Electronic sources can be any format of video tape, DVDs or computer-generated moving images utilizing the applicable playback device (such as a VCR, DVD player or computer) and exhibited using a television monitor, projection or other screen-based device.
The earliest works used television sets as sculptural objects but by the late 1960s video recorders became readily available and artists began experimenting with the potential to record performances and conceptual works addressing the medium itself and critiquing broadcast television and commercial film.
Not being able to project the image as with film, the playback of video tapes was left to monitors placed in galleries and alternative art spaces.
Video cooperatives and distribution centres emerged following the experimental film model.
[1] As multiple channels became possible, artists continued to work in single-channel, exhibiting in a number of venues beyond the gallery and the term single-channel video has expanded from a video tape played back on a monitor to any work produced from a single electronic source or, in fact, any work consisting of a single moving image regardless of source.