Rom Rosenblum, Applications Engineer at Clear-Com explains some of the most common TV terms in the industry. How many of these do you know?
1) EIC: The Engineer-in-charge is the guy or gal who
runs the studio or truck and is the primary source of information pertaining
to all things that are technical.
2) Tape
Room: The “tape" or video storage room is where the playback machines are
operated. In the modern world, the word “tape” is not even used, but the terms
“hard drive recording” are used. In the old days, Sony beta machines, ¾ inch
machines, 1 inch and even 2 inch machines from way back were used for playback.
It’s also sometimes colloquially referred to by the audio guys as the “snake
pit”.
3) Elvis:
This is the common term for a tapeless playback device. EVS’s ™ LSM® was the
most common machine. It had a series of hard drives all controlled synchronously
for video and audio playback.
4) Melt: This term is most commonly used in sports
broadcast and refers to all the day’s highlights. These highlights are edited
together in a stream and “shipped down the line” to the station over the
transmission lines, or brought back to the station on a tape or removable
medium, from the remote site for archiving and playback later.
5) A-1: The head audio engineer in a broadcast. This
person is responsible for all audio in the broadcast and will manipulate the
sounds of the show accordingly. The better ones also control the intercoms and
route the IFBs for talent.
6) A-2: The A-2 is the assistant to the A-1. This
person reports to the A-1 and sets up all the audio gear and the mics the
talent use to keep the whole show running.
7) IFB: This
stands for Interruptible Fold Back. “Fold Back” is an audio monitor. The interrupt
part is achieved when a producer pushes a button on the intercom panel to
break the signal going to the talent’s ear, and replaces it with the producer’s
voice. This is used for cueing and informational purposes.
8) PL: A common and often misunderstood term that stands
for “Party Line”. It is also the common term for an intercom system. A party line
is most often an audio conference that can be heard by anyone listening and
they can be, in turn, heard by anyone on that PL. This is used more frequently
than a “point-to-point” communication device, which is found on more
sophisticated systems.
9) Mult: A multi-cabled “snake” or fat cable that
contains many cables inside, so one only has to drag one large cable instead of
a collection of many thinner cables. Hopefully, they are labeled correctly on
each end!
10) Pair: A whole cable, usually within a mult. A 12-pair
mult would have 12 mic cables contained within it, for a total of 36
wires. Each mic cable has one twisted
pair (two twisted wires) and a ground drain, and all three are separately
shielded and contained in one jacketed sleeve. Then, the whole bundle is wrapped
in a single sleeve.
11) “Wet” vs.
“Dry” lines: When we refer to a line or circuit
as “dry”, we mean that there is voltage on that line to power up a beltpack, a
remote station or a microphone. A “dry” line would be an unpowered audio or
data circuit. Sometimes, a “dry pair” cable is used for mics or line
connections. “Dry pair” is the common term for phone company wires. Analog
phone lines are also wet.
12) Turnaround: Commonly a male to male or female to female
XLR adapter. It is used to change the “sex” of the connector.
13) Shore
Power: When using power from the “house”, which is the building you are in, that
is considered shore power. This is not the case when using a portable
generator.
14) I/O
panel: The Input / Output connector panel
on a TV truck or studio wall is where we plug in all the connectors to
interface to and from the show.
15) Single-Muff
and Double-Muff: Intercom headsets come in the one ear-cup and two ear-cup
varieties. The single muff is most
commonly used in quiet work environments and for hand held cameras, as the
right ear-cup would bump against the side of the camera on your right shoulder.
16) “When’s
lunch?”: This is the most often asked question. It is usually asked at CALL,
when one arrives on site.
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