How televisions are made
Only 0.5% of U.S. households had a television in 1946, and 90% had one by 1962.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 91
- raw sources
- 26
- steps from the ground
- 10
The short version
A modern flat television is built around a display panel, either an LCD with an LED backlight or an OLED. A circuit board with a processor and memory drives the panel. The panel, boards, speakers and power supply are fixed into a thin frame and plastic housing, then tested with test patterns.
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Make the display panel
Glass is patterned with transistors in a clean fab, then joined with color filters and liquid crystal, or coated with organic light-emitting films.
Goes in -
Attach the backlight
For LCD models, strips of white LEDs behind or beside the panel provide light, spread by a diffuser plate.
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Mount the circuit boards
The main board with the processor and memory decodes pictures. Other boards handle power and the panel's timing.
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Mold the housing
Plastic back covers and frames are injection-molded.
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Fit the stand and speakers
Speakers, a stand and a remote-control receiver join the panel in the frame.
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Test with patterns
Each set shows test patterns and is checked for dead pixels and color accuracy.
Worth repeating
- By the early 2010s, flat LCD sets with LED backlights had largely replaced the glass picture tube.
- Modern flat sets handle resolutions up to 8K.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and television starts as these 26 raw sources.
Everything it is made of See it on the map
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Sources
Cite this page: "How televisions are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/television