Glossary -C-
C — The chrominance or color part of a video signal.
Cable drive — Cranks or knobs, mounted on or near the tripod handles, are connected to the lens via cables and remotely control the lens’s zoom and focus.
Cable guards — Metal shields that sweep cables out of the way so the camera dolly doesn’t roll over them.
Cable length — CCU control which adjusts the sharpness and strength of signals coming from a camera, matching them to the strengths of other cameras with longer or shorter cables.
Cable modem — Computer modem connected to cable TV coax, able to transport data at very high speeds (up to 30Mbps).
Cable modem — Device that connects between your computer and your cable-TV source, able to transmit data quickly to an Internet service provider also on the system.
Cable modem — Device which converts computer data to a signal that can travel quickly over cable TV wires.
Cable ready — A modern TV or VCR with a tuner able to pick up the cable TV channels directly without a converter box.
Cam link head — Heavy-duty camera support to keep the camera from tilting down abruptly when free to move; the camera simply comes to rest in a safe horizontal position.
Camcorder — A VCR and camera in one unit, or as two devices joined together.
Camel’s-hair brush — Brush of soft camel’s hair, often with bellows in the handle, for blowing dust off lenses.
Camera adapter — Box of electronics that a portable camera can plug into (instead of directly into a VCR) that powers the camera and distributes the camera’s video and other signals via standardized outputs.
Capstan — Shiny rotating wheel inside a VCR to draw tape through the machine at the proper speed.
Capstan — Shiny spinning rod inside the VCR which pinches against the tape and draws it through the mechanism.
Captioning encoder — Device that changes text data into the codes that go on line 21 of the video signal passing through it, essentially making closed (or open) captioned video.
Captioning service — Company that encodes closed (or open) captions into your TV production, either live or off-line.
Capture — Digitize a stretch of videotape on a non-linear editor, or digitize the first and last image of a scene and store the time codes on an analog non-linear editor.
CAV — Constant angular velocity, the half-hour mode of an analog videodisc and player. Special effects are available.
C-band — A range of microwave frequencies between 4 and 8GHz.
CCD — Charge coupled device, a popular type of image sensing pickup chip in TV cameras.
CCD — Charge-coupled device, transistorized light sensor on TV cameras.
C-clamp — C-shaped clamp used to hang lighting instruments from the ceiling grid.
CCU or camera control unit — Box of electronic circuits which can remotely adjust the operation of a camera as well as provide power and signals to it. 6]
CD — Compact disc containing digitally recorded sound, or the machine that plays the discs.
CD-I — Compact Disc Interactive, a disc (or player) able to play interactively, up to 74 minutes of limited motion MPEG-1 compressed audio and video.
CD-R — Recordable CD.
CD-ROM — Compact Disc-Read Only Memory, a CD with data files on it, readable by your computer.
CD-ROM XA — CD-ROM Extended Architecture, plays music CDs and CD-ROM data on one multisession disc. Discs can be recordable.
Center focus — Mood-creating lens effect where the outside edges of a picture are blurry and the center is sharp.
CG — Character Generator operator, person who locates titles and text and has it ready to key into the program along with any transitions or movement.
CGMS or Copy Generation Management System — Method of making DVDs uncopyable.
Channel — On a dimmer, a channel is a set of controls working independently of another set of controls. One channel can be set up for one lighting situation and the second set up for another. Switching channels changes all the lights from one setup to the other.
Chapter — One section of a level 2 videodisc program, like a chapter of a book.
Chapter stop — A code, embedded in the level 1 videodisc flags where each new chapter or section begins. While scanning fast forward, the player will sense the code and will still-frame at this point. This feature speeds the process of locating segments on the disc.
Character generator — Electronic device allowing you to type titles onto the TV image.
Character generator — Electronic device with a typewriter keyboard which electronically displays letters, numbers, and symbols on a TV screen.
Character generator or CG — Typewriter keyboard that electronically displays letters, numbers, and symbols on a TV screen.
Characters — Letters, numbers, spaces, or punctuation marks which can be printed or displayed on a TV screen.
Charge back — Charging studio costs to another division of the same company. No money changes hands, it’s just an accounting procedure.
Chip — Miniature electronic circuit consisting of thousands of transistors. A TV camera chip senses the image.
Chroma gain — Camera control that boosts the amounts of color in the picture.
Chroma key — Key effect triggered by the color blue (or some other selected color) rather than black.
Chroma key — Video effect where blue (or other selected color) parts of a TV picture are replaced with another picture. [9-12.1]
Chrominance or chroma — The color part of video signal.
Circuit breaker — An electronic resettable fuse found on TVs and other electronic devices. Pressing the red button resets the fuse.
Circular polarizer — Polarizing lens attachment designed to work with cameras having mirrors.
Clear, (or in-the-clear) — Non-scrambled satellite TV programs.
Clip — A digitized audio sample. It could be a sound effect or a whole song or speech.
Clip — A video and/or audio scene or shot, usually of raw footage. Non-linear editors will digitize the clip so it may be trimmed and added to the timeline.
Clip art — Professionally made art, stored as computer files and sold or given away on DC-ROMS or over the INTERNET. The art can be used alone, or can dress up newsletters, or could be combined with your own graphic images.
Clip bin — A window on the editing screen that displays all the clips that have been digitized.
ClipLink — Sony DVCAM mechanism for marking in/out points of raw footage while it’s in the camera. Thumbnail images and time code numbers may then be quickly downloaded to the non-linear editor, possibly guiding the editor in digitizing only the “good” shots.
Clipping — Phenomenon where a signal is stronger than the circuits can handle, thus they clip off the excess. In audio, this causes distorted sound, in video it results in a chalky appearance.
Closed caption decoder — Circuit in a TV set that extracts closed caption data from the video signal and displays it on the screen.
Closed caption submaster tape — Copy of your master tape with closed captions encoded into line 21 of the video.
Closed captions — Signals invisibly encoded in the picture of some TV shows can be deciphered by a caption decoder and turned into text appearing over the TV image, mostly for the benefit of the hearing impaired.
Close-up lens attachment — A lens element that screws onto your existing lens, allowing it to focus closer than normal.
Closure — Describes how the TV viewer mentally fills in the parts of an incomplete picture.
CLV — Constant linear velocity, the 1-hour mode of an analog videodisc and player. Special effects are not available.
C-mount — Standardized connection between TV camera lenses and TV cameras, used in industrial cameras.
Coax or coaxial wire — Stiff, round wire about 1/4 inch in diameter, used to carry video, sync, or RF (antenna) signals.
Co-channel interference — Wavy lines or other interference appearing on the TV screen caused when a TV set receives more than one signal at a time on the same channel (i.e., two channel 3s at once).
Codec — Coder/decoder, device to convert video and audio into digits transportable via phone lines, then convert the digits back to audio/video for the recipient. Codecs may also employ digital compression.
Codec — Coder-Decoder, an electronic device devoted to compressing and decompressing video.
Color background generator — Device which electronically creates a screenful of a desired color without the help of a camera. Color could be used as background behind character-generated text.
Color bar generator — Electronic device to create color bars for use as a test signal.
Color bar test chart — A carefully prepared poster containing colored bars used for camera testing.
Color bars — Vertical bars of color used to test cameras and other video equipment. 6]
Color compatible — An image that can be viewed easily on black- and-white TVs as well as color ones.
Color corrector — Electronic device that dissects the colors of a video signal and allows them to be individually adjusted (i.e., the blues could be changed to aquas without changing anything else).
Color difference signals — Component video signals which represent color parts of the picture. R-Y and B-Y are color difference signals.
Color lookup table — Image capture software that reduces color space by programming into the video card a selection of (usually 256) colors. These colors are used to recreate the picture.
Color map — Texture map describing the colors and design print of the surface.
Color space — The total number of colors displayable at a time by a computer.
Color temperature — The redness or blueness of a scene, the result of the kind of light used to illuminate the scene. Also the name given to the color TV camera control which adapts it to these varied lighting conditions.
Color under — Electronic technique of lowering frequencies of the color information in a video picture making it easier to record.
Color under — Video recording method where color is separated from luminance and converted to a lower frequency for inexpensive recording.
Color wheel — A chart organizing colors by their hues and values, helpful in determining colors that go well together.
Colorize — Adding color to something electronically. A matte can be white, black, gray, or colorized; so can wipe borders and backgrounds.
Community antenna — Large antenna, receiving good reception, feeding its signals to many homes at once. Also called MATV for master antenna TV, often used in apartment buildings where one antenna feeds all apartments.
Compact disc (CD) — Small shiny disc imbedded with microscopic pits representing digital data which can be read by a laser and converted into sound.
Compand — Compress/expand, a technique of squeezing the dynamic range of a wireless microphone, then expanding that range at the receiver end to restore normal sound.
Companding — Compression/expanding, a technique used by audio devices such as wireless microphones whereby audio signals are compressed prior to recording or transmission, and expanded back to normal just before use. The technique increases the audio dynamic range.
Compatible — The ability to play a tape on any same-format machine and get good picture and sound.
Component switcher — Video switcher which switches and mixes component (i.e., RGB, or Y/U/V, or Y/R-Y/B-Y) video signals.
Component video — Color video transmitted with the luminance (Y) on one wire and the color signals on other wires, or each color on its own wire. Examples: R,G,B; Y(R-Y)/(B-Y), Y/I/Q, Y/U/V, 4:2:2.
Component video recorder — Professional VCR that records separately the distinct color video signals from a camera, offering a high-quality image.
Component video — Separate color video signals that have not yet been combined into a single video signal. Y/R-Y/B-Y, video is an example of component video signals.
Component video — Video signals carrying separate colors on separate wires. RGB, Y/l/Q, Y/R-Y/B-Y are component video signals.
Composer — 2-D paint feature allowing you to create multiple layers of work and make transitions including fancy effects from one layer or scene to another.
Composite — A picture made of layers or the act of making such a picture.
Composite video — The combination of three color video signals traveling on one wire. NTSC video is composite video.
Composite video — Video (picture) signal with the sync (timing) signal combined. Also means color video carried on one wire with the colors combined (encoded) with the brightness constituents of the picture.
Compression — Process for storing digital data in a smaller space than it would normally take. A 2:1 compression would squeeze the data into half its original size.
Compressor — Audio device able to reduce the audio signal when it exceeds a set amount.
Compressor — Electronic audio device to reduce the range of volumes in an audio signal down to a range easier to record. Creates a “flat” sound where soft and loud passages are about the same volume.
Computer assisted instruction (CAI) — Lessons presented interactively via computer.
Computer graphics — The process of electronically creating pictures and perhaps text using a computer. The art can be manipulated and stored digitally, and converted to video signals.
Continuous white balance — Camera mode which makes moment-by-moment adjustments to the white balance, using what the camera sees in its picture as a guide.
Control head — Electromagnet in a VTR which records timing pulses on the tape and plays them back. These pulses precisely guide the speed of the tape.
Control pulses — Rhythmic signal recorded on a video tape’s control track which guides the VCR during playback.
Control track counter — Time code counter that senses the control track pulses on the tape and converts the data to hours:minutes:seconds:, and sometimes frames.
Control-M — Panasonic-developed bidirectional interface to control camcorders through a 5 pin DIN connector. Similar, but not compatible with, Control-C (LANC).
Control-S — Simple Sony editing protocol where remote control signals can be sent to VCRs to activate them.
Convergence — On a three-tube video projector, focusing and aiming the three colored pictures so that they overlap, producing all colors accurately, without ridges along edges of objects.
Convergence — The precise overlapping of a color TV’s three primary colored pictures to make one multicolored picture.
Converter — Electronic device which translates one channel number (one frequency) into another (another frequency). Often rented from cable TV companies, a converter (or decoder) box connects to your TV and does the tuning instead of your TV tuner. The box usually puts out channel 3, and your TV remains tuned to channel 3.
Copy protected — A signal recorded on a video tape renders the tape uncopyable.
Copy stand — A device for holding a camera so it can easily be focused on a graphic.
Copyguard, Macrovision — Antipiracy techniques employed by prerecorded tape producers to thwart tape copying.
Corner insert — A special wipe pattern that stops partway across the screen so that a corner of the TV picture is taken up by part of another camera’s image.
Corner insert — A wipe effect where one corner of the TV screen shows one camera’s picture while the rest of the screen shows another’s.
CPU or computer chip — The heart of a computer, a single circuit chip with millions of transistors programmed to interpret and carry out commands.
Cradle head — Heavy-duty camera support to keep the camera stable when it’s free to tilt; i.e., the camera won’t suddenly tilt down.
Crane arm — Device for lifting cameras high into the air and aiming them while the camera operator remains on the ground.
Crawl — To move one line of text sideways across the bottom of your screen, so you read it like a tickertape.
Credit — List of participants in a TV production, usually scrolled at the end of the show. 12]
Credits — The listing, usually at the show’s end, of the people who participated in making it.
Cross platform — The ability for software to work on either PC or MacIntosh (or some other type) computers (platforms).
Crosstalk — A bleeding of sound from one channel or track to another.
CRT or Cathode Ray Tube — A vacuum tube with an electron gun at one end and a phosphor screen at the other which glows when struck by electrons from the gun. Computer screens and TV picture tubes are CRTs having the familiar TV screen at one end.
CTL time code — JVC system of time code separately identifying each frame of VHS or SVHS tape by modifying the tapes control track.
Cue — A signal to performers (or crew) telling them to do something. Usually, the director calls out the cue, which is relayed via hand signals by a studio crew member.
Cue card holder — Person who holds up the cue cards where the talent can read them.
Cue channel — Extra (usually a third) audio channel, recorded on an extra track on the video tape-used to carry TV technician messages or time code data, such as the SMPTE time code.
Cue — In audio, to “set up” a sound effect or music or narration so that it will start immediately when a button is pushed. Also a mixer channel used by the audio person who listens to the sound effect being set up. The cue channel does not get recorded.
Cue inserter — Device that puts a coded signal on the premaster tape. At the mastering plant, this cue is transformed into a level 1 chapter stop or picture stop.
Cut — Switch from one picture to another directly, in the blink of an eye.
Cutaway — The act of “cutting away” (taking a shot of something else) from the main scene for a moment to hide jump cuts. Also the name given to this backup shot, which is generally a long shot of a performer, a host, news reporters, or some other related scene.
Cutting on the action — Changing shots at the moment some action is taking place.
