventor at the core of discovery and commercial exploitation. Television's Pirates is the story of hundreds of individuals who collectively made television the technological marvel it has become today. What sets this book apart from others is the very personal, human stories of these individuals whom the author has known from 1950 onward as each appeared on the scene with an 'invention' destined to improve the technology behind the transmission or reception of television services. 'Pirates'? A descriptive term identifying those who did what they did from outside the established corporate framework of invention and development. And as television matured from a free over the air broadcast service to cable and later satellite, requiring payment of a fee to 'subscribe', an underground movement developed. 'Any encryption system they can design we can break' became the mantra for an entire generation of home workshop creators who sought to take apart, one byte at a time, pay television barriers to free access. From the earliest 'pirates' in the hills of Pennsylvania pioneering cable television systems in 1950 to the Canadian software hackers creating wide scale pilferage of pay services such as The DISH Network satellite service in 2006, it is all here. If you have ever pondered how television became the major influence it is today, Television's Pirates will answer your questions in 69 skilfully prepared chapters. (For additional background,bobcooper.tv)

About this title

About the Author

Robert B. Cooper is widely recognised as the 'guru' behind home satellite dishes which he pioneered and made a national phenomenon by revealing dish reception in a TV Guide feature report (October 1978). This was followed by a CBS Evening News field report on Halloween eve (1978); within ten days more than twenty thousand letters poured in to Coop all asking the same question: 'How can I have one of these things?' In fact Coop had been 'upsetting' the television world for nearly 20 years at that point in time. In 1956, while still a lad in high school, his monthly column in Radio Electronics Magazine detailed long distance television reception. By 1960 he had formed Horizons Publications (Inc.) which was publishing the first-ever trade journals for the infant cable television, two-way radio communications and CB radio worlds. Practicing what he preached in print, Coop began designing and building then-modern 12 channel cable TV systems in 1964 throughout California's Sierra Nevada range foothills. In 1970 he perfected a gadget to allow professional football fans to view their home town team games which were blacked out by their local station. The 'All American Sports Amplifier' (AASA) appeared on the front cover of news-stand distributed Popular Electronics (September 1971) and more than 10,000 units were sold that fall launching his CADCO (Community Antenna Development Company) manufacturing business. CADCO went on to become an important supplier to small and medium size cable television system operators. But his first love remained publishing and he launched CATJ (Community Antenna Television Journal) in 1974 to serve the 'mom and pop' cable TV system operators throughout North America. Within two years CATJ became the widest read and most influential publication in the wired nation world. CATJ spent 20 pages in October 1976 explaining every aspect of satellite television delivery of HBO movies nation-wide to cable system operators and raised the question, 'Why does the FCC mandate all such receiving dish systems must be licensed and use a dish of 9 meters or larger aperture?' He would go on to guide the development of dishes as small as 2 meters size (1978) and this break- through set the stage for the (above mentioned) TV Guide article that effectively kicked off the home satellite dish revolution. Coop created the first 'Satellite Private Terminal Seminar' (August 1979) which had 500 in attendance with all seats sold out more than a month before the event. This in turn jump-started the creation of several dozen firms that would grow into important equipment suppliers to the new industry. In 1980 he moved his family to the remote and largely unknown Turks & Caicos Islands in the British West Indies where he established West Indies Video (Ltd) as a significant publishing house that also produced hundreds of hours of industrial and consumer video. From 1979 to 1986, his CSD (Coop's Satellite Digest) was the leading publication in the home satellite industry reaching 200 pages per month in two editions (printed at two-week intervals). When, in January 1986, the cable industry began scrambling of satellite delivered programming, Coop spearheaded an effort to test the security of the Videocipher design. It failed the 'test' and against the advice of Coop and other industry leaders who recognised the short term devastation of what had been a viable industry before scrambling, the home dish politicians accepted the defective system. Shortly thereafter the home dish industry went into a tail spin from which it never recovered. From 1990 to the present Coop with wife Gay and son Seth have lived in the Far North of New Zealand (actually, in Coopers Beach!) where his current monthly publication SatFACTS is now in year 14 of continuous production.

Edition details

• Publisher: Far North Cablevision, Ltd.
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 097779802X
• ISBN 13: 9780977798025
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Ina Claus
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 928
• Editor: R.B. Cooper