349 termsEN · 繁中

Glossary 詞彙表

Learn the English term as the operational one. Every menu, every error message and every conversation on an international crew is in English. The Chinese is there to build the concept.

Roughly 351 terms, grouped by domain. Bring it to every session. Add to it.

On the Chinese: 繁中 terms follow Taiwan convention, with common Hong Kong variants noted where they differ meaningfully. Where a term also appears in showstack, the open index of live entertainment technology, this glossary follows showstack's wording, because that entry carries a source and this one does not. showstack covers the craft vocabulary this module does not: rigging, power, scenic, access, and the false friends that cause real confusion on headset. Learn the English term as the operational one, because every menu, every error message, every piece of paperwork and every conversation on an international crew is in English. The Chinese is there to build the concept. The English is what you say on headset.

常見地區差異：網路（台）／網絡（港）、數位（台）／數碼（港）、解析度（台）／解像度（港）、影格（台）／幀（通用）。

A. Foundations 基礎概念#

English	繁中	What it is, and why it matters
Bit	位元	One binary digit, 0 or 1. The smallest unit of everything in this module.
Byte	位元組	Eight bits. One DMX slot is one byte, which is why a DMX level has 256 steps.
Binary	二進位	Counting with only 0 and 1. Why values keep landing on 256, 512 and 1024.
Sampling	取樣	Measuring a continuous signal at regular intervals. How sound becomes numbers.
Sample rate	取樣率	How many measurements per second. 48 kHz is the professional standard.
Bit depth	位元深度	How precisely each measurement is stored. 24 bit is the production standard.
Quantisation	量化	Rounding each measurement to the nearest available value. The rounding error is the noise floor.
Nyquist frequency	奈奎斯特頻率	Half the sample rate. The highest frequency you can represent. 48 kHz gives 24 kHz, above human hearing.
Dynamic range	動態範圍	The span between the quietest and loudest usable signal. About 6.02 dB per bit.
ADC	類比數位轉換器	Analogue to digital converter. Where sound becomes numbers. Adds a small, fixed latency.
DAC	數位類比轉換器	Digital to analogue converter. Where numbers become sound again.
Analogue	類比	A continuously varying signal. Voltage that looks like the waveform.
Digital	數位（港：數碼）	A signal represented as numbers. Copyable without loss, and requiring a clock.
Hexadecimal (hex)	十六進位	Base 16, digits 0 to F. One byte is exactly two hex digits, `00` to `FF`, which is the only reason it is used.
Two's complement	二補數	How a signed number is stored in bytes. At 16 bit it gives the range −32,768 to +32,767, with silence at 0.
Endianness	位元組順序	Whether the low byte or the high byte is written first. WAV is little endian, AIFF and PNG are big endian. Read one as the other and you get full scale noise.
Magic number	檔案識別碼	The fixed first bytes that say what a file really is. `FF D8 FF` is always a JPEG, whatever the extension says.
Header	檔頭	The block at the start of a file describing what follows: rate, channels, size, resolution. A player reads it before it can play anything.
Checksum / CRC	校驗碼	A value computed over data so a reader can tell it arrived intact. The difference between knowing a file is corrupt and guessing.
CPU	中央處理器	The general purpose processor. Limits how much work fits between two deadlines.
Core	核心	One independent processing unit inside a CPU. More cores helps parallel work, not serial work.
Clock speed	時脈速度	How fast a processor cycles. Matters most for a single serial chain, such as one audio channel of plugins.
RAM	記憶體	Fast working memory. Limits how much media can be held ready rather than fetched from disk.
Storage	儲存裝置	Where files live. Judge it by sustained throughput, not by capacity.
Sustained throughput	持續傳輸速率	The speed a drive can actually hold for minutes. The number that matters for playback.
Burst speed	突發速度	The peak speed a drive can hit briefly. The number in the advertisement. Not useful to you.
SSD	固態硬碟	Solid state drive. No moving parts. SATA SSDs read at roughly 550 MB/s.
NVMe	NVMe 固態硬碟	A fast SSD connected over PCIe. Thousands of MB/s. What a media server needs.
GPU	圖形處理器	Graphics processor. Does three separate jobs: render, decode and output.
PCIe	PCIe 匯流排	The high speed internal bus. Everything fast connects through it and shares its capacity.
Bus	匯流排	Any shared internal pathway. Shared means contended.
Driver	驅動程式	Software that lets the operating system talk to hardware. The wrong audio driver is why your first attempt sounded late.
ASIO	ASIO	The low latency audio driver standard on Windows. Use it.
Core Audio	Core Audio	The built in low latency audio system on macOS.
Operating system	作業系統	The software that decides which program runs when. Not built for your deadline.
Kernel	核心程式	The core of the operating system. Where scheduling decisions are made.
Real time OS	即時作業系統	An operating system that guarantees a deadline. Your show machine is almost certainly not running one.
Buffer	緩衝區	A holding area that absorbs timing variation. The only defence against jitter, and it costs latency.
Buffer size	緩衝區大小	How many samples are processed per block. 128 samples at 48 kHz is 2.67 ms.
Dropout	爆音／斷音	An audible click or gap when a deadline is missed.
Latency	延遲	Delay. If it is constant, measure it and compensate for it. It is a budget, not a fault.
Jitter	抖動	Variation in delay. Cannot be compensated for, only absorbed by a buffer. This is what breaks shows.
Bandwidth	頻寬	How much data a link can carry per second.
Data rate	資料速率	How much data a signal actually produces per second. Compare it against bandwidth.
Firmware	韌體	Software inside a device. Fixtures, nodes and switches all run firmware, and it can be out of date.
Boot	開機	Starting up. How long a system takes to boot from cold is a real operational number. Measure it.

B. Media formats 媒體格式#

English	繁中	What it is, and why it matters
Codec	編解碼器	The compression method. H.264, ProRes, HAP. Says how the picture is stored.
Container	容器格式	The file wrapper. `.mov`, `.mp4`, `.mkv`. Says how the parts are packed, not how they are compressed.
Intra frame	幀內壓縮	Every frame is complete on its own. Large files, instant scrubbing. Right for show playback.
Inter frame	幀間壓縮	Frames described as differences from other frames. Small files, slow jumps. Right for delivery.
H.264 / H.265	H.264／H.265	Inter frame delivery codecs. What clients send you. Not what you play back from.
ProRes	ProRes	Intra frame mezzanine codec. Large, high quality, edits and plays back well.
HAP / DXV	HAP／DXV	GPU accelerated intra frame playback codecs. Why a media server can run many layers at once.
Transcode	轉檔	Converting from one codec to another. Turning delivered H.264 into HAP is not bureaucracy, it is what makes a cue jump instantly.
Resolution	解析度（港：解像度）	Pixel dimensions, width by height.
Raster	點陣	The grid of pixels making up a picture.
Frame rate	影格率／幀率	Complete pictures per second. 24, 25, 30, 50, 60. Mismatches cause judder.
Pixel	像素	One picture element. An RGB pixel needs 3 DMX channels when it is a lighting pixel.
Chroma subsampling	色度取樣	Storing less colour detail than brightness detail. 4:4:4, 4:2:2, 4:2:0. Cheap compression that fails on fine coloured text.
Colour depth	色彩深度	Bits per colour component. 8 bit gives 256 steps, 10 bit gives 1024.
Colour space	色彩空間	The definition of what the numbers mean as colours. Mismatches produce washed out or crushed blacks.
Banding	色帶	Visible steps in a smooth gradient. The reason 10 bit matters on a large LED wall.
Judder	畫面頓挫	Uneven motion from a frame rate mismatch. Invisible on a static image, obvious on a slow pan.
Tearing	畫面撕裂	A visible horizontal split when a frame changes mid draw. A genlock problem.
Interlaced	交錯掃描	Half the lines per field, an old broadcast technique. Marked `i`, as in 1080i.
Progressive	逐行掃描	Every line, every frame. Marked `p`, as in 1080p. What you want.
PCM	脈衝編碼調變	Uncompressed audio. Each sample is simply a whole number saying where the waveform was. Nothing clever, and nothing lost.
Luma (Y)	亮度	The brightness plane, `0.299 R + 0.587 G + 0.114 B`. The weights are a measurement of the eye, not a convention.
Chroma (Cb, Cr)	色度	The two colour difference planes. They carry far less detail than luma, which is what makes subsampling almost invisible.
Lossless compression	無失真壓縮	Smaller, and every original byte comes back exactly. PNG and FLAC. Safe for masters, and useless on content with no repetition.
Lossy compression	失真壓縮	Smaller by discarding information permanently. Every delivery format you receive.
Run length encoding (RLE)	遊程編碼	Storing a repeat as a count plus a value. Enormous on a title card, and actually larger than the original on film grain.
Entropy coding	熵編碼	Short codes for common symbols, long codes for rare ones. The same idea as Morse giving `E` one dot. Lossless.
DCT	離散餘弦轉換	The transform that rewrites an 8 × 8 block as coefficients from coarse to fine. Reversible on its own; it only sets up the step that is not.
Quantisation table	量化表	The 64 divisors applied to those coefficients before rounding. This table is the quality setting, and it is stored in the file.
Macroblock	巨集區塊	The block a codec works on. The squares you see when a stream fails were always there; the failure only made them visible.
Motion vector	運動向量	An instruction saying a block is the one from over there, shifted. Cheaper than resending the block, and it is why predictable motion is cheap.
I frame / keyframe	關鍵影格	A complete picture, compressed on its own. The only place an inter frame codec can start decoding.
P frame	預測影格	Stores only what changed since the previous frame.
B frame	雙向預測影格	Looks both backwards and forwards, and stores least of all. Also why decoding order is not display order.
GOP	影像群組	Group of pictures. The repeating I, P, B pattern. A long GOP is small and slow to seek in.
CBR / VBR	固定／變動位元率	Constant bitrate spends the same data every second. Variable bitrate spends it where the picture is hard. VBR looks better; CBR is predictable on a fixed link.
Bitrate	位元率	Data per second of video. It does not depend on resolution alone: confetti at 1080p can cost more than a locked-off shot at 4K.
Additive mixing	加色混合	Adding light of different colours. Red plus green is yellow, and nothing in the beam is yellow: the mixing happens in your eye.
Gamma	伽瑪	The non-linear curve between a stored number and the light emitted. It spends the code values where your eye is sensitive, which is why 8 bit is enough.
Gamut	色域	The set of colours a device can actually reproduce: the triangle formed by its three primaries. Much smaller than what you can see.
Rec.709 / DCI-P3 / Rec.2020	色域標準	Three gamut standards, small to large. HD video, cinema and better walls, and the UHD container that no display fills.
Out of gamut	超出色域	A colour the source recorded and the display cannot make. Something has to give, and which way it gives is a look.
Chromaticity diagram	色度圖	The horseshoe. Every visible colour inside it, every display a triangle within it.
Colour temperature	色溫	Where a white sits along the Planckian locus, in kelvin. It says nothing about how far off that curve you are.
Duv / green-magenta	綠洋紅偏差	The second axis of white. Two fixtures can share a colour temperature and still not match, and the Kelvin control will not fix it.
CRI / TM-30	演色性指數	How faithfully a source renders the colour of the objects it lights. A separate question from hitting a colour target.
Spectral power distribution	光譜功率分布	What is actually in the beam, wavelength by wavelength. Three narrow spikes and a continuous spectrum can look the same and render differently.
CUDA	CUDA	NVIDIA's compute platform. The reason NVIDIA is the industry default: a lot of media software is written against it and has no AMD equivalent.
NVENC / NVDEC	硬體編解碼	Dedicated encode and decode hardware on the GPU. A codec it does not support falls back to the CPU and the layer count collapses.
Mosaic / Eyefinity	多輸出合併	Combining several physical outputs into one desktop. NVIDIA's is professional cards only; AMD's works on consumer cards.
Head count	輸出數量	How many displays one card can drive. Usually four on NVIDIA, up to six on AMD. A hard physical limit, not a setting.
AES3 / AES/EBU	AES3 數位音訊介面	Two channels of digital audio on one balanced pair, self clocking. Point to point, not a network.
MADI (AES10)	MADI	64 channels on one coax or fibre, in a fixed order. No addressing, nothing to configure, which is why it survives.
CobraNet	CobraNet	The first widely used audio over Ethernet. Layer 2 only, fixed latency, dedicated network. Largely superseded.
AVB / Milan	AVB／Milan	Audio networking where the switches reserve bandwidth in advance. The strongest guarantee, and every switch must support it.
Ravenna	Ravenna	Audio over IP built on published standards. Broadcast's answer to the same question Dante answers.
AES67	AES67	Not a product: the rules that let Dante, Ravenna, Q-LAN and Livewire exchange audio. ST 2110-30 is AES67.
ST 2022-6	ST 2022-6	The whole SDI stream wrapped in IP packets. Easy to adopt, and it inherits SDI's braiding.
JPEG XS	JPEG XS	Visually lossless compression with sub frame latency, a few lines rather than a frame.
TMDS	TMDS	The signalling DVI and HDMI use up to HDMI 2.0. HDMI 2.1 replaced it with FRL.
MST	多串流傳輸	DisplayPort carrying several independent displays down one cable. Why one port can drive a wall.
DSC	顯示串流壓縮	Display Stream Compression. Visually lossless, and it changes which formats a cable can carry.
Skew	時間偏差	Bits on parallel lines arriving at slightly different times. Fixed by the cable, and why serial won.
Seek time	尋道時間	How long a spinning disk takes to move its head and wait for the platter. Zero on flash, and the whole argument.
NVMe	NVMe	A storage protocol designed for flash rather than inherited from disks. The interface stopped being the bottleneck.
3D NAND	3D 快閃記憶體	Flash density from stacking cells upward rather than shrinking them sideways.
Quantum teleportation	量子隱形傳態	Real, and it transfers a quantum state, not data faster than light: the protocol needs two ordinary bits sent down a classical channel, so light is still the floor.
Entanglement	量子糾纏	The shared resource teleportation consumes. Distributing it over distance is what quantum repeaters are for.
QKD	量子金鑰分發	Quantum key distribution. It detects whether a link has been listened to. It does not make anything faster.
Hollow core fibre	空芯光纖	Light travelling down air inside the fibre at 99.7 per cent of vacuum speed instead of 68. About a third less latency on the same route.
TSN	時效性網路	Time-Sensitive Networking. Reserved bandwidth and guaranteed delivery windows on ordinary Ethernet. The AVB argument winning the general case.
Propagation delay	傳播延遲	Distance divided by the speed of light in the medium. About 5 microseconds per kilometre in glass fibre, and nothing changes it but a shorter path or a faster medium.
NPU	神經處理單元	Hardware for machine learning arithmetic. Already useful for upscale, denoise and keying. Not deterministic, so not yet in the signal path.
Canvas	畫布	The total pixel area a media server is producing across all outputs.

C. Networking 網路#

English	繁中	What it is, and why it matters
5 GHz Wi-Fi	5 GHz 無線網路	A radio band Wi-Fi uses. Nothing to do with 5G mobile, which is a generation of phone network.
5G mobile	第五代行動網路	The fifth generation of mobile network, run by an operator on licensed spectrum. Not a Wi-Fi band.
Wi-Fi 6E / Wi-Fi 7	Wi-Fi 6E／7	Wi-Fi using the 6 GHz band. Better because it is emptier, not because the medium changed.
Private address range	私有位址範圍	`10.x`, `172.16` to `172.31`, `192.168.x`. Not routed on the internet. Every show network lives in one.
Public address	公有位址	Unique on the internet, issued by a provider. A show device never needs one.
NAT	網路位址轉換	A router swapping private addresses for its one public address and back. Why inbound connections do not just work.
APIPA / 169.254.x.x	自動私有位址	The address a machine gives itself when DHCP got silence. No server, no link, or the wrong VLAN.
Network profile (Windows)	網路類型	Windows labelling a network Public or Private. A firewall setting, nothing to do with addresses, and the usual cause of "it works one way".
ipconfig / ifconfig	位址查詢指令	The first thing you run. Read the address, the mask, the gateway and the MAC, in that order.
ping	連通測試	Asks "are you there" at layer 3. Proves reachability, never correctness.
tracert / traceroute	路徑追蹤	Every router between you and the target. On a show network the answer should be one hop.
arp -a	ARP 表查詢	IP to MAC, locally. The fastest way to find a duplicate IP.
netstat	連線狀態查詢	What is listening and what is connected. Finds two applications fighting over one port.
Network	網路（港：網絡）	Devices sharing a communication medium. The show backbone.
Packet	封包	The layer 3 unit, carrying IP addresses. Survives unchanged across every hop of a journey.
Protocol	通訊協定	The agreed rules for a conversation. sACN, Dante, NDI and OSC are all protocols.
Ethernet	乙太網路	The dominant wired networking standard. The Cat lead and the switch.
Cat5e / Cat6 / Cat6a	Cat5e／Cat6／Cat6a	Copper cable grades. Cat5e handles 1 Gbit, Cat6a handles 10 Gbit to 100 m.
Solid core	實心線	Cable for permanent installation. Fails if repeatedly flexed.
Stranded	絞線	Cable for patch leads that move.
Shielded (STP)	遮蔽線	Cable with a shield against interference. Only works if grounded correctly.
RJ45	RJ45 接頭	The standard Ethernet connector. The tab snaps.
etherCON	etherCON	A ruggedised shell around an RJ45. What you use for anything that gets rigged or stepped on.
Fibre	光纖	Glass, carrying light. Immune to electrical interference, goes much further than copper.
Multi mode	多模光纖	Fibre for in building runs, hundreds of metres.
Single mode	單模光纖	Fibre for long runs, kilometres.
SFP	SFP 模組	A swappable transceiver that turns a switch port into a fibre port.
Switch	交換器	A layer 2 box connecting devices on one network. Forwards by MAC address, passes broadcasts on within the VLAN, and cannot reach another network.
Managed switch	網管型交換器	A switch with configuration: VLANs, IGMP snooping, QoS. More capable and more dangerous.
Unmanaged switch	非網管型交換器	A switch with no configuration. On a small dedicated network this is often the safer choice.
Router	路由器	A layer 3 box joining different networks. Forwards by IP, builds a new frame at every hop, and stops broadcasts. Show networks often have none, deliberately.
Access point	無線基地台	A layer 2 box bridging wireless devices onto an existing wired network. It does not create a network, and it does not route. Operator tablets, never show critical control.
Layer 3 switch	三層交換器	A switch that can also route between its own VLANs. The sensible middle ground on a large permanent installation.
NAT	網路位址轉換	Network address translation, rewriting addresses between an inside and an outside network. Present in every domestic router, and almost never wanted on a show.
Frame	訊框	The layer 2 unit, carrying MAC addresses. Cannot cross a router: it is rebuilt with new MAC addresses at every hop.
Segment / datagram	區段／資料包	The layer 4 unit. Segment for TCP, datagram for UDP. Carries the port numbers.
Broadcast domain	廣播網域	Everything that must receive a broadcast. One VLAN is one broadcast domain, and a router is where it stops.
ARP	位址解析協定	How a device finds the MAC address for an IP address, by asking the whole network. The bridge between layer 2 and layer 3, and why a duplicate IP is so confusing.
TTL	存活時間	A hop counter in every packet, decreasing by one at each router. At zero the packet is discarded, so a routing mistake dies rather than circling forever. It is also how traceroute works.
ICMP	網際網路控制訊息協定	The layer 3 messenger. `ping` and `traceroute` are ICMP, and so are errors like "destination host unreachable".
MTU	最大傳輸單元	The largest payload a frame will carry, normally 1500 bytes. Every device on the path must agree, or large transfers fail while small ones work.
Jumbo frame	巨型訊框	A frame carrying about 9000 bytes instead of 1500, used on some professional media networks. Enable it everywhere on the path or nowhere.
Port number	通訊埠	A layer 4 number, 0 to 65,535, saying which program on a device should receive the data. sACN is 5568, Art-Net 6454, PTP 319 and 320.
Socket	通訊端	An IP address plus a port number. What a program actually listens on.
OUI	製造商識別碼	The first three bytes of a MAC address, identifying the manufacturer. Useful when working out which device is on which switch port.
Frame check sequence	訊框檢查碼	A checksum on every frame. A frame that fails it is discarded silently, which is why a marginal cable gives you missing data rather than corrupted data.
Port	埠	A physical socket on a switch, or a numbered software endpoint such as 5568 for sACN.
Link light	連線指示燈	The LED that means electricity is flowing. It does not mean the network is working.
MAC address	MAC 位址／實體位址	A hardware identifier burned into the device. You look it up, you do not set it.
IP address	IP 位址	The address you assign. Identifies a device on a network.
IPv4	IPv4	The four number addressing scheme, such as `192.168.1.10`. What you will use.
Subnet mask	子網路遮罩	Says which part of the address is the neighbourhood and which is the house. `255.255.255.0` is `/24`.
CIDR	CIDR 標記法	The slash notation for a mask. `/24` means the first 24 bits are the network.
Gateway	閘道	The way out to another network. Show networks often have none.
DNS	網域名稱系統	Turns names into IP addresses. Rarely present on a show network.
DHCP	動態主機設定協定	Hands out addresses automatically. Convenient, and the address can change.
Static IP	固定 IP	An address you set and that stays. What show systems use, so it can be written on paper.
169.254.x.x	自動私有位址	Link local self assignment. It means "I asked for an address and nobody answered." Recognise it on sight.
Private address range	私有位址範圍	`10.x.x.x`, `172.16` to `172.31.x.x`, `192.168.x.x`. Not routed on the public internet.
Unicast	單播	One sender, one specific receiver.
Broadcast	廣播	Sent to everything on the network, whether or not it cares.
Multicast	多播／群播	Sent once, delivered to everyone who subscribed. What sACN and Dante use.
IGMP snooping	IGMP 窺探	How a switch learns which ports actually want a multicast stream.
IGMP querier	IGMP 查詢者	The device that asks the questions keeping subscriptions alive. Missing querier plus snooping on means streams stop minutes later.
VLAN	虛擬區域網路	Making one switch behave as several separate switches. How departments share infrastructure without sharing traffic.
Access port	存取埠	A switch port belonging to one VLAN. Most devices plug into these.
Trunk port	主幹埠	A switch port carrying several tagged VLANs between switches.
QoS	服務品質	Priority. Decides what goes first when a link is congested. How you protect clock and media from management traffic.
Spanning tree	生成樹協定	Prevents loops in a network with redundant paths. Can also cause unexpected pauses.
PoE	乙太網路供電	Power over Ethernet. Note the switch has a total power budget, not just a per port rating.
TCP	傳輸控制協定	Guaranteed, ordered delivery, with retries. Costs latency. Right for commands that must confirm.
UDP	使用者資料流協定	Send and hope. No guarantee. Right for real time media, because a retransmitted packet is worthless.
Ping	Ping	The basic reachability test. Your first tool after the link light.
Packet capture	封包擷取	Recording actual network traffic, usually with Wireshark. How you see a protocol instead of guessing at it.
Topology	網路拓撲	The shape of the network. Star, ring, daisy chain.
Segmentation	網段切分	Keeping traffic apart, physically or by VLAN.
Air gap	網路隔離	A show network with no connection to any other network, ever. The strongest reliability posture.
Firewall	防火牆	Controls what traffic may cross between networks.

D. Lighting control 燈光控制#

English	繁中	What it is, and why it matters
Dimmer curve	調光曲線	The shape between the DMX value and the light. Square law makes fader position match apparent brightness; linear does not.
Square law	平方律	Output is the level squared. It cancels the cube root in your eye's response, which is why it is the usual default.
16 bit / fine channel	十六位元細調通道	A coarse byte plus a fine byte, 65,536 steps. What stops a slow fade or a slow pan from stepping.
PWM	脈寬調變	How an LED dims: switched fully on and off, fast, on for part of each cycle. Your eye averages it; a camera shutter samples it.
Flicker free	無頻閃	A PWM rate high enough that any realistic camera shutter averages hundreds of cycles. Test it with the actual camera.
Personality / mode	通道模式	How many slots a fixture uses and what each one means. Decided by the fixture, not by the desk, and it changes the footprint.
Footprint	佔用通道數	How many consecutive slots a fixture occupies. Next address equals this address plus this footprint.
HTP	最高優先	Highest takes precedence. The larger value wins. Safe for dimmers, and it means you cannot take a channel out.
LTP	最後優先	Latest takes precedence. Necessary for anything that is not a quantity: the highest of two colours is not a colour.
Priority (sACN)	優先權	A field, 0 to 200, letting a backup sender sit on the same universe and take over cleanly. Art-Net has no equivalent.
Tracking	追蹤式記錄	A cue records only what it changes, so an edit runs forward into later cues that never mention that channel.
Cue only	單一場記錄	Every cue stores a complete state. Predictable, and much more work.
Block cue	阻斷場	A cue with hard values everywhere, so nothing tracks through it. Useful at an act break, damaging everywhere else.
Effect engine	效果引擎	A shape, a rate and a spread. Nothing moves: fixtures fade at different phases of one curve and your eye reads travel.
Spread / offset	展開／相位偏移	How the offsets are distributed across the selected fixtures. The control that decides whether an effect reads as one gesture or as travel.
DMX512	DMX512	The lighting control standard since 1986. 250 kbit/s, 512 slots, still the last hop to almost every fixture.
DMX512-A	DMX512-A	The current revision, published by ESTA as E1.11.
RS-485	RS-485	The balanced electrical standard DMX runs on. Why it survives long runs in a noisy building.
Universe	一條 DMX 線路（universe）	512 channels of DMX data. A quantity of data, not a cable.
Channel	通道	One controllable parameter. One byte, 0 to 255.
Slot	資料槽	One of the 512 positions in a DMX frame. Often used interchangeably with channel.
Address	位址	Where a fixture starts listening in the universe.
Patch	配接	The mapping between control numbers and physical fixtures.
Break	中斷訊號	The signal marking the start of a DMX frame.
Termination	終端電阻	A 120 ohm resistor on the last device in a DMX line. Missing it causes reflections and intermittent flicker.
Splitter	分配器	Takes one DMX line and starts several fresh segments. Necessary past 32 devices.
Opto isolator	光電隔離器	Electrically separates DMX segments, protecting equipment and cleaning the signal.
Daisy chain	串接／菊鏈	Device to device to device. The only legal DMX topology. Never a Y split.
Unit load	單位負載	The electrical demand one device places on an RS-485 segment. 32 maximum per segment.
RDM	RDM	Remote Device Management. Bidirectional DMX for discovery, addressing and status. Needs RDM capable splitters.
Art-Net	Art-Net	DMX over UDP, port 6454. Very widely supported. Often on `2.x.x.x` or `10.x.x.x`, which is a common addressing trap.
sACN / E1.31	sACN／E1.31	Streaming ACN. DMX over multicast UDP, port 5568. Has built in priority and defined merging. The modern default.
Priority	優先權	sACN's mechanism for deciding which source wins on a universe. Essential once there is a backup console.
Merge	合併	Combining two sources on one universe, usually highest takes precedence.
Node	節點	A box converting network data to DMX, or the reverse.
Gateway	閘道器	Any device translating between two protocols.
Pixel mapping	像素映射	Treating an array of LED pixels as a video surface. Where universe counts explode.
Pixel pitch	點間距	The distance between LED pixels. Determines resolution and minimum viewing distance.
8 bit dimming	八位元調光	256 steps. Visibly stepped on a slow fade to black at low level.
16 bit dimming	十六位元調光	Coarse plus fine byte, 65,536 steps. Smooth fades. Costs a second channel.
Dimmer	調光器	The device controlling the power to a conventional lamp.
Fixture	燈具	Any lighting unit.
Moving head	搖頭燈（港：電腦燈）	A motorised fixture. A computer with a lamp in it, typically 20 to 40 channels.
Console	控台	The lighting or audio control surface. Increasingly a control surface for a computer elsewhere.
Visualiser	燈光模擬軟體	Software that renders the rig, so programming can happen without the rig.

E. Show control 演出控制#

English	繁中	What it is, and why it matters
PosiStageNet (PSN)	PosiStageNet	Open multicast protocol streaming 3D position of tracked objects, UDP 56565. PSN_INFO names the trackers, PSN_DATA carries the positions.
RTTrPM	RTTrPM	BlackTrax's tracking format. Its header carries both byte orders, and a parser that ignores that decodes every position as noise.
FreeD	FreeD	Camera tracking data: pan, tilt, roll, zoom, focus, on UDP 6000. What a camera tells a render engine.
Tracking data	追蹤資料	Media rate traffic wearing control clothing. A dropped position is a light lagging a performer, not a cue that failed.
PJLink	PJLink	A manufacturer independent projector control standard over TCP 4352. Power, input, mute, status. Housekeeping, not creative control.
Program change	音色切換訊息	The MIDI message most desks and processors expect for recalling a scene or snapshot.
Control change	控制器變化訊息	A MIDI parameter message, 7 bit, so 128 steps. Coarse for a fade.
Show control	演出控制	Making departments act together from one trigger or one clock.
State based	狀態式	The message says what the value is, and repeats constantly. A lost packet costs nothing. DMX, sACN.
Event based	事件式	The message says what should happen, once. A lost packet costs you the cue. OSC, MIDI, GO.
Cue	Cue／提示	One instruction to change, at a moment. The atom of theatre operation.
Cue list	Cue 表	The ordered sequence of cues for a show.
GO	GO	The instruction to execute the next cue. The single most important event in the building.
Trigger	觸發	Whatever causes a cue to fire: a button, a timecode value, a MIDI note, a contact closure.
OSC	OSC	Open Sound Control. A path plus arguments, such as `/cue/12/start`. Flexible, readable, and with no standard namespace, so read the manual every time.
MIDI	MIDI	From 1983, musical origin, still everywhere. Notes and control changes used as triggers.
MSC	MIDI Show Control	Proper show control over MIDI: GO, STOP, RESUME, addressed to a device type and cue number. Old, limited, dependable.
MTC	MIDI 時間碼	Timecode carried over MIDI.
LTC	線性時間碼	Timecode as an audio signal. You can hear it. It travels down any audio path, which is exactly why it is used.
Timecode	時間碼	`hours:minutes:seconds:frames`. The shared clock a large show is built on.
Drop frame	丟幀時碼	A counting correction for the 29.97 fps rate. A 1953 colour television compromise that still bites people.
Frame	影格／幀	One picture, and the smallest unit of timecode.
RS-232	RS-232	Short run serial control. Projectors, screens, machine control. Direct, deterministic and dumb.
RS-422	RS-422	Balanced serial. Goes further than RS-232.
Contact closure	乾接點	Two wires. Touching them is a trigger. The dumbest and most reliable interface in the building.
GPIO	通用輸入輸出	General purpose input and output pins. Contact closure, formalised.
Genlock	同步鎖定	All video devices agreeing on when a frame starts. Without it, switching mid frame causes tearing.
Sync	同步	Any mechanism keeping devices in time agreement.

F. Audio over IP 網路音訊#

English	繁中	What it is, and why it matters
AES3 / AES-EBU	AES3／AES-EBU	Two channels of digital audio down one balanced cable. The ancestor.
MADI	MADI	64 channels down one coaxial or optical cable. Point to point, nothing to configure, still widely used for exactly that reason.
Dante	Dante	The dominant audio over IP system in live production. Hundreds of channels over standard Ethernet.
Flow	資料流	The stream of audio a transmitter sends across the network.
Subscription	訂閱	A receiver asking for a specific transmitted channel. The patch lives in software, not in copper.
Dante Controller	Dante Controller	The software where subscriptions are made. Where the patch actually is.
Dante latency setting	Dante 延遲設定	0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 or 5 ms. The whole path runs at the highest setting in use. 1 ms is the safe default.
AES67	AES67	An interoperability standard for audio over IP. Works within tightly specified limits. A bridge, not a merger.
Ravenna	Ravenna	Another audio over IP system, common in broadcast, AES67 compatible.
Word clock	字時鐘	A dedicated cable carrying nothing but the sample tick. Old, simple, effective.
PTP	精確時間協定	IEEE 1588. Clock distributed over the same network as the media, accurate to well under a microsecond.
Grandmaster	主時鐘	The device elected to be the clock everyone follows. Two of them is a classic failure.
Clock master	時鐘主控	Whichever device is the clock reference. Worth knowing which one won, and worth locking deliberately.
Drift	漂移	Two devices slowly disagreeing about time. Produces a regular periodic click, forever.
Redundancy	備援	A second path already carrying the load. Not a spare in a case.
Primary / secondary	主要／備援	Dante's two physically separate networks carrying the same audio. Changeover is inaudible.
DSP	數位訊號處理	Digital signal processing. Every EQ, compressor and delay in a digital system.

G. Video over IP and the pixel pipeline 網路影像與訊號鏈#

English	繁中	What it is, and why it matters
SDI	串列數位介面	Uncompressed digital video on coaxial cable. One signal, one cable, no configuration.
3G-SDI	3G-SDI	2.97 Gbit/s. Carries 1080p60.
12G-SDI	12G-SDI	12 Gbit/s. Carries UHD 4K 60.
NDI	NDI	Compressed video over standard networks, roughly 100 to 250 Mbit/s for HD. Easy, tolerant, widely used. Know whether your job can accept the compression and the frame of latency.
SMPTE ST 2110	ST 2110	Uncompressed video over IP, with video, audio and data as separate streams. Needs PTP and 10 Gbit minimum. Broadcast and large installation scale.
HDMI	HDMI	Consumer and prosumer video connector. Short runs, EDID negotiation, HDCP copy protection. Three ways to lose an afternoon.
DisplayPort	DisplayPort	Computer video output standard. Common on media server graphics cards.
EDID	EDID	The conversation where a display tells a source what it can accept. When it fails, the source guesses, and it guesses wrong.
HDCP	HDCP	Copy protection in HDMI. Produces a black screen with no useful error. If the screen is black and everything looks correct, suspect HDCP.
Scaler	影像縮放器	Converts one resolution to another.
Switcher	切換台	Selects and mixes between video sources.
LED processor	LED 處理器	Turns a video signal into the data an LED wall needs, and maps it to the physical panel layout.
Media server	媒體伺服器	The computer playing back and processing video for a show. Openly a computer, unlike a lighting console.
IMAG	現場影像放大	Image magnification. Live camera of the stage on screens, so the back row can see faces.
Projection mapping	光雕投影	Aligning projected images onto a non flat surface.

H. Systems and working practice 系統與現場實務#

English	繁中	What it is, and why it matters
Grandmaster	主時鐘	The clock everything else follows. Elected automatically unless you choose it, and on a show you choose it.
Boundary clock	邊界時鐘	A switch that terminates and regenerates PTP rather than passing it through. What makes timing survive a network.
Transparent clock	透明時鐘	A switch that corrects each timing message for the time it spent inside. The other way to keep PTP honest.
Path asymmetry	路徑不對稱	The two directions taking different times. PTP averages them, so the follower is wrong by half the difference and reports itself locked.
Precedence effect (Haas)	優先效應／哈斯效應	Between about 5 and 35 ms the ear fuses two arrivals into one and takes its direction from the first. The reason a delay tower works.
Delay tower	延遲喇叭塔	A speaker further back, delayed by the time sound takes to reach it from the PA, plus 10 to 15 ms so the PA is still heard first.
Comb filtering	梳狀濾波	Two copies of a signal a few milliseconds apart cancelling and reinforcing by frequency. Hollow and phasey, and worse than either source alone.
Alignment plane	對齊平面	The one distance at which picture and sound coincide. You cannot align a room, only a plane through it.
IMAG	影像放大	Image magnification: the live screen beside the stage. Its chain latency is what puts the picture out of step with the sound.
Latency budget	延遲預算	The total of every stage in the chain. About 10 ms is where a performer on in-ears feels it, about 40 ms is where lip sync shows.
Oversubscription	超額訂閱	More traffic able to arrive at a switch than can leave it. Fine for an office, fatal for media.
ST 2022-7	無縫保護	Send the same stream down two networks and rebuild from whichever packets arrive. The fastest failover is the one that already happened.
Essence separation	訊號分離	ST 2110 sending video, audio and data as separate flows. Only the shared clock holds them together.
Visually lossless	視覺無損	Lossy compression tuned so the loss lands below what the eye finds on normal content. A claim about typical material, not a guarantee.
Commissioning	系統驗收	Proving the system works, in writing, before the client finds out. Test the failure, not the success.
Single point of failure	單點故障	One thing that, if it fails, stops the show. Find them all, then decide about each.
Failure mode	故障模式	The specific way something breaks, and what the audience then experiences.
Failover	故障切換	Automatic changeover to a backup path. Only real if the backup is already running.
Cold spare	冷備品	A replacement device in a case. Cheap, and only covers failures where you have time to swap.
Manual fallback	人工備援	A human doing the thing by hand. Covers everything, badly and slowly, and only if it was rehearsed.
Signal flow	訊號流程	The path from source to output, drawn. The first document anyone asks for.
IP schedule	IP 配置表	Device name, IP, mask, VLAN, switch, port, purpose. The document you diagnose from.
Patch sheet	接線表	The physical connections, socket by socket. The document you recable from, in the dark.
Universe map	宇宙配置表	Universe number to node to port to fixture range.
Naming convention	命名規則	The rule for naming devices. Be consistent before you are clever, and make the label, the software name and the diagram match exactly.
Handover pack	交接資料	Everything the next person needs: diagrams, schedules, passwords, known issues.
Version control	版本控制	Knowing which show file is current and being able to get back to yesterday's.
Backup	備份	A copy somewhere that is not the machine that will fail.
Rack	機櫃	The standard 19 inch equipment frame.
UPS	不斷電系統	Uninterruptible power supply. Ask how long it actually lasts, and whether anyone has tested it.
Machine room	機房	Where the computers, switches and processing live.
Amp room	功放室	Where the amplifiers live, and usually where the network becomes a speaker cable.
FOH	前台控制位置	Front of house. The control position in the auditorium.
Get in / load in	進場／裝台	Bringing the production into the venue.
Get out / load out	出場／拆台	Taking it out again, usually at speed, usually at night.
Fit up	裝台	Building the set and rig in the venue.
Tech rehearsal	技術排練	Where the technical elements meet the performance for the first time. Where systems fail publicly.
Show file	演出檔案	The saved state of a console or server. Back it up before every performance.

The seven terms most often used wrongly by first year students#

Learn these properly now. Getting them welded together wrongly takes years to unpick.

Term	What it is not	What it is
Universe	A cable	512 channels of DMX data, which may arrive over a network
Channel	A physical socket	One controllable parameter, one byte, 0 to 255
Latency	A fault	A delay, which is a budget you spend deliberately
Jitter	The same as latency	Variation in delay. The actual fault.
Codec	A file format	The compression method. The container is the format.
Redundancy	A spare in a case	A second path already carrying the load
Bandwidth	Speed	Capacity per second. Compare it against your data rate.

Add your own#

Every cohort meets terms this glossary does not have. Write them here as you meet them, with the date and where you met them. The version of this document you have written on is worth more than the version you were given.

English	繁中	What it is	Where I met it