Glossary
- Broadcast gear/equipment
- Equipment used to produce material for broadcast,
generally this is the highest quality of equipment available. It
doesn't mean ordinary television or radio sets designed to receive a
broadcast signal.
- Broadcast quality/standard
- The highest quality of signal generation, and producing signals
according to the specifications (dictated by law, convention, and/or
particular technical requirements).
- Bus
- A signal line where a number of signals all connect together.
For example, on an audio mixer, a master bus would be where all the
signals to be sent to the master output join together. It usually
is a wire that runs under all the input modules, with a tap into each
one it passes by. i.e. A bus in the traditional
sense, not just something that apparently behaves like one.
- Distortion
- When the signal has errors in it. It may be a very harsh
distortion, that's abundantly obvious, or it may be something that's
only apparent to someone who knows what it's really supposed to be
like.
- Domestic gear
- Equipment produced for home use, generally inferior to everything
else in quality and features. Generally designed only to handle
receiving/playing signals of broadcast standard, and may cope poorly
when having cope with out-of-specification signals.
- Feedback
- The output of something getting back into its input, and causing an
oscillation which creates noise or
visual effects.
- Foldback
- Sending an audio signal back to performers, to listen to while they're
performing, for them to work along with. It might be for them to hear
themselves, to hear the music their singing along with, or a mixed feed.
- Full scale
- Meaning to use the absolute maximum that is possible. For
metering, “full scale deflection” means the meter indicating all the
way up to the top of the scale. For signal strength, “full scale”
means absolute maximum signal level (which may be above full scale
deflection on some meter scales).
- Industrial gear
- Generally a lot more robust, and has more features, than domestic
gear. It may aspire to get close to broadcast standard but
usually doesn't (doesn't adhere to specifications as tightly, doesn't
have the amount of features desireable in broadcast gear,
etc.), and doesn't cost as much.
- Preview monitor
- Generally a video term, but could be applied to audio. It's a monitor
for checking a signal before you actually make use of it. Depending on
what you need to check, you may need a very expensive monitor. See the
preview monitoring page for more details.
- Underscan
Site contents
Main sections: