Glossary

Many of these definitions have been drawn from Wikipedia. Article references thanks to Sound Delivery.

Actuality — background sounds and music that get edited into an audio piece, e.g. crowd noise if you are covering a rally or birdsong if you are using that for an environmental piece.

Audio — sound, in the context of broadcast and online sound recordings, production and distribution.

Analog recording equipment — sound recording technology that preceded digital, for example reel-to-reel tape machines.

Analog telecommunications — include traditional telephony, radio, and TV broadcasts.

Broadcast — the distribution of audio and/or video signals that transmit programmes to an audience; mainly thought of in terms of radio and TV transmissions.

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) — any form of data exchange across two or more networked computers. More specifically, those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats (i.e., instant messages, e-mails, chat rooms) between two or more individuals. Online audio is an important format.

Content — refers to all the various elements in an audio piece, including interview content or other main voice content, linking narrative and actuality.

Digital audio — uses digital signals for sound reproduction. Digital audio encompasses audio whenever it is in computerized form; including analog-to-digital conversion, digital-to-analog conversion, storage, and transmission.

Digital audio player (DAP) — a devise that stores, organizes and plays digital music (or other audio) files. It is more commonly referred to as a MP3 player (because of the ubiquity of the MP3 format), but DAPS often play many additional file formats.

Electronic media — media that utilizes electronics or electromechanical energy for the end user (audience) to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which is most often created electronically, but doesn’t require electronics to be accessed by the end user in the printed form. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public are better known as video and audio recordings, distributed online, via CD-ROM etc. Most new media is in the form of digital media. However, electronic media may be in either analog or digital format.

Formats — audio formats refers to the type of programme or production, for example a talk show format, an interview format, a feature format. For audio distribution on the Internet distribution formats includes online audio, podcasting, streaming.

Multimedia — communications that incorporate multiple forms of information content and processing.

MiniDisc (MD) — is a magneto-optical disc-based data storage device initially intended for storage of up to 80 minutes of digitalized audio. Today, it has developed into a general-purpose storage medium in addition to greatly expanding its audio roots.

Microphone — an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound pressure into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as tape recorders, live and recorded audio engineering, in radio and television broadcasting and in computers for recording voice, and VoIP.

New media — a term describing media that can only be created or used with the aid of computer processing power. It is a form of media that includes some aspect of interactivity for its audience and is usually in digital form. The distinction between “new media” and “old media” is difficult to identify since over the last decade many old media enterprises have started to expand into producing new media.

Podcasting — a media file that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.

Portable media players (PMP) — a self-reliant electronic device that is capable of storing and playing files in one or more media formats.

RSS — A family of web feed formats used to syndicate digital content, such as podcasts.

Soundbites (soundbyte) — a very short piece of content edited or extracted from a longer interview that is viewed as particularly relevant or revealing.

Streaming audio — is audio available via the Internet as a continuous ‘stream.’ Often refers specifically to a “live stream” — i.e. content that is continuously received by an end-user while it is being delivered by the provider.

Transmission — in general information theory, transmission is taken to mean the complete process of communication of information via a channel, such as a radio broadcast transmission; but increasingly via new technology channels such as Internet.

Voice over IP (VoIP) — also called “Internet telephony,” “Broadband Phone,” and “Voice over Broadband” — this is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network.