Glossary

This section is for the non-theatre bods who stumble across the site, notice the English words but can’t quite work out just what I’m going on about

I’ll keep adding to it as I add posts, or as people contact me to say “huh?”

Other sites you can try looking at include www.getintotheatre.org, www.the freedictionary.com or Wikipedia

AKG : Makers of microphones. Common models include the the D112, C414, and the C391. More esoteric models include the C418 and C419, the SE300 and the C535 among many, many more. Check out the website for more details.

Blacks Shorthand for one of: leg, border, half tab, full tab, (black coloured) flat, clothing. Often used to refer to several pieces at once. A note: ‘Strike the blacks’ means to remove the staging and is not a reference to anything else.
Black box A phrase that refers to a theatrical set-up that is predominantly black – this could be the use of legs, borders, full blacks or other soft goods to mask the audience sightlines to offstage areas in a proscenium arch theatre, or could be dark painted walls.
border Masking that is hung in front of other hung or flown items to obscure their view from the audience. This could be as black cloth as part of a black box, or painted to be part of a false portal.

Compressor:(1) Audio equipment used to adjust the relative volume of sounds by reducing the dynamic range. More info on why (and an explanation why those darn TV adverts are so loud) at this Wikipedia article
(2) Equipment that compresses gas or liquid – often industrial.
Choreographer: For a dance piece, someone will have the responsibility for working out all the moves that the dancers will perform, and the timing of such moves. This includes the entire visual picture from individual fingers (if that fussy) to the movements of many dancers (think Busby Berkeley).

d&b Audiotechnik: Manufacturers of loudspeakers based in Germany. These are designed (mostly) to be used with specific amps (which they also make) which have built in processing. The current amps include the D6 and D12 models which can be used for any d&b speakers, including discontinued models, and can be accessed remotely. Previous amps have included EPacs and P1200 which had to have module swops or dip switch changes for different speaker models. Speakers include C-series, E-series,  J-series, Q series and the new T-series and are a popular brand. More details at their website

Effects processors: Mostly, this refers to audio equipment that affects audio. This can be quite subtle or extremely blatant. Effects can be things like reverb, echo, flange, phase, chorus and delay. Wikipedia has an entry that makes for a good start for more info here
EQ: Shorthand for Equalisation. These are processing units that colour audio by boosting or cutting individual frequencies. They can be built into equipment (the bass and treble controls on any hifi are basic EQ’s) such as sound desks or can be separate units. EQ processing can be graphic – a row of faders each representing a particular frequency. It can also be parametric where rather than having lots of faders, there are several dials to select frequency, amount of cut/boost and the width (or Q). The width can be a tight as a single frequency or can be quite broad to alter a range of frequencies centred on the selected frequency.

Front Fill: These are speakers used to provide sound to the first few rows or to the area right in front of the stage, particularly on stages not at the same level as the audience position
Foldback: A term for sending sound to an onstage position, most often live music that has been miked. Can be from speakers or from In-Ear Monitors.

Graphic (EQ): See EQ

HMI: (Hydrargyrum Medium arc Iodide) A flicker-free light source recommended for digital cameras that require long periods of exposure. (so says Answers.com) Used in the theatre to provide a bright, clean white light.

Legs Assuming that we aren’t referring to human physiology, theatrical legs are narrow and tall masking, often obscuring sightlines into the wings. They are often used in pairs hung from the same bar (in end on stages) and are often used with borders to create a false portal upstage of the proscenium.
Lexicon: Makers of effects units for both the pro-audio and the hi-fi markets. PCM 80, 81, 90, 91 seem to be mainstays in many sound racks we see, with 300L, 480L and the MPX range also making an appearance. The pro-audio site is found at this link.
LX: Shorthand for Lighting.

Marley:: Slang term for dance floor, particularly the sort that comes as rolls of vinyl. Look at Harlequin Floors for much more information.
Masking: Used to hide or ‘mask’ areas that don’t need to be visible, for example the wings so the audience does not see performers before they enter onstage. Masking is made up of borders, legs, half tabs, tabs, wipes, backdrops, flats and can also be referred to by colour, material, purpose, decoration e.g. full blacks, hard legs, the door flat.
Meyer: US speaker manufacturer. Most people seem to love their kit – a few absolutely can’t stand it. The UPA, UPJ, 650P, UPM and CQ1 models are regular visitors so they must be doing something right. Check out the website here.
MEWP: Mobile Elevated Work Platform. These come in a variety of shapes and sizes to access all sorts of places. Some of these include Scissor Lifts, Cherry Pickers (self-propelled booms) and Vertical Personnal Platform (drivable and non-drivable).
Microphones: Devices used to convert sound pressure waves into electrical energy. Much information available across the interweb on these and several manufacturers are linked to in this Glossary
Midas: The normal house desk for Sadler’s Wells Theatre is the Legend 3000 – not the usual desk with it’s double fader set-up but certainly a worthy holder of the Midas badge. Have a better look at this site.
Monitors: (1) Speakers for providing foldback onstage or for an engineer at a sound desk
(2) Video display units

Neumann: AKG make microphones. Neumann make NICE microphones (with a price tag to suit!). The KM1xx range are mostly well-liked, with the U87 and TLM 1xx also liked by those who tour in. Look for yourself here.

Outboard: Slang term for equipment used at sound control position to alter the qualities of audio. Examples included EQ, effect processers, delay units, compressors. Manufacturers include bss, dbx, Lexicon, Klark-Teknik, Rane and Yamaha.

PAR: Parabolic Aluminium Reflector. Think of older traffic lights or car headlamps. See the Wikipedia article for more details.
Parametric (EQ): See EQ.
Patch: My usual context for this is as short hand for a “Cord Patch” or “Soft Patch”. These are basically forms of routing a signal (microphone input, control channel) from one location to another. This could be physically by plugging a short cable (or cord) into a couple of sockets next to each other at a patchbay. These sockets will be connected to a facilities panel somewhere else in the building. An example of when I’d do this would be if the sound desk needed to send an output to stage. Rather than running a long cable, the building has tie-lines already in place. A Soft Patch is a software based version. Let’s say that I had ten lights hanging from bars that were plugged into different dimmers but I wanted them to have a logical number order for controlling them. I would then use a soft-patch to alter the numbers.
Playback source: In audio terms this is where pre-recorded sound comes from. Over the years this has included such things as reel to reel, cassette tape and MiniDisc. The main formats today are optical media (CD, DVD, HDD) or solid state (memory cards). There are a number of formats used – the widest is still probably WAV files (normally at 16-bit 44.1kHz or better), though it’s increasing more likely that people have heard of MP3, the use of which shouldn’t be recommended unless a high bit sample rate is chosen (greater than 200 Mbps). Control of playback can be done directly via a computer or sampler or can be set-up to respond to remote triggers (contact relays, pressure switches) and quickly enters the realm of show control.

Sightlines: Taken to be the viewpoint from the audience towards stage. Masking is used to stop audience members, particularly those at the edges of the seating area from seeing backstage while blocking helps prevent performers from not being visible while performing. Usually comes in yellow (hang on …)
Stage Directions: In the UK, stage directions are given from the point of view of someone on the stage looking out to the auditorium. This is opposite to the audience viewpoint. So stage left is the same as the audience right and stage right matches audience left. Stages in theatres used to be raked to made the action clearer (and some still are). So downstage was the lower portion of the stage nearest the audience and upstage was furthest from the audience. In terms of the vertical, rather than up and down, use rather out and in (as in: out of, or in sight from the borders). As a performer enters from the wings, they are said to be going onstage. Stopping in the middle means that they have reached centre stage. Departing now, in any direction, means they are going off-stage.
Strand: In the mid and late 20th century, Strand Lighting were the industry standard for theatre lighting, certainly in the UK. From lanterns in the Pattern range, to lighting desks like the 500 series and dimmers like LD90, Strand were synonymous with lighting. Over the last few years they have become superceded by the likes of Zero 88 and ETC. Strand website. Or to look at the glory days, start at The Strand Archive.

Tabs: Cloths that cover the whole width of a stage. These could be black serge used as part of a black box, red velvet ornate curtains used as a front cloth or anything else. They can be full (width of stage) and half (half width of stage).

Yamaha: In terms of digital audio control, Yamaha is probably the industry standard (not the best, mind). There’s (or there was) a common architecture and thought process meaning that once learning how to use on of these, other models follow on, though this is less true with later desks. SWT has an O2R (yes the old one – this is a link to the manual). Other boards that commonly tour in include the PM5D, DM2000, M7CL