[ { "term": "#WeMakeEvents", "aka": "#RedAlertRESTART", "category": "Careers", "definition": "The live-events workforce campaign that on 1 September 2020 lit more than 1,500 US venues, landmarks and homes red for #RedAlertRESTART, calling for small-business aid and extended unemployment support for freelance 1099 workers.", "section": "careers", "source_url": "https://www.mixonline.com/live-sound/live-events-industry-set-for-redalertrestart-tonight" }, { "term": "12-inch single", "aka": "12-inch", "category": "History", "definition": "A dance single pressed on a full-size 12-inch disc, the format of the disco-era DJ record. It started with Tom Moulton's promo pressings in the mid-1970s; the first commercial release is usually given as Double Exposure's \"Ten Percent\" (Salsoul, 1976), though 1975 and 1976 both appear depending on whether promos count.", "section": "primer" }, { "term": "Ableton Link", "aka": "Link", "category": "Network", "definition": "Ableton's protocol (2016) for keeping beat, phase and tempo in sync between apps and devices over wired or wireless networks. There is no master: any participant can change the tempo.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://ableton.github.io/link/" }, { "term": "Ableton Live", "aka": "Live", "category": "Booth", "definition": "Music software released on 30 October 2001 and now among the most common tools for both producing electronic tracks and performing them live. Its warping made beat-matched hybrid sets possible, and its Session View is the backbone of many live electronic sets.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ableton_Live" }, { "term": "Acid house", "category": "History", "definition": "A style of house music built on the TB-303's squelching bassline, launched by Phuture's \"Acid Tracks\" in 1987. Its sound drove the UK's Second Summer of Love in 1988 and 1989.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://www.roland.com/au/promos/303day/" }, { "term": "Advance", "aka": "advancing", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The planning conversation before a show in which artist, venue, promoter and production confirm every detail: contacts, load-in, soundcheck and set times, curfew, gear, tickets and payment.", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://www.mi.edu/in-the-know/plan-live-concert-beginners-guide-show-advance-stage-plots-load/" }, { "term": "AES67", "category": "Network", "definition": "The 2013 Audio Engineering Society standard that lets different audio-over-IP systems, Dante among them, exchange audio with each other.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES67" }, { "term": "All-in pricing", "category": "Money", "definition": "The US Federal Trade Commission rule, in force since May 2025, requiring sellers of live-event tickets to show the total price including all mandatory fees wherever a price is shown. It does not ban or cap any fee and does not stop dynamic pricing.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/12/federal-trade-commission-announces-bipartisan-rule-banning-junk-ticket-hotel-fees" }, { "term": "Amapiano", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A South African style that emerged in Gauteng in the mid-2010s, with a disputed origin and no single founder; its log drum is linked to the kwaito pioneer M'du Masilela. Beatport added an amapiano category in 2022.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amapiano" }, { "term": "ANSI Z136.10", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The US entertainment laser safety standard. As of October 2026 it is being revised: the committee page lists it at the comment-adjudication stage, without a current edition year.", "section": "careers", "source_url": "https://z136.lia.org/committees/standards-subcommittee/ssc-10-entertainment-displays-exhibitions" }, { "term": "Arm channel", "aka": "safety channel", "category": "SFX", "definition": "A separate DMX channel that must sit in a narrow window before an effect will fire, so stray data cannot trigger it. Crews add a manned enable or dead-man handle because DMX is one-way and has no error checking.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://finale3d.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MAGICFX_STAGE-FLAME_MANUAL.pdf" }, { "term": "Art-Net", "category": "Network", "definition": "A protocol for carrying DMX and RDM over Ethernet, written by Wayne Howell of Artistic Licence and introduced in 1998. The spec is royalty-free and supports 32,768 universes per network since Art-Net 3 (2011); vendors number \"universe 1\" differently, so check for off-by-one errors.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://art-net.org.uk/" }, { "term": "Ask for Angela", "category": "Access", "definition": "A UK codeword scheme: someone who asks staff for \"Angela\" is helped somewhere safer. It started in Lincolnshire in 2016 and has been adapted across the UK.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://www.ipswich.gov.uk/communities-and-health/ask-angela" }, { "term": "Audience scanning", "category": "Laser", "definition": "Deliberately sweeping laser beams across the crowd. In the US it needs a specific FDA-approved audience-scanning variance; without one, ILDA calls any audience exposure \"very hazardous and illegal\". Approved methods usually require measuring the beam at the closest audience position.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://www.ilda.com/resources/Safety/Laser_Light_Show_Safety_Overview_One_Page-v7-ILDA-logo.pdf" }, { "term": "Audience travel emissions", "category": "Sustainability", "definition": "Usually the largest slice of a festival's footprint. A 2015 UK estimate said up to 80%; A Greener Festival's 2023 analysis put it at about 41% on average, with a range from 18% to 76% by event, partly because earlier studies left out food and drink.", "section": "green", "source_url": "https://yourope.org/know-how/agf-report-new-insight-into-festival-carbon-footprint/" }, { "term": "Automation", "aka": "stage automation", "category": "Staging", "definition": "Motor control for moving scenery and lights: variable-speed chain hoists, load cells and control consoles such as TAIT's Kinesys, or large cable-winch rigs like KINETIC lights.", "section": "stage", "source_url": "https://www.kinesys.com/" }, { "term": "Backline tech", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The technician who looks after performers' equipment; at an electronic show, the CDJs, mixer, controllers and any instruments.", "section": "crew" }, { "term": "Backup console", "aka": "tracking backup", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A second lighting console that tracks the main one so it can take over without the audience noticing. Illenium's 2021 stadium show ran an active and a backup grandMA3; a backup that needs booting cannot take over in seconds.", "section": "showcontrol", "source_url": "https://www.tpimagazine.com/?p=53251" }, { "term": "Balearic", "aka": "Balearic beat", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "The eclectic DJ style of Alfredo Fiorito, who first played Amnesia on Ibiza in 1983 and mixed house with disco, rock, jazz, funk, soul and synth pop. Four London DJs heard it in 1987, which made Ibiza the bridge that carried Chicago and Detroit records into British rave.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Fiorito" }, { "term": "Ballast", "category": "Staging", "definition": "Heavy weights, such as concrete blocks or water barriers, that stop a ground-supported structure from sliding or overturning in wind. EDC's 2013 kineticFIELD used about 1,968,000 pounds; the Indiana State Fair roof's barrier ballast could resist only about 25 to 43 mph winds.", "section": "stage", "source_url": "https://plsn.com/?p=247262" }, { "term": "Banding", "aka": "scan lines", "category": "Video", "definition": "Dark stripes a camera or phone sees on an LED wall that eyes do not. LEDs are dimmed by fast pulsing, and a rolling shutter catches different numbers of pulses on different sensor rows; higher refresh rates or genlock fix it.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://www.planar.com/blog/2023/lower-scan-means-higher-performance-for-on-camera-led/" }, { "term": "Bass swap", "category": "Booth", "definition": "The standard blend move: cut the low EQ of the incoming track, bring it in underneath, then at a phrase boundary swap the lows so only one bassline plays at full weight. Two kick drums and two basslines at once make mud and can push the system toward its limiter.", "section": "technique" }, { "term": "Battery-powered show", "category": "Sustainability", "definition": "A show run from batteries instead of diesel generators. Massive Attack's ACT 1.5 in Bristol in August 2024, for more than 32,000 people, used electric trucks to shuttle batteries off site to recharge on renewable power.", "section": "green", "source_url": "https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/tyndall-centre-roadmap-helps-deliver-lowest-carbon-live-music-event-of-its-kind/" }, { "term": "Beam", "aka": "beam fixture", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A moving light with a very narrow, intense, nearly parallel shaft of light. In haze these draw the geometric lines in the air that electronic shows are known for; Clay Paky's Sharpy (2010) is the archetype.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://www.claypaky.it/en/news/clay-paky-new-products-plasa-2010/" }, { "term": "Beamforming", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Shaping where sound goes so different parts of a room hear different levels or even different content. Sphere's HOLOPLOT system claims 3D beamforming from 167,000 individually amplified drivers; the claim comes from a press release with no published measurements.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/07/24/sphere-entertainment-unveils-most-advance-concert-grade-audio-system-in-the-world-sphere-immersive-sound/" }, { "term": "Beatgrid", "category": "Booth", "definition": "The map of where every beat falls in a track, created during library analysis. Sync, quantize and tempo-synced effects all depend on it, and they are only as accurate as the grid.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/pioneer-announces-cdj-2000-220336" }, { "term": "Beatmatching", "category": "Booth", "definition": "Adjusting the tempo and timing of the incoming track by ear and hand so its beats line up with the track already playing. Sync automates the tempo part of this job; the DJ still chooses when and how to mix.", "section": "booth" }, { "term": "Berghain", "category": "Venue", "definition": "The Berlin club opened in December 2004 in a former power plant, descended from queer fetish party culture via the Reichsbahnbunker parties, Snax Club and Ostgut. Its no-photos rule and opaque door are part of the production; the door policy has also faced accusations of racism.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berghain" }, { "term": "Blinder", "aka": "audience blinder", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A fixture of bright, wide-angle lamps aimed at the audience to flash or flood them with light at big moments. LED instruments are now often used this way.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_lighting_instrument" }, { "term": "Bodysonic floor", "category": "Venue", "definition": "A dance floor fitted with bass transducers so it vibrates with the music. Fabric's Room One in London uses 400 of them.", "section": "venues", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabric_(club)" }, { "term": "Booth monitor", "aka": "booth output", "category": "Booth", "definition": "Speakers aimed at the DJ, fed from the mixer's booth output, so the DJ hears the mix directly instead of waiting for the room's echo. Etiquette says turn them down at handover so the next DJ sets their own level.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.rane.com/the-mixer-that-house-built-rane-mp-2016/" }, { "term": "Bridle", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "Two legs of steel spanning two beams so the hook hangs between them, used when the load needs to be somewhere there is no beam. Leg lengths are worked out by trigonometry.", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_rigging" }, { "term": "Busking", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "Running lights live on faders and buttons, reacting to the music, rather than playing back pre-programmed cues. It is the norm for club nights and unscripted DJ sets; most real shows mix busking and timecode.", "section": "light" }, { "term": "Buyout", "category": "Money", "definition": "Converting travel and hospitality into a single cash sum. It is common industry usage, but this guide found no reputable source that defines it.", "section": "money" }, { "term": "Cam-lok", "aka": "single-pole connector", "category": "Power", "definition": "Heavy single-pole connectors, one per conductor, used on feeder cable. The US electrical code requires them to be listed and locking, color-coded (green ground, white neutral), and connected by a qualified person: ground first, then neutral, then the hot legs, and the reverse to disconnect.", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://captaincode2020.leviton.com/node/253" }, { "term": "Camelot wheel", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A 24-position key chart based on the circle of fifths, with minor keys numbered with an A and major keys with a B (A minor is 8A, C major is 8B). Compatible moves are the same code, the same number with the other letter, or one step up or down with the same letter. It is commonly attributed to Mark Davis of Camelot Sound, which this guide could not verify.", "section": "technique", "source_url": "https://blog.dubspot.com/harmonic-mixing-w-dj-endo-part-1" }, { "term": "Cardioid sub", "aka": "cardioid subwoofer array", "category": "Sound", "definition": "An arrangement of subwoofers timed so their sound adds up in front and cancels behind. In a gradient array the rear box is delayed and polarity-flipped; the cost is a few decibels of forward output and floor space, the payoff less bass on stage and next door.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.precisionaudioservices.com/blog/understanding-2-element-cardioid-subwooferarrays" }, { "term": "Cat5e", "aka": "Ethernet cable", "category": "Network", "definition": "The minimum grade of twisted-pair copper cable AlphaTheta recommends for PRO DJ LINK and the usual minimum for gigabit Ethernet. Any copper Ethernet run is limited to 100 meters.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_over_twisted_pair" }, { "term": "CDJ", "aka": "media player", "category": "Booth", "definition": "The DJ media player line started by Pioneer with the CDJ-500 in 1994 and now made by AlphaTheta. Despite the name, the current CDJ-3000 and CDJ-3000X have no disc drive: they play from USB, the network, the cloud and streaming services. It is the player most club and festival riders ask for.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-us/news/2020/cdj-3000-professional-dj-multi-player/" }, { "term": "CDJ-3000X", "category": "Booth", "definition": "AlphaTheta's flagship player, announced on 9 September 2025, with a 10.1-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi, NFC login, cloud and streaming playback, USB-C and no SD slot. It caches the loaded track internally so pulling the USB stick does not stop playback. As of October 2026 it is sold alongside the CDJ-3000 rather than replacing it.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://alphatheta.com/ja/information/alphathetas-next-generation-professional-dj-player-cdj-3000x/" }, { "term": "Chain hoist", "aka": "motor", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "An electric hoist that climbs its own chain to lift truss and equipment; crews call them motors. It hangs from the building's structure on steel wire rope and shackles.", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_rigging" }, { "term": "Changeover", "category": "Booth", "definition": "The handover between one act and the next. For DJs it means arriving a couple of tracks early, ending on something easy to mix out of, and resetting monitor levels; for bands and big productions it is a scheduled stage turnaround that beginners routinely underestimate.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://serato.com/latest/blog/18508/djlife-four-tips-for-smooth-dj-changeovers" }, { "term": "CJPOA section 63", "aka": "repetitive beats law", "category": "History", "definition": "The section of the UK's Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 that defines music at an outdoor night-time gathering to include \"a succession of repetitive beats\" and lets police order people to leave once 20 or more are present in England and Wales. It is still in force.", "section": "venues", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/section/63" }, { "term": "Class 3B", "aka": "Class IIIb", "category": "Laser", "definition": "Lasers up to 500 mW. Looking into the beam is hazardous, though diffuse reflections generally are not; a key switch and interlock are required. In the US they can only be used at shows under an FDA variance.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety" }, { "term": "Class 3R", "aka": "Class IIIa", "category": "Laser", "definition": "Visible lasers up to 5 mW: low risk, though the safe exposure limit can be exceeded. The old US equivalent, Class IIIa, is the most powerful class allowed in US entertainment without a variance, which is where the \"5 mW line\" comes from.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety" }, { "term": "Class 4", "aka": "Class IV", "category": "Laser", "definition": "Lasers above 500 mW: an eye hazard even from diffuse reflections, a skin burn hazard and a fire risk. Like Class 3B, it needs an FDA variance for US shows.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety" }, { "term": "Clean Scene", "category": "Sustainability", "definition": "The Berlin collective whose 2021 report Last Night a DJ Took a Flight estimated that the top 1,000 DJs in Resident Advisor's 2019 rankings took more than 51,000 flights that year, producing about 35,000 metric tons of CO2. It said its aim was accountability, not blaming individuals.", "section": "green", "source_url": "https://mixmag.net/read/touring-djs-51-000-flights-2019-clean-scene-report-news" }, { "term": "CMY", "aka": "CMY color mixing", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "Color mixing with cyan, magenta and yellow filters that slide into the beam in varying amounts, giving smooth fades through a wide range of colors.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_lighting" }, { "term": "CO2 jet", "aka": "CO2 cannon, cryo jet", "category": "SFX", "definition": "An effect that fires a column of liquid carbon dioxide for a moment, making a white plume of frozen humidity that vanishes in seconds. Plumes reach about 8 to 90 feet depending on the unit. The hazard is the gas, which is denser than air and pools in low spaces.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://www.cryofx.com/co2-jets" }, { "term": "COB", "aka": "chip on board", "category": "Video", "definition": "LED chips mounted directly on the module rather than in individual packages, giving higher contrast, a tougher surface and tighter pixel pitch.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://roevisual.com/en/knowledge-and-support/thesaurus-led-technology-for-virtual-production-xr-film" }, { "term": "Cold spark", "aka": "spark machine", "category": "SFX", "definition": "A machine that heats titanium-zirconium powder to around 560 C and blows it out as a fountain of sparks. Despite the name, fire officials treat it as a pyrotechnic effect, and permits can require operator certification, clearance from combustibles and a metal-fire extinguisher.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://mesaaz.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/48452/638566485869200000" }, { "term": "Companion ticket", "category": "Access", "definition": "A ticket for the person accompanying a disabled guest. Under the US Department of Justice's 2010 ADA rules, a buyer of an accessible seat may buy up to three companion seats in the same row; EDC Las Vegas gives one companion wristband per guest with a disability.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://archive.ada.gov/ticketing_2010.htm" }, { "term": "Comps", "aka": "papering the house", "category": "Money", "definition": "Complimentary tickets. In a percentage deal an artist's attorney will try to cap them, so the promoter cannot \"paper the house\" with free tickets that dilute the artist's share.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/04/live-performance-agreements-a-brief-look.html" }, { "term": "Confetti cannon", "category": "SFX", "definition": "An electric or air-powered launcher that blasts confetti or streamers over the crowd, up to about 12 meters. Flameproof and certified-biodegradable tissue exists, but not every \"biodegradable\" claim has a certificate.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://www.huss-licht-ton.de/print_product_info.php/en/products_id/58499" }, { "term": "Content ID", "category": "Broadcast", "definition": "YouTube's system that matches uploads and live streams against rights owners' reference files; owners can block, monetize or track matches, country by country.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370" }, { "term": "Credentials", "aka": "laminates, passes", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The passes and laminates that say who can go where, handled by the tour manager.", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_manager" }, { "term": "CRI", "aka": "Color Rendering Index", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A score out of 100 for how faithfully a light source shows colors compared with a reference light. Higher scores look more natural on skin and on camera.", "section": "light" }, { "term": "Crossfader", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A horizontal fader that blends between two channels. It arrived with the GLI PMX 7000 and Citronic SMP101 in 1977, alongside vertical channel faders, and became central to hip-hop cutting and scratching.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2019/06/evolution-of-dj-mixers" }, { "term": "Crowd crush", "category": "Safety", "definition": "Deaths and injuries caused by crowd density so high that people are compressed. The accurate terms are crowd crush and crowd turbulence; \"stampede\" wrongly blames victims for physics.", "section": "safety", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade_disaster" }, { "term": "Crowd manager", "category": "Safety", "definition": "Staff trained to manage crowd movement and safety. NFPA's Life Safety Code began requiring them in nightclubs after The Station fire.", "section": "safety", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Station_nightclub_fire" }, { "term": "Crowd turbulence", "category": "Safety", "definition": "The surging, wave-like motion of an extremely dense crowd in which people lose control of their movement. A 2012 analysis of the Love Parade disaster described it, rather than a stampede.", "section": "safety", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade_disaster" }, { "term": "Cue point", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A saved position in a track that the player can jump to, typically where the DJ wants to start the mix. Cue points are set in advance in software or on the player and travel with the track on USB.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://mixdownmag.com.au/features/gear-icons-pioneer-dj/" }, { "term": "D8", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "A hoist built to the standard level of the German hoist code. It is not designed to suspend loads over people unless a secondary safety is fitted.", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://cxnetwork.com.au/?p=42710" }, { "term": "D8+", "aka": "D8 Plus", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "A hoist built to the higher level of the German code, with double brakes and higher safety factors, which can suspend loads over people without a secondary safety. Which to use should follow a project-specific risk assessment.", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://cxnetwork.com.au/?p=42710" }, { "term": "Dante", "category": "Network", "definition": "Audinate's audio-over-IP system (2006), carrying uncompressed multichannel audio over ordinary networks, up to 1,024 channels per link, with latency as low as 150 microseconds. It lets one network feed front of house, monitors, broadcast and recording.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_(networking)" }, { "term": "Dante Certification", "category": "Careers", "definition": "Audinate's free audio networking certification. The third edition, announced in October 2025, has three levels covering IP networking, system design, integration with AES67 and SMPTE ST 2110, and troubleshooting, and is valid for three years.", "section": "careers", "source_url": "https://www.prosoundweb.com/audinate-announces-revamped-dante-training-program/" }, { "term": "Day sheet", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The one-page schedule for a show day, prepared by the tour manager the day before.", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_manager" }, { "term": "dBA", "aka": "A-weighting", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Sound level weighted to mimic how ears respond at low levels, which cuts bass heavily. At 100 Hz an A-weighted reading is about 20 dB lower than a C-weighted one, so A-weighted limits understate bass-heavy music.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://timeless.mydigitalpublication.com/article/On+the+Digital+Edge/4912809/838283/article.html" }, { "term": "dBC", "aka": "C-weighting", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Sound level weighted to mimic hearing at high levels, keeping the bass. C-weighted caps, such as France's 118 dB(C), target exactly the low end dance music produces.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://timeless.mydigitalpublication.com/article/On+the+Digital+Edge/4912809/838283/article.html" }, { "term": "Dead-hang", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "A rigging point that drops straight down from a beam.", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_rigging" }, { "term": "Deaf Rave", "category": "Access", "definition": "An award-winning Deaf-led organization, founded by Troi Lee, in which Deaf DJs and producers create spaces to experience music \"through vibration, rhythm, and movement\".", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/ayw3D7ew2w/dj-with-deaf-rave-may-2026" }, { "term": "Deep Symmetry", "aka": "dysentery, Beat Link", "category": "Network", "definition": "James Elliott's project that reverse-engineered PRO DJ LINK from packet captures starting in summer 2015. Its published analysis is the de facto public documentation of the protocol, and its Beat Link libraries underpin many third-party lighting and video sync tools. AlphaTheta has never published the protocol.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://github.com/Deep-Symmetry/dysentery" }, { "term": "Delay tower", "category": "Staging", "definition": "A tower out in the audience carrying speakers fed with a timed delay so sound arrives together with the sound from the stage. Stage builders such as Stageco and Mountain build them alongside stages.", "section": "stage", "source_url": "https://stageco.com/" }, { "term": "Demonstration laser product", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The US legal category for lasers made or promoted for demonstration, entertainment, advertising display or artistic composition. Under 21 CFR 1040.11(c) they must meet Class IIIa or below unless a variance applies.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-J/part-1040/section-1040.10" }, { "term": "Deposit", "category": "Money", "definition": "Part of the fee paid in advance to hold the date, usually 50% according to one entertainment attorney, with the balance due before, on the day of or after the show. If the promoter cancels after paying it, the artist generally keeps it.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/04/live-performance-agreements-a-brief-look.html" }, { "term": "Detroit techno", "aka": "Belleville Three", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "Techno as made from the early 1980s by young Black musicians from the Detroit area, led by Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. The name was fixed by the 1988 UK compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit, and compiler Neil Rushton says the four of them chose it together; no single person coined it.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_techno" }, { "term": "DHCP", "category": "Network", "definition": "The service, often built into a router, that hands out IP addresses to devices on a time-limited lease. If DHCP is not running before Pioneer players boot, they fall back to link-local addresses.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol" }, { "term": "Disco Demolition", "category": "History", "definition": "The 12 July 1979 promotion at Chicago's Comiskey Park in which a crate of disco records was blown up between games of a doubleheader; fans rioted, 39 people were arrested and the second game was forfeited. Many of the records brought were by Black artists and were not disco. Historians including John-Manuel Andriote read it as threatened white straight masculinity; the host, Steve Dahl, has consistently denied that it was racist or anti-gay.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://aeon.co/ideas/the-night-when-straight-white-males-tried-to-kill-disco" }, { "term": "Distro", "aka": "power distribution, company switch", "category": "Power", "definition": "The distribution box that splits incoming power into protected circuits. The main distro feeds sub-distros at each stage over heavy feeder cable.", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://www.toolgrit.com/guides/event-power-distribution-guide" }, { "term": "DJ mixer", "category": "Booth", "definition": "The box that combines the players. Each channel has gain, EQ and usually a filter, plus a fader; there is a crossfader, a headphone cue, built-in effects on most models, and separate master and booth outputs. The first DJ mixers were modified PA mixers, such as the Bozak CMA-10-2DL of the 1970s.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2019/06/evolution-of-dj-mixers" }, { "term": "DJ Monitor", "category": "Broadcast", "definition": "A service founded in 2005 that tracks when and where electronic music is played so rights holders get paid; a PRS partner. AlphaTheta acquired its technology and assets in May 2026.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://prsformusic.com/what-we-do/who-we-work-with/dj-monitor" }, { "term": "DJM-REC", "category": "Broadcast", "definition": "Pioneer's app for recording and live streaming straight from compatible flagship mixers such as the DJM-A9 and DJM-V10.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://www.pioneerdj.com/en/product/mixer/djm-a9/black/overview/" }, { "term": "DMX512", "aka": "DMX", "category": "Network", "definition": "The standard control language for stage lights, created by USITT in 1986 and now ANSI E1.11 (current edition 2024). One cable carries a universe of 512 channels, each a value from 0 to 255, one way down a daisy chain of fixtures, refreshed about 44 times a second.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMX512" }, { "term": "Door deal", "aka": "percentage deal", "category": "Money", "definition": "A deal that pays the artist a percentage only, with no guarantee.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://www.ticketfairy.com/de/guides/make-an-offer-to-an-artists-agent" }, { "term": "Drone show", "category": "SFX", "definition": "A light show flown by a swarm of drones. Intel's 300 drones in the February 2017 Super Bowl halftime show were filmed days earlier; by April 2025 Guinness recognized 10,518 drones flying at once in Vietnam, and larger shows followed. Records fall within months, and the failure mode is falling objects.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://www.techradar.com/pro/watch-more-than-10-000-drones-fly-as-one-in-a-record-breaking-and-controversial-light-show" }, { "term": "Drug checking", "aka": "pill testing", "category": "Safety", "definition": "Analyzing a sample of a drug and returning the result with advice. Its status depends on the jurisdiction, so \"legal\" is usually the wrong word. The Dutch health ministry funded Europe's first system in 1992; in the UK, on-site checking needs a Home Office license, which The Loop received in May 2024; as of October 2026 Queensland has banned it (September 2025) while the ACT and Victoria run services and NSW funds festival testing; in the US, DanceSafe checks drugs at events with producers' consent, and promoters' fear of RAVE Act liability limits it.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://www.hse.ie/eng/about/who/primarycare/socialinclusion/addiction/clinical-matters/europeanresponsesguide2017-drug-checking-harm-reduction.pdf" }, { "term": "DSP", "aka": "loudspeaker processor, system processor", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Digital signal processing that applies the crossover, EQ, delay and limiting a speaker system needs, often built into amplifiers. L-Acoustics' LA4X, for example, has filters, up to a second of delay per channel and real-time speaker protection.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.prosoundweb.com/l-acoustics-announces-addition-of-new-la4x-to-amplified-controller-series/" }, { "term": "Dub", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A Jamaican way of remaking a track by stripping out the vocals and adding delay, reverb and filtering. King Tubby made it from 1971 on a used MCI desk at 18 Dromilly Avenue in Kingston, sweeping the desk's high-pass filter, which this guide reads as the ancestor of the DJ mixer's filter sweep.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://factmag.com/2015/05/19/king-tubby-beginners-guide-dub-reggae" }, { "term": "Dubplate", "aka": "exclusive", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A one-off record cut for a single sound system: the exclusive that drew a crowd to one crew rather than another. Exclusives were worth stealing; in September 1961 a man was arrested for taking one of Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat dubplates.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2013/02/duke-reid-sir-coxsone-dodd-beef-patty" }, { "term": "Dubstep", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A UK bass style whose first dedicated night, FWD>>, was founded in 2001 at the Velvet Rooms and then Plastic People in Shoreditch, with Croydon's Big Apple Records as a hub; Digital Mystikz and Loefah founded DMZ Records in 2005. Its roots are traced to \"the Jamaican sound system party scene\".", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubstep" }, { "term": "E-stop", "aka": "emergency stop", "category": "Safety", "definition": "A latching button that immediately kills a laser, flame unit or other hazardous effect. Rules for lasers and flame effects require one within the operator's reach.", "section": "safety", "source_url": "https://finale3d.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MAGICFX_STAGE-FLAME_MANUAL.pdf" }, { "term": "EDM", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A narrower label than electronic dance music. Close to 2010 the US music industry promoted rave-related festivals as \"EDM\", partly to shed the baggage of earlier moral panics, and the term came to mean a pop-oriented, big-room festival sound. This guide uses it only for that US industry era.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://cambridgeblog.org/2026/03/the-cambridge-companion-to-electronic-dance-music/" }, { "term": "Effects unit", "aka": "FX unit, RMX-1000", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A standalone effects box between the mixer and its output. Pioneer's RMX-1000 (2012) split its job into Scene FX for builds and breakdowns, Isolator FX for band kills, an X-Pad for drum rolls and Release FX for clean exits.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.engadget.com/2012-03-17-pioneer-launches-rmx1000.html" }, { "term": "Electronic dance music", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "The umbrella term this guide uses for disco's descendants, house, techno, jungle, trance, dubstep, amapiano and the rest. The academic Hillegonda Rietveld writes that it has served as an umbrella term since the 1980s.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://cambridgeblog.org/2026/03/the-cambridge-companion-to-electronic-dance-music/" }, { "term": "Emergency plan", "aka": "operations plan", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The written plan for what happens when things go wrong. Astroworld's 56-page plan covered shootings, bomb threats and severe weather but not crowd surges.", "section": "safety", "source_url": "https://abc7news.com/astroworld-travis-scott-tragedy-concert-houston/13563641/" }, { "term": "End-fire array", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Subwoofers lined up front to back, with the front ones delayed most, so energy sums forward and cancels backward.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.prosoundweb.com/?p=37071" }, { "term": "Energy Efficient Ethernet", "aka": "EEE", "category": "Network", "definition": "A power-saving switch feature that idles links between bursts of traffic. Yamaha's Dante guide says it is incompatible with real-time applications; turn it off on show networks.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://au.yamaha.com/en/business/audio/resources/self-training/dante-network-design-guide/101-network-switches.html" }, { "term": "ESTA", "aka": "Entertainment Services and Technology Association", "category": "Safety", "definition": "The entertainment-technology trade body whose Technical Standards Program maintains DMX512, RDM, sACN and ACN, among many others, and which runs the ETCP certification program.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/published_docs.php" }, { "term": "ETCP", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "The Entertainment Technician Certification Program, run by ESTA, which certifies arena and theater riggers, entertainment electricians and portable power technicians in North America. Candidates need 30 eligibility points, earned mostly from documented work hours, and certification renews every five years.", "section": "careers", "source_url": "https://etcp.esta.org/" }, { "term": "ETCP eligibility points", "category": "Careers", "definition": "The 30 points needed to sit an ETCP exam, earned mostly at one point per 100 hours of documented work, with education capped at 10 points. That means 3,000 hours of rigging work alone qualifies, while schooling alone cannot.", "section": "careers", "source_url": "https://etcp.esta.org/certify/documents/rigging/ETCP_Handbook_Rigging.pdf" }, { "term": "Ethernet", "category": "Network", "definition": "The ordinary wired networking used in offices, and now at almost every show. Data travels in addressed frames between devices through switches; copper runs are limited to 100 meters per cable.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_frame" }, { "term": "Event Safety Alliance", "aka": "ESA", "category": "Safety", "definition": "The US event safety body formed in response to the 2011 Indiana State Fair collapse, led by tour manager Jim Digby and modeled on the Purple Guide. Its Event Safety Guide first appeared in 2013 and now runs to 39 chapters.", "section": "safety", "source_url": "https://eventsafetyalliance.org/about-1" }, { "term": "Fallback look", "aka": "emergency override cue", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A lighting state an operator can fire by hand if timecode or playback fails. A promoter's guide lists it with emergency override cues, isolated timecode paths, redundant audio interfaces and backup timecode generators; it is a blog checklist, not a standard.", "section": "showcontrol", "source_url": "https://www.ticketfairy.com/blog/lighting-for-bpm-festivals-timecode-vs-busking.md" }, { "term": "Fiber", "aka": "fibre, optical fiber", "category": "Network", "definition": "Glass cable that carries network data as light, used when copper's 100-meter limit is not enough. Gigabit multimode fiber reaches about 220 to 550 meters, and single-mode 5 to 10 kilometers; one fiber pair can replace a heavy multicore snake.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit_Ethernet" }, { "term": "Filter", "aka": "filter sweep", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A mixer control that sweeps away everything above or below a moving point, so a track sounds as if it is arriving from another room or draining away. King Tubby made dub in the early 1970s partly by sweeping his desk's high-pass filter.", "section": "technique", "source_url": "https://factmag.com/2015/05/19/king-tubby-beginners-guide-dub-reggae" }, { "term": "Fire watch", "category": "Safety", "definition": "A person posted, often at a fee, to act as the smoke detector when a venue isolates its detectors so haze will not trigger them. Good hire conditions also require isolation only by prior written agreement and detectors re-enabled and tested at the end.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://www.4wall.com/help/will-haze-set-off-fire-alarms-or-smoke-detectors--n-185" }, { "term": "Flame effect", "aka": "flame unit", "category": "SFX", "definition": "A device that fires a controlled burst of fire, typically 3 to 6 meters high. In the US they are governed by NFPA 160; one widely used design has a separate arm channel, an arming countdown, a tilt sensor and an emergency stop.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://finale3d.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MAGICFX_STAGE-FLAME_MANUAL.pdf" }, { "term": "Flat fee", "category": "Money", "definition": "A fixed payment to the artist regardless of ticket sales, the simplest option on the standard deal menu.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/04/live-performance-agreements-a-brief-look.html" }, { "term": "Flown vs ground-stacked", "aka": "flown, ground stack", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "The two ways to put up an LED wall or PA: hung from truss and hoists, which needs rated points, certified riggers and longer load-in, or stacked on the floor, which needs a level base, bracing and, outdoors, ballast and wind calculations. \"A calm forecast is not a design basis.\"", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://dynamo-led-displays.co.uk/led-screen-hire-rigging-vs-ground-stack/" }, { "term": "Fog", "aka": "smoke", "category": "SFX", "definition": "A dense, visible cloud made by vaporizing glycol or glycol-water fluid in a heated machine. Fog is an effect in itself; haze is about making beams visible.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_smoke_and_fog" }, { "term": "FOH", "aka": "front of house", "category": "Sound", "definition": "The mixing position out in the audience, and by extension everything on the audience side of the stage. Bill Hanley is credited with moving the mixing desk out front.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.mmone.org/?p=8816" }, { "term": "FOH engineer", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The engineer who runs the audience mix. At a DJ-only show there is often little to mix, so the job is mainly guarding the system limiter and overall level.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.mi.edu/in-the-know/plan-live-concert-beginners-guide-show-advance-stage-plots-load/" }, { "term": "Followspot", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A powerful spotlight moved during the show by an operator (or remotely) to track a performer.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_lighting_instrument" }, { "term": "Form 696", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "A club risk-assessment form created by London's Metropolitan Police in 2005, which an MP called \"draconian\" in 2009. It was used to shut grime events and is blamed for the scene's late-2000s decline. Its scrapping in 2017 is widely reported but is not verified here.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grime_music" }, { "term": "Free party", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "An unlicensed party run by sound system collectives, often outdoors. The UK strand peaked at Castlemorton Common from 22 to 29 May 1992, with an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people and systems including Spiral Tribe, Bedlam, Circus Warp and DiY; Castlemorton is usually credited with prompting the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlemorton_Common_Festival" }, { "term": "Free water condition", "category": "Access", "definition": "In England and Wales, a mandatory condition of alcohol licenses: free drinking water must be provided on request where it is reasonably available. This guide found no equivalent statewide requirement in the US.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/licensing-and-permits/licensing-act-2003/mandatory-conditions" }, { "term": "Gabber", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "Rotterdam hardcore of the early 1990s, which Billboard called the Netherlands' \"first homegrown youth culture\" in 1997. The scene explicitly rejected far-right attempts to claim it, with releases such as DJ Chosen Few's \"Chosen Anthem (Against Racism)\" (1993) and Party Animals' \"Die Nazi Scum\" (1996).", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabber" }, { "term": "Gain staging", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Setting the level at every stage of the signal chain, from track to channel to master to system, so the signal is strong but never clipping. The booth advice is to raise every stage a little rather than one a lot.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.digitaldjtips.com/?p=2005266" }, { "term": "Generator", "aka": "genny", "category": "Power", "definition": "Towable diesel generators power greenfield sites, often paired for redundancy. They prefer to run at 50 to 75% of rating; below about 30%, diesels suffer \"wet stacking\".", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://www.toolgrit.com/guides/event-power-distribution-guide" }, { "term": "Genlock", "category": "Video", "definition": "Synchronising cameras, processors and walls to one common timing reference so their timing lines up, which helps remove banding on camera.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://roevisual.com/en/knowledge-and-support/thesaurus-led-technology-for-virtual-production-xr-film" }, { "term": "Gerb", "category": "SFX", "definition": "A pyrotechnic fountain that sprays a shower of sparks. Gerbs set off on stage started The Station nightclub fire in 2003.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=100988" }, { "term": "GFCI", "aka": "ground-fault circuit interrupter", "category": "Power", "definition": "A device that cuts power when current leaks to ground, protecting people from shock. Class A devices trip above 6 milliamps; ESTA's ANSI E1.19 covers their use in entertainment, and European RCDs do not meet the Class A definition.", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/working_groups/EP/ep.html" }, { "term": "Goa trance", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "Trance that emerged at beach and forest parties in Goa, India, around 1991-93, after DJs such as Goa Gil, Fred Disko and Laurent had played dub and electronic music there on two tape decks. DAT replaced cassettes, and turntables reached Goa only in 1999.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_trance" }, { "term": "Gobo", "aka": "pattern, template", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A small stencil of steel, glass or plastic placed in the focal plane of a projecting light so the beam comes out as a sharp image, such as leaves, a logo or a texture. The word's origin is unknown; the \"goes before optics\" style acronyms are later backronyms, and the earliest recorded sense (1923) was a dark panel used to block light from a film camera.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobo_(lighting)" }, { "term": "Grime", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "An East London style of the early 2000s carried by pirate stations such as Rinse FM and Deja Vu; Dizzee Rascal's Boy in da Corner won the 2003 Mercury Prize.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grime_music" }, { "term": "Gross and net", "category": "Money", "definition": "Gross box office is ticket sales at face value with no deductions; net is gross minus defined deductions such as sales tax, ticketing and card fees, facility fees and the face value of comps. The same percentage of each can be very different money, so the contract's definition of net matters more than the headline number.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://tseentertainment.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Booking_Headliner_Deal_Structures_Complete-5.pdf" }, { "term": "Ground loop", "category": "Power", "definition": "A second path to ground through a signal cable's shield, heard as hum. Fixes include balanced lines, isolation transformers, a single ground reference and lifting the ground on the signal side only, never on the power plug.", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)" }, { "term": "Ground support", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "Towers and roofs that stand on the ground rather than hanging from a building, used outdoors and in venues without rated points. In the US they are governed by ANSI E1.21 (current edition 2024).", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://webstore.ansi.org/standards/esta/ansie1212023" }, { "term": "Guarantee", "category": "Money", "definition": "The fixed minimum an artist is paid, either alone or combined with a percentage in a guarantee-plus or versus deal.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://www.ticketfairy.com/de/guides/make-an-offer-to-an-artists-agent" }, { "term": "Haptic vest", "category": "Access", "definition": "A wearable that turns music into vibration. Music: Not Impossible's wireless vests, with wrist and ankle bands whose vibration points map to different instruments, were demonstrated with Deaf and hearing attendees at Life is Beautiful in Las Vegas in 2018.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://djmag.com/news/new-technology-allows-deaf-people-experience-live-music" }, { "term": "Harmonic mixing", "aka": "key mixing", "category": "Booth", "definition": "Choosing tracks whose keys sit well together, so long melodic blends do not sound sour. Mixed In Key, first released on 25 March 2006, made it mainstream; key detection is statistical, so the usual advice is to trust your ears over the label.", "section": "technique", "source_url": "https://blog.dubspot.com/harmonic-mixing-w-dj-endo-part-1" }, { "term": "Haze", "category": "SFX", "definition": "A fine, near-invisible suspension of particles whose job is to make light beams and laser lines visible in the air. It is made from mineral oil or water-based fluid, which are not interchangeable, and it can set off photoelectric smoke detectors.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_smoke_and_fog" }, { "term": "Headroom", "category": "Sound", "definition": "The space between the normal signal level and the point of distortion or limiting. \"Headroom is your friend,\" as one festival backline tech put it.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.digitaldjtips.com/?p=2005266" }, { "term": "Horn-loaded", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Speakers that use horns to project sound efficiently, the approach of club-focused makers like Funktion-One, whose co-founder's philosophy is to \"do as little as possible with the signal\".", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.prosoundweb.com/evolving-sonic-landscape-funktion-one-co-founder-tony-andrews-on-the-history-influence-of-sound-systems-at-glastonbury-festival/" }, { "term": "Hot cue", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A cue point assigned to its own button, so the DJ can jump to it instantly during playback. The CDJ-1000 of 2001 had three; the CDJ-3000 has eight.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://mixdownmag.com.au/features/gear-icons-pioneer-dj/" }, { "term": "House music", "category": "History", "definition": "Dance music that grew up in Chicago in the early 1980s. Most music historians agree the name comes from the Warehouse, the members-only club opened in 1977 where Frankie Knuckles was resident, with some debate; Knuckles himself remembered a tavern sign around 1980-81 reading \"We play house music\". Its main roots are disco, funk and electro.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/The_Warehouse_Report.pdf" }, { "term": "House package", "category": "Venue", "definition": "A venue's installed PA, lighting, video and DJ booth, which a touring DJ or production advances against on the rider.", "section": "venues", "source_url": "https://www.livedesignonline.com/venues-club-or-lounge/hakkasan-las-vegas-nightclub" }, { "term": "HVO", "aka": "hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO100", "category": "Sustainability", "definition": "Hydrotreated vegetable oil, a diesel substitute that runs in standard diesel generators. Its carbon benefit depends on genuinely waste-derived feedstock, and because it is still burned on site it does much less for local air quality than for carbon.", "section": "green", "source_url": "https://mail.hostcity.com/news/event-management/how-glastonbury-festival-got-greener-aggreko" }, { "term": "Hybrid generator", "category": "Sustainability", "definition": "A generator paired with batteries, and sometimes solar, so a smaller engine can run steadily while the battery covers spiky peaks. Aggreko used hybrids at Glastonbury in 2019 and claimed more than 200 metric tons of CO2 saved, a supplier claim.", "section": "green", "source_url": "https://mail.hostcity.com/news/event-management/how-glastonbury-festival-got-greener-aggreko" }, { "term": "IATSE", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The main US stagehands' union, founded in 1893, with more than 168,000 members in more than 360 independent locals that each negotiate their own contracts.", "section": "crew", "source_url": "https://www.iatse.net/about-iatse" }, { "term": "IGMP snooping", "category": "Network", "definition": "A managed-switch feature that tracks which ports have asked for which multicast streams and sends them only there. Without it, sACN and Dante multicast floods the whole network.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://support.enttec.com/dmx/edmx-art-net-sacn-networking/art-net-vs-sacn-which-should-you-use" }, { "term": "ILDA", "aka": "International Laser Display Association", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The laser show industry association, founded in 1986. It publishes plain-language safety guidance, an incident database and technical standards such as the .ild file format and the DB-25 projector connector.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://www.lasershowsafety.info/" }, { "term": "IMAG", "aka": "image magnification", "category": "Video", "definition": "Live camera shots of the performer shown on the screens, so people far from the stage can see faces and hands. It is run by a video director and camera crew rather than the VJ.", "section": "video" }, { "term": "Input list", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "\"The technical companion to the stage plot\", telling audio what connects to what. Engineers want it as a separate, dated PDF in large type readable under stage light, with a contact on every page.", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://www.prosoundweb.com/?p=93246" }, { "term": "Isolation transformer", "category": "Power", "definition": "A transformer that passes an audio signal while breaking the electrical connection between two devices, curing ground-loop hum.", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)" }, { "term": "JumboTron", "aka": "Diamond Vision", "category": "History", "definition": "Early giant stadium screens, built from cathode-ray tubes because there was no practical blue LED. Mitsubishi's Diamond Vision debuted at the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and Sony's JumboTron at Expo '85.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbotron" }, { "term": "Jungle", "aka": "jungle techno, hardcore jungle", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A UK style that grew out of breakbeat hardcore from about 1990, with ragga basslines and sound system samples, at clubs such as AWOL, Roast and Telepathy and on pirate stations such as Kool FM; drum and bass had emerged from it by 1998. Who named it is disputed, and some heard the name as reclaiming a racist slur as an assertion of Black identity.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_music" }, { "term": "Kabuki drop", "aka": "kabuki", "category": "SFX", "definition": "A curtain or banner released on cue so it falls away to reveal what is behind it, using remote-triggered electromagnetic releases that can hold loads up to about 50 kg.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://lsionline.co.uk/news/electro-kabuki-from-magnet-schultz--4br554" }, { "term": "Key lock", "aka": "master tempo", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A feature that changes a track's speed without changing its pitch, so a song sped up a few percent does not sound sharp. Pioneer called it master tempo, and it was already on the CDJ-500 in 1994.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://mixdownmag.com.au/features/gear-icons-pioneer-dj/" }, { "term": "KUVO", "category": "Broadcast", "definition": "AlphaTheta's club-play data platform. It closed its consumer features in 2022 and, after the May 2026 DJ Monitor acquisition, is being built into a hub for club performance data for rights organizations.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://alphatheta.com/en/information/kuvo-technology-b-v/" }, { "term": "LAeq", "category": "Sound", "definition": "An A-weighted sound level averaged over a stated period. The WHO recommends no more than 100 dB LAeq over 15 minutes at venues and events.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240043114" }, { "term": "Laser clearance rule", "aka": "3 m rule", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The standard US variance condition that beams stay at least 3.0 meters above any surface the audience stands on and at least 2.5 meters to the side or below, unless audience scanning is specifically approved.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://www.lasershowsafety.info/styled/nonstacks/us-laws.html" }, { "term": "Laser Light Show Report", "aka": "Form 3640", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The FDA form describing a laser show, filed with the variance application (Form 3147). Projector makers file a Product Report (Form 3632), so buying a certified projector means the show producer needs only the 3640 and 3147. Shows may begin only after the approval letter arrives.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/home-business-and-entertainment-products/laser-light-shows" }, { "term": "Laser source", "aka": "diode, DPSS, OPSL", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The part of a projector that makes the light. Diode lasers are now the most common; optically pumped semiconductor (OPSL) lasers appear in some high-end units and diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) mostly in smaller ones.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://laserworld.com/en/lasersources.html" }, { "term": "LED fixture", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A light using LEDs, usually red, green and blue emitters mixed to make color, so it needs no gels and uses less power. Radiohead's 2008 tour reportedly used only LED instruments.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_lighting_instrument" }, { "term": "LED processor", "category": "Video", "definition": "The box that takes a video signal, slices it up and sends each piece over Ethernet or fiber to the panels, and controls brightness and color. Brompton, Megapixel and NovaStar are major makers.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://www.bromptontech.com/" }, { "term": "LED wall", "aka": "LED screen, video wall", "category": "Video", "definition": "A screen built from panels covered in tiny red, green and blue LEDs, fed by a processor that splits one video signal across all of them. Full-color LED walls became practical only after bright blue LEDs arrived in the early 1990s.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://roevisual.com/en/knowledge-and-support/thesaurus-led-technology-for-virtual-production-xr-film" }, { "term": "LED wristband", "aka": "crowd wristband", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A wristband that turns each audience member into a lighting pixel, controlled from the lighting desk by infrared (PixMob) or radio (Xylobands, which says a DMX-to-radio interface lets a console treat the crowd as a zoned fixture). The electronics and batteries are a waste stream even when the strap is plant-based.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://xylobands.com/blog/how-led-wristband-technology-works" }, { "term": "Letter of Non-Objection", "aka": "FAA Form 7140-1", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The FAA's sign-off for outdoor laser shows, requested on Form 7140-1. Review takes 30 to 90 days, so file about 90 days ahead.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://www.ilda.com/resources/Safety/Laser_Light_Show_Safety_Overview_One_Page-v7-ILDA-logo.pdf" }, { "term": "Lighting console", "aka": "lighting desk, board", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "The controller that stores and plays back a lighting show and sends it out over DMX, Art-Net or sACN. The touring families are MA Lighting's grandMA, Hog, Avolites and ChamSys.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://www.malighting.com/company/history/" }, { "term": "Lighting designer", "aka": "LD", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The person who creates the lighting look within the limits of visibility, safety and cost. On smaller tours the LD also programs and runs the console.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighting_designer" }, { "term": "Limiter", "category": "Sound", "definition": "A processor that caps the maximum level to protect speakers and keep within sound limits. Because the venue's limiter sets the ceiling, pushing a DJ mixer harder only adds distortion.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://midnightrebels.com/why-redlining-dj-mixer-destroys-club-sound-system-dynamics/" }, { "term": "Line array", "category": "Sound", "definition": "A vertical column of loudspeaker boxes aligned to behave like one even wavefront, reducing the hot and dead spots that clustered boxes cause. L-Acoustics launched its V-DOSC line array in 1992, and processed line arrays now dominate festival main stages.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.popsci.com/gear/l-acoustics-concert-sound-concepts-line-array-history-hyriss-immersive-audio-launch" }, { "term": "Link-local address", "aka": "169.254 address, APIPA", "category": "Network", "definition": "The address a device gives itself in the 169.254.x.x range when no DHCP server answers: it picks a number at random and checks nobody else has it. Pioneer players do this, so a laptop must be in the same range to see them.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link-local_address" }, { "term": "Liquid light show", "category": "History", "definition": "The 1960s psychedelic light show, made with overhead projectors and colored liquids sloshed in clock-face glasses, sometimes seven operators on 30 or more projectors. The Joshua Light Show was the house show at the Fillmore East from 1968 to 1970.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_light_show" }, { "term": "Live Events Access Charter", "category": "Access", "definition": "Attitude is Everything's UK access standard for venues and festivals, launched in 2000 and endorsed in 2017 as best practice, with four tiers from Bronze to Platinum.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://attitudeiseverything.org.uk/industry/live-events-access-charter/" }, { "term": "Live set", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A performance built from parts (clips, loops, hardware, stems) rather than finished tracks, often in Ableton Live. Live sets and DJ sets sit on a spectrum from improvised clip launching to shows locked to timecode, and each point needs different production.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://www.ableton.com/en/live-manual/12/session-view/" }, { "term": "Load-in", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "Bringing equipment into the venue and setting it up; its time is one of the first things confirmed in the advance.", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://www.mi.edu/in-the-know/plan-live-concert-beginners-guide-show-advance-stage-plots-load/" }, { "term": "Load-out", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "\"The process of breaking down gear and clearing the venue after the show.\"", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://www.mi.edu/in-the-know/plan-live-concert-beginners-guide-show-advance-stage-plots-load/" }, { "term": "Love Parade", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "The Berlin street parade started in July 1989 by Dr. Motte and Danielle de Picciotto with about 150 people, which topped a million attendees a year from 1997 to 2000. In 2001 the courts ruled it a commercial event rather than a political demonstration; it ended after the Duisburg crowd crush in 2010.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade" }, { "term": "Low fog", "aka": "low-lying fog, dry ice", "category": "SFX", "definition": "Fog chilled by ice, a compressor, liquid CO2 or dry ice so it hugs the floor. Dry ice and liquid nitrogen add frostbite and oxygen-displacement hazards.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_smoke_and_fog" }, { "term": "LSO", "aka": "Laser Safety Officer", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The person who evaluates laser hazards and sets controls, which needs a working grasp of MPE and the law. There is no single US federal LSO certification; Germany and Switzerland require certified LSOs, and Arizona requires a trained one.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://www.lasershowsafety.info/LSO.html" }, { "term": "LTC", "aka": "linear timecode", "category": "Network", "definition": "SMPTE timecode encoded as an audio signal (80 bits per frame at 24, 25 or 30 frames per second), so it can run down any audio cable.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_timecode" }, { "term": "Mainstage", "category": "Staging", "definition": "A festival's biggest stage. Electronic mainstages are built very wide rather than deep, with the DJ booth as the visual center: EDC's 2017 kineticFIELD took about two weeks, four 70-ton cranes and 125 boom lifts to build.", "section": "stage", "source_url": "https://insomniac.com/?p=42575" }, { "term": "Media server", "category": "Video", "definition": "A purpose-built computer and software that plays back and manipulates show video, often locked to timecode. disguise, Green Hippo's Hippotizer and Avolites' Ai are common touring examples.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://www.disguise.one/en/about" }, { "term": "MIDI", "category": "Network", "definition": "The instrument-control standard first published in 1983. Beyond notes, it carries control changes, timecode and clock between instruments, controllers and computers.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://midi.org/midi-1-0" }, { "term": "MIDI clock", "aka": "MIDI beat clock", "category": "Network", "definition": "A tempo signal of 24 pulses per quarter note, plus start, stop and continue messages. Unlike timecode, it says how fast, not where.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_beat_clock" }, { "term": "Mixcloud Live", "category": "Broadcast", "definition": "Mixcloud's licensed live streaming, covered by direct deals with the major labels and more than 250 independents. It needs a Pro subscription and archives audio only.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://www.mixcloud.com/blog/2024/03/28/how-to-live-stream-music-without-copyright-takedown-issues" }, { "term": "Moiré", "aka": "moire", "category": "Video", "definition": "A shimmering interference pattern that appears on camera when the camera sensor's grid and the wall's pixel grid are slightly offset or differently spaced.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://roevisual.com/en/knowledge-and-support/thesaurus-led-technology-for-virtual-production-xr-film" }, { "term": "Monitor engineer", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The engineer who runs what performers hear on stage, through wedges or in-ear monitors. At a DJ show the booth monitors are effectively the DJ's monitor mix.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.mi.edu/in-the-know/plan-live-concert-beginners-guide-show-advance-stage-plots-load/" }, { "term": "Moving light", "aka": "moving head, intelligent light, automated light", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A motorised fixture whose beam can pan, tilt, change color, project patterns and more, all on console command over DMX. The first commercially successful touring system was the Vari-Lite, which debuted with Genesis in 1981.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_lighting" }, { "term": "MPE", "aka": "maximum permissible exposure", "category": "Laser", "definition": "The highest laser exposure considered to carry a negligible chance of damage, typically set around a tenth of the dose with a 50% chance of injury. It depends on wavelength and exposure time, so there is no single safe number.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety" }, { "term": "MTC", "aka": "MIDI timecode", "category": "Network", "definition": "MIDI timecode: timecode carried as MIDI messages rather than as an audio signal like LTC. Media servers such as disguise can chase either.", "section": "showcontrol", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_timecode" }, { "term": "Music Support", "category": "Careers", "definition": "A UK charity founded in April 2016 by people from the music industry, running a confidential helpline, counseling, Mental Health First Aid training and Festival Safe Hubs, backstage spaces staffed by people trained in mental health first aid.", "section": "careers", "source_url": "https://www.musicsupport.org/" }, { "term": "Naloxone", "category": "Safety", "definition": "A medicine that reverses opioid overdoses. At Bonnaroo in 2022 a nonprofit handed out 2,500 nasal doses and medics carried it; its US status has changed since that reporting, so check current local rules.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/music-festivals-overdose-reversal-drugs-fentanyl-testing-kits-naloxone/" }, { "term": "National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage", "aka": "Berlin techno heritage listing", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "The German national heritage list that \"techno culture in Berlin\" entered in March 2024, according to the German UNESCO Commission. It is often misreported as UNESCO's international Intangible Cultural Heritage list.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://www.ravetheplanet.com/en/techno-culture-in-berlin-unesco-heritage/" }, { "term": "NDI", "category": "Network", "definition": "A video-over-IP standard revealed by NewTek in 2015 and now published by Vizrt. It moves video between computers and cameras over the network at about 100 Mbit/s for HD, or 8 to 20 Mbit/s in compressed HX form.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Device_Interface" }, { "term": "NEC", "aka": "National Electrical Code, NFPA 70", "category": "Power", "definition": "The US electrical code. Article 520 covers theaters and permanent stages, Article 525 carnivals, fairs and similar events, and Article 590 temporary installations; jurisdictions adopt different editions, so check with the local authority.", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://ecmweb.com/national-electrical-code/article/21280515/the-apprentices-guide-to-article-525" }, { "term": "New beat", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A Belgian style that emerged in 1987. The usual origin story, a DJ playing A Split-Second's 45 \"Flesh\" at 33 rpm with the pitch at +8, credits different DJs and clubs depending on the account, so it is best treated as a story. New beat fed into the hardcore that emerged around 1990.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_beat" }, { "term": "NFPA 1126", "category": "SFX", "definition": "The US standard for pyrotechnics before a proximate audience, indoors and out. States and cities adopt it into law, and fire officials read its definitions as including cold spark machines.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://www.fire-police-ems.com/NFPA1126-2026.shtml" }, { "term": "NFPA 160", "category": "SFX", "definition": "The US standard for flame effects before an audience, covering design, operation and defueling. Its 2026 edition makes the operator, not production management, responsible for deciding how long safe removal takes.", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://www.fire-police-ems.com/NFPA160-2026.shtml" }, { "term": "Nits", "category": "Video", "definition": "The unit of screen brightness: one candela per square meter. One typical outdoor rental panel is rated at 5,000 nits.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://roevisual.com/en/knowledge-and-support/thesaurus-led-technology-for-virtual-production-xr-film" }, { "term": "Node", "aka": "DMX node, gateway", "category": "Network", "definition": "A box that converts Art-Net or sACN from the Ethernet network back into DMX cable for the last daisy chain to the fixtures. The usual chain is console, Ethernet, node, fixtures.", "section": "network" }, { "term": "Orbital rave", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "The UK's 1988-89 parties around the M25 motorway, such as Sunrise, Energy and Biology, which grew out of warehouse parties promoted by flyer, word of mouth and pager.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Summer_of_Love" }, { "term": "OSC", "aka": "Open Sound Control", "category": "Network", "definition": "A flexible networked message format, proposed at CNMAT in Berkeley in 1997 and published as spec 1.0 in 2002, widely used by visual and lighting software.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://opensoundcontrol.stanford.edu/" }, { "term": "PA", "aka": "public address, sound system", "category": "Sound", "definition": "The amplified loudspeaker system that carries sound to the audience. Public address became a technology with loudspeakers such as the Magnavox moving-coil speaker, demonstrated publicly in San Francisco in 1915.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.comsol.com/blogs/the-loudspeaker-celebrates-100-years-of-use-and-influence" }, { "term": "PAR can", "aka": "PAR", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A sealed-beam lamp in a simple can, with the beam spread fixed by the lamp. The number is the lamp diameter in eighths of an inch, so a PAR-64 is 8 inches across.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_lighting_instrument" }, { "term": "Paradise Garage", "category": "Venue", "definition": "The members-only New York club at 84 King Street, officially opened on 28 January 1978 and closed on 26 September or 1 October 1987, depending on the source. It served no alcohol, so it could run until noon, and its sound was designed by Richard Long with the resident DJ, Larry Levan. The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project describes its crowd as \"primarily African-American gay men\".", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/paradise-garage/" }, { "term": "Part 107 waiver", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "An FAA exemption from parts of the US small-drone rules. A drone show chiefly needs a waiver of section 107.35, which normally limits one remote pilot to one aircraft, plus section 107.39 for flight over people, where concerts and festivals count as open-air assemblies. The FAA aims to decide within 90 days.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/part_107_waivers" }, { "term": "Pepper's ghost", "aka": "concert hologram", "category": "Video", "definition": "The Victorian stage illusion behind nearly every concert \"hologram\", including Tupac at Coachella in 2012: a bright hidden image reflected off an angled semi-transparent film so it appears to stand on stage. The image is flat, so it fails a hologram's test of parallax, and from the side the trick disappears.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://www.controlgeek.net/blog/2012/4/17/its-not-a-fcking-hologram-part-ii.html" }, { "term": "Photosensitive epilepsy", "category": "Access", "definition": "Epilepsy in which flashing light can trigger seizures, affecting roughly 3% of people with epilepsy. The UK's Epilepsy Society gives 3 to 30 flashes a second as the most common trigger range and the US Epilepsy Foundation 5 to 30; the UK club recommendation of four flashes a second, attributed to the HSE, is not law.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://epilepsysociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-04/PhotosensitiveepilepsyApril2025.pdf" }, { "term": "Phrasing", "category": "Booth", "definition": "Starting the incoming track so its sections line up with the outgoing one's. Most dance tracks are built in blocks of 8, 16 or 32 bars with changes landing on the boundaries, so a mix can be in time and still feel wrong if the phrases do not match. Lighting and video operators who busk a set count the same phrases.", "section": "technique" }, { "term": "Pitch fader", "category": "Booth", "definition": "The slider that changes a turntable's or player's speed for beatmatching. The Technics SL-1200's classic range was plus or minus 8%, which is why that number turns up on so many decks.", "section": "technique", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technics_SL-1200" }, { "term": "Pixel mapping", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "Treating many individually controllable LED pixels, in strips, bars or fixtures, as a low-resolution screen so video or effects can be spread across them. It is data-hungry: pixel-mapped rigs can need many DMX universes, and VJ software such as Resolume can drive addressable pixels directly.", "section": "light" }, { "term": "Pixel pitch", "category": "Video", "definition": "The distance in millimeters from the center of one LED pixel to the next; smaller pitch means a sharper picture up close. Planar's rule of thumb is pitch times 10 equals comfortable viewing distance in feet, but manufacturers' formulas disagree widely.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://www.planar.com/blog/2025/what-is-pixel-pitch-and-why-does-it-matter/" }, { "term": "PixMob", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "Infrared-controlled LED wristbands that light only while they keep receiving a repeated code, so a band that misses the signal stays dark. A teardown found seven RGB LEDs and two AAA cells; the company says its bands come back for reprocessing at an 86% average return rate.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://goughlui.com/2025/01/14/teardown-pixmob-led-wristband-aurora-v1-7/" }, { "term": "PLASA NRC", "aka": "National Rigging Certificate", "category": "Careers", "definition": "The UK's National Rigging Certificate, an assessment rather than a training course: Level 2 for riggers working without direct supervision, Level 3 for supervisors with 12 months of supervisory experience. As of October 2026 Level 2 costs £715 plus VAT, and cards last three years.", "section": "careers", "source_url": "https://www.plasa.org/nrc/" }, { "term": "Playback engineer", "category": "Crew", "definition": "A job title familiar from pop touring. It did not appear in any electronic production profile this guide found, which name lighting programmers, laser programmers, automation operators and show directors instead.", "section": "showcontrol", "source_url": "https://plsn.com/?p=359843" }, { "term": "Player number", "aka": "Player Conflict", "category": "Network", "definition": "The number (1 to 6) each linked player claims on a PRO DJ LINK network. If two players claim the same number the last to join shows \"Player Conflict\", and LINK only works when the number on screen is lit white. Check them before doors.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://djtechtools.com/2018/07/31/pro-dj-link-how-to-set-up-pioneer-dj-setups-properly" }, { "term": "PoE", "aka": "Power over Ethernet", "category": "Network", "definition": "Sending power down the same Ethernet cable as the data, so small devices need no separate supply. It ranges from 15.4 W per port in the 2003 standard to 90 W in the 2018 one.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet" }, { "term": "Previs", "aka": "previsualization", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "Software such as WYSIWYG or Capture that draws the rig in 3D and responds to the real console over Art-Net or sACN, so a programmer can build cues before any fixture is hung.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://cast-soft.com/wysiwyg-lighting-design/" }, { "term": "PRO", "aka": "performing rights organization, collecting society", "category": "Broadcast", "definition": "An organization that collects fees for public performance of music and pays songwriters, such as PRS in the UK, ASCAP and BMI in the US, and SOCAN in Canada.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/setlist-reporting-isnt-an-optional-extra-its-a-fundamental-part-of-the-live-music-economy" }, { "term": "PRO DJ LINK", "aka": "DJ Link, LINK", "category": "Network", "definition": "Pioneer's (now AlphaTheta's) Ethernet link between players, mixers and rekordbox, launched with the CDJ-2000 in 2009. It lets one USB stick feed every deck and shares beat, tempo and track data for sync, quantize, lighting and effects. It is not audio over Ethernet: sound still goes to the mixer on audio cables.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://cdn.rekordbox.com/files/20251117092919/PRODJLINK_SetupGuide_ver2_en.pdf" }, { "term": "PRO DJ LINK Bridge", "category": "Network", "definition": "AlphaTheta software that sends real-time track and playback data from the players to lighting, video and effects systems. Partners include Avolites, ChamSys, Resolume, SoundSwitch and TC Supply; official SoundSwitch support arrived in September 2026.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://www.pioneerdj.com/en/product/software-interfaces/pro-dj-link-bridge/" }, { "term": "Production manager", "aka": "PM", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The person who owns the technical side of a show or tour: the technical advance, vendors, crew calls and the production schedule.", "section": "crew" }, { "term": "Profile", "aka": "ellipsoidal, ERS, Leko, Source Four", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A conventional hard-edged spotlight with lenses and a gate for gobos or irises, which does \"the bulk of lighting roles in the theater\". Leko and Source Four are common names after particular makes.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_lighting_instrument" }, { "term": "Programmer", "aka": "lighting programmer", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The person who builds the show file on the lighting console: palettes, cues and timecode. On big shows this is separate from the designer and the operator.", "section": "light" }, { "term": "Projection mapping", "category": "Video", "definition": "Fitting projected video precisely onto the shape of an object or structure, so the surface itself seems to move or change. Amon Tobin's ISAM (2011) projected onto a stack of cubes.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://derivative.ca/community-post/visualizing-amon-tobins-isam-v-squared-team/60785" }, { "term": "Proximate pyrotechnics", "aka": "proximate pyro", "category": "SFX", "definition": "Pyrotechnics used close to an audience in musical, theatrical and similar productions, governed in the US by NFPA 1126. Its 2026 edition requires every operator to be a \"pyrotechnic professional\".", "section": "sfx", "source_url": "https://www.fire-police-ems.com/NFPA1126-2026.shtml" }, { "term": "Psychedelic peer support", "aka": "Zendo, Kosmicare", "category": "Access", "definition": "Care for people having difficult psychedelic experiences. The Zendo Project, at Burning Man since 2012, works by four principles including \"Sitting, Not Guiding\"; Boom's Kosmicare is staffed by psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses and volunteers next to the festival's medical services.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://zendoproject.org/" }, { "term": "Psytrance", "aka": "psychedelic trance", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "The global descendant of Goa trance, with a production culture of its own: multi-day outdoor events, decor-led stages, sunrise sets and dedicated harm-reduction spaces. Its flagship, Portugal's Boom Festival, has been biennial since 1998.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_Festival" }, { "term": "Purple Guide", "category": "Safety", "definition": "The UK's event safety guide, originally from the HSE and run by the Events Industry Forum since 2012. It is subscription-based, non-prescriptive and runs to 45 chapters.", "section": "safety", "source_url": "https://www.thepurpleguide.co.uk/about-the-purple-guide" }, { "term": "Quantize", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A feature that snaps loops, cues and effects to the nearest beat on the grid, so a button pressed slightly early or late still lands in time. It arrived on Pioneer players with the CDJ-2000 in 2009.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/pioneer-announces-cdj-2000-220336" }, { "term": "Quiet zone", "category": "Access", "definition": "A low-noise area where audiences can rest their ears, one of the six features of the WHO's 2022 safe listening standard. Quiet zones also serve autistic and other neurodivergent attendees who need somewhere to regulate.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://hearingreview.com/hearing-loss/hearing-loss-prevention/music-entertainment/who-releases-new-safe-listening-standard" }, { "term": "Radius clause", "category": "Money", "definition": "A contract term that stops the artist playing within a set distance of the venue for a set time before and after the show. One vendor guide claims typical windows of 30 to 60 days around club dates over roughly 50 to 150 miles; treat that as illustrative.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/04/a-brief-look-at-live-performance-agreements-part-2.html" }, { "term": "RAVE Act", "aka": "Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act", "category": "History", "definition": "The 2003 US law that extended the federal \"crack house\" statute to places used temporarily for drug use, with civil penalties of $250,000 or twice gross receipts. It has chilled harm reduction at events, despite a 2017 Justice Department clarification that drug education and free water do not violate it.", "section": "venues", "source_url": "https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/senate-bill/226" }, { "term": "RDM", "aka": "Remote Device Management", "category": "Network", "definition": "Two-way communication added to the DMX cable (ANSI E1.20), so a console can discover fixtures, set their addresses and read back their status without anyone climbing to them.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/published_docs.php" }, { "term": "Real-time engine", "aka": "Unreal Engine", "category": "Video", "definition": "Game-engine software that generates visuals live instead of playing pre-rendered video, so they can follow a set nobody wrote down. Moment Factory used Unreal Engine for Phish's 2024 Sphere shows, with parameters such as speed, color and bloom run from a lighting console.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://www.unrealengine.com/de/spotlights/moment-factory-redefines-live-concerts-with-real-time-visuals-for-phish-at-sphere" }, { "term": "Reasonable adjustments", "category": "Access", "definition": "The duty in section 20 of Great Britain's Equality Act 2010 to take reasonable steps, covering policies, physical features and auxiliary aids, where a disabled person would otherwise be at a substantial disadvantage. The disabled person cannot be charged for them.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/20" }, { "term": "Receiving card", "category": "Video", "definition": "The board inside each LED panel that is \"the link between the LED processor ... and the driver ICs\", applying brightness, gamma and color calibration.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://roevisual.com/en/knowledge-and-support/thesaurus-led-technology-for-virtual-production-xr-film" }, { "term": "Redlining", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Pushing a mixer's meters into the red. It does not make the room louder, because the engineer or the system limiter pulls the level back downstream; it only flattens and distorts the music.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.digitaldjtips.com/?p=2005266" }, { "term": "Refresh rate", "category": "Video", "definition": "How many times per second the LEDs redraw the image, typically 1,920, 3,840 or 7,680 Hz. It is separate from the video's frame rate, and higher rates reduce banding on camera.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://roevisual.com/en/knowledge-and-support/thesaurus-led-technology-for-virtual-production-xr-film" }, { "term": "rekordbox", "category": "Booth", "definition": "AlphaTheta's (formerly Pioneer DJ's) library and performance software, launched in 2009 with the CDJ-2000. It analyses tracks in advance and exports them with their cue points, loops and beatgrids to a USB stick, which is why DJs can play CDJs without a laptop. It also supports streaming services and stem separation.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/pioneer-announces-cdj-2000-220336" }, { "term": "Resolume", "aka": "Avenue, Arena", "category": "Video", "definition": "The VJ software most club and festival VJs use. Avenue is for performance; Arena adds projection mapping, edge blending, lighting-desk control and SMPTE timecode sync to a DJ.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://resolume.com/software" }, { "term": "Rider", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The attachment to an artist's contract listing what they need. It usually splits into a technical rider and a hospitality rider; confirming it is met is part of the advance.", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_manager" }, { "term": "Rigging point", "aka": "point", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "A place on the building's structure rated to hang a load from. The head rigger marks points on the floor before anything goes up.", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_rigging" }, { "term": "Roland TB-303", "aka": "303", "category": "History", "definition": "Roland's bass synthesizer of 1981, designed by Tadao Kikumoto. About 10,000 were sold before it was discontinued in under two years; Phuture's \"Acid Tracks\" (1987) turned its squelch into acid house.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.roland.com/au/promos/303day/" }, { "term": "Roland TR-808", "aka": "808", "category": "History", "definition": "Roland's drum machine of 1980. A commercial flop when new, it became influential second-hand as one of the core instruments of house and techno.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.roland.com/global/company/history/" }, { "term": "Roof system", "aka": "stage roof", "category": "Staging", "definition": "A temporary roof structure over an outdoor stage that carries lights, video and sound; as of 2011 each span of the UK VerTech roof could carry up to 7.5 metric tons. Its wind rating and ballast are critical, as the 2011 Indiana State Fair collapse showed.", "section": "stage", "source_url": "https://lsionline.co.uk/news/star-extends-vertech-stage-range--yr87nq" }, { "term": "Rotary mixer", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A DJ mixer where each channel's level is set by a knob instead of a straight fader, in the tradition of the Bozak and the UREI 1620. Favored for long house and disco blends, it came back as a boutique category from 1999 onward. RBMA notes that knobs and faders typically use the same kind of logarithmic pots, so any difference in sound comes from the circuit, not the control.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2019/06/evolution-of-dj-mixers" }, { "term": "Run of show", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The minute-by-minute cue sheet for show time: who is on when, changeovers and key moments.", "section": "paperwork" }, { "term": "sACN", "aka": "Streaming ACN, ANSI E1.31", "category": "Network", "definition": "ESTA's open standard (ANSI E1.31) for carrying DMX over Ethernet. It uses multicast, supports universes 1 to 63,999, and gives each universe a priority from 0 to 200 so a backup console can take over automatically.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://support.enttec.com/dmx/edmx-art-net-sacn-networking/art-net-vs-sacn-which-should-you-use" }, { "term": "Scan rate", "aka": "scan ratio, scan", "category": "Video", "definition": "How many rows of LEDs one driver chip lights in turn. At 1:16 scan only one line in 16 is lit at any instant; a lower ratio leaves time for higher refresh and finer brightness control.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://www.planar.com/blog/2023/lower-scan-means-higher-performance-for-on-camera-led/" }, { "term": "Scenic", "aka": "set, scenery", "category": "Staging", "definition": "The built set dressing a stage, from Tomorrowland's 2016 enchanted forest of about 780 polystyrene blocks to EDC's owl. Big electronic stages layer scenic over a standard steel structure.", "section": "stage", "source_url": "https://www.tpimagazine.com/brilliant-stages-at-tomorrowland/" }, { "term": "Second Summer of Love", "category": "History", "definition": "The UK's acid house explosion of 1988 and 1989, from clubs like Shoom to orbital raves around the M25, which triggered new laws against unlicensed parties.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Summer_of_Love" }, { "term": "Selector", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "In Jamaican sound system culture, the person who chooses and plays the records. The DJ was a separate role: the person who rapped or \"toasted\" over them.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_system_(Jamaican)" }, { "term": "Setlist reporting", "category": "Broadcast", "definition": "Telling a performing rights organization which songs were played so royalties can be paid. PRS cannot allocate live royalties without a setlist, which is why DJ sets rely on recognition technology.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/setlist-reporting-isnt-an-optional-extra-its-a-fundamental-part-of-the-live-music-economy" }, { "term": "Settlement", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The post-show money reconciliation between the tour manager and the promoter, in which the TM settles the fee and collects anything owed.", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_manager" }, { "term": "Sharpy", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "Clay Paky's 189 W beam fixture of 2010, whose beam looks \"more like a laser ray\". It defined the beam fixture as the signature light of electronic shows.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://www.claypaky.it/en/news/clay-paky-new-products-plasa-2010/" }, { "term": "Shore power", "category": "Power", "definition": "Electricity taken from the venue or grid, as opposed to generators.", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://www.ticketfairy.com/blog/2025/07/09/power-and-electrical-safety-on-festival-stages/" }, { "term": "Show director", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The person who calls a show's big moments live and coordinates the departments. On Swedish House Mafia's Paradise Again tour in 2022, the show director triggered automation cues manually from Resolume.", "section": "showcontrol", "source_url": "https://plsn.com/?p=359843" }, { "term": "Show stop", "aka": "authority to stop the show", "category": "Safety", "definition": "The decision to halt a performance for safety, and the clear authority to make it. Reviews of the Indiana State Fair collapse cited \"an ambiguity of authority\" over postponing the show.", "section": "safety", "source_url": "https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/collapsed-indiana-fair-stage-rigging-sugarland-concert-not-built-code-flna713532" }, { "term": "ShowKontrol", "category": "Network", "definition": "TC Supply's software for syncing lighting and video to live DJ sets. It reads waveforms and track data from CDJs over PRO DJ LINK, can generate SMPTE timecode locked to the decks, and triggers Art-Net, TCNet and MIDI cues.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://djtechtools.com/2017/10/12/cdjs-will-send-track-data-visualslighting-techs-showkontrol/" }, { "term": "Sign language interpreting", "aka": "ASL interpreting", "category": "Access", "definition": "Interpreting a performance for Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences. At big US festivals it is usually on request, and because it keys on lyrics, instrumental DJ sets often go uninterpreted; EDC Las Vegas asks for requests at least 30 days before the event.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://lasvegas.edc.com/guide/accessibility/" }, { "term": "Slip-cueing", "category": "History", "definition": "An early disco DJ technique: holding a record still on a felt slipmat while the platter spins underneath, then letting go on the beat so the track starts instantly in time. It is often credited to New York DJs such as Francis Grasso around 1969 to 1972, though claims of who did it first are contested.", "section": "primer" }, { "term": "SMPTE timecode", "aka": "timecode", "category": "Network", "definition": "A clock that labels every moment of a show in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. It tells systems where they are in the show, so lights, video, lasers and pyro can all be cued to one playback track.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_timecode" }, { "term": "Sonidero", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A sound system culture from mid-20th-century Mexico City neighborhoods such as Tepito, playing cumbia, salsa and guaracha while the sonidero sends saludos (shout-outs) over the music. It spread to the US with migrants and is a sound system culture in its own right.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonidero" }, { "term": "Sound clash", "aka": "clash", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A contest between rival sound systems for the crowd. Crews sent spies to each other's dances, and at a late-1957 clash at Forrester's Hall in Kingston, Prince Buster broke Duke Reid's stylus.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2013/02/duke-reid-sir-coxsone-dodd-beef-patty" }, { "term": "Sound system culture", "aka": "sound system", "category": "History", "definition": "The Jamaican tradition, from 1940s and 1950s Kingston, of mobile rigs of turntables, amplifiers and huge homemade speakers competing for crowds at street dances. Bass-first, it traveled to the UK with Caribbean migration and to the Bronx with DJ Kool Herc.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_system_(Jamaican)" }, { "term": "SoundSwitch", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "Automatic lighting software that, inside rekordbox since September 2026, analyzes a library for phrases and instrumentation and generates a light show for each track, so lighting can follow a DJ without a separate lighting operator. Its announcement does not call this AI.", "section": "showcontrol", "source_url": "https://rekordbox.com/en/2026/09/rekordbox-for-mac-windows-and-pro-dj-link-bridge-support-soundswitch/" }, { "term": "Spatial audio", "aka": "object-based audio", "category": "Sound", "definition": "Systems that treat each sound as an object with a position and work out which speakers should play it, instead of sending a left and right mix from two stacks. The first serious club attempt, Dolby Atmos at Ministry of Sound in 2016, needed specially prepared tracks, one proprietary DJ app and that one room.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://www.whathifi.com/features/behind-scenes-dolby-atmos-ministry-sound" }, { "term": "Specific category", "aka": "UK SORA", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The UK Civil Aviation Authority's drone category for operations that need an operational authorization. Swarms, flights close to crowds and flights above 120 meters fall into it, assessed since 23 April 2025 under the UK SORA method.", "section": "newtech", "source_url": "https://caa.co.uk/drones/specific-category/specific-category-overview" }, { "term": "Sphere", "category": "Venue", "definition": "The Las Vegas venue opened on 29 September 2023 at a cost of about $2.3 billion, wrapping its audience in a 16K by 16K interior LED screen of about 160,000 square feet.", "section": "lineage", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_(venue)" }, { "term": "Spot", "aka": "spot fixture", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A moving light with a hard-edged beam that can project gobos sharply.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_lighting" }, { "term": "Spout", "category": "Video", "definition": "The Windows equivalent of Syphon: free, open-source software for sharing video frames between applications on one machine.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://spout.zeal.co/" }, { "term": "Stage manager", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The person who runs the stage on show day, including changeovers between acts.", "section": "crew" }, { "term": "Stage plot", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "\"A visual map of where everyone and everything goes on stage.\" It must match the input list and should be a dated PDF with a contact on it.", "section": "paperwork", "source_url": "https://www.mi.edu/in-the-know/plan-live-concert-beginners-guide-show-advance-stage-plots-load/" }, { "term": "Stems", "aka": "stem separation, track separation", "category": "Booth", "definition": "Splitting a finished stereo track in real time into parts such as drums, bass, vocals and everything else, so a DJ can mute or mix them separately. It arrived in djay in 2020, Serato in December 2022, rekordbox by early 2023 and Traktor in July 2024, and is standard as of 2026.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://www.digitaldjtips.com/2022/12/serato-dj-pro-lite-3-0-with-stems-launched-today/" }, { "term": "Streaming (DJ)", "category": "Booth", "definition": "Playing tracks directly from services such as Beatport, Beatsource, Tidal, Apple Music, Spotify and SoundCloud inside DJ software or on players. Most services need internet, offline lockers are capped, and consumer services carry licensing ambiguity for paid gigs, so a USB backup is still wise.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.digitaldjtips.com/best-music-streaming-services/" }, { "term": "Strobe", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A light that fires very short, very bright flashes. Martin's 3,000 W xenon Atomic 3000 dominated concert strobes for years; its LED successor uses 234 LEDs at 740 W.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://timeless.mydigitalpublication.com/article/Martin+Atomic+3000+LED+Strobe/2457283/298271/article.html" }, { "term": "Subwoofer", "aka": "sub", "category": "Sound", "definition": "A speaker for the lowest frequencies, the core of dance music. Sub-bass is hard to aim: at 30 Hz the wavelength is over 37 feet, and a single sub measures nearly the same in front and behind.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.precisionaudioservices.com/blog/understanding-2-element-cardioid-subwooferarrays" }, { "term": "Superclub", "category": "Venue", "definition": "A large, purpose-built club with a major sound and light investment, from Ministry of Sound (1991) to the Las Vegas residency clubs.", "section": "venues", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Sound" }, { "term": "Switch", "aka": "network switch", "category": "Network", "definition": "A box that learns which device is on which port and sends each frame only where it needs to go. PRO DJ LINK needs one as soon as there are more than two players, and show networks usually give each system its own switch.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_switch" }, { "term": "Sync", "aka": "beat sync", "category": "Booth", "definition": "A feature that matches tempo and beat position between decks using their beatgrids. On linked Pioneer players it runs over PRO DJ LINK. It handles alignment only; track selection, EQ, phrasing and energy are still the DJ's job.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://cdn.rekordbox.com/files/20251117092919/PRODJLINK_SetupGuide_ver2_en.pdf" }, { "term": "Syphon", "category": "Video", "definition": "Free, open-source macOS software for passing video frames between applications in real time, a \"virtual video patch cable\".", "section": "video", "source_url": "http://syphon.info/" }, { "term": "System tech", "aka": "system engineer", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The engineer who arrives first, measures the room, assembles and tunes the PA, and walks the coverage zones during the show.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://www.prosoundweb.com/?p=129685" }, { "term": "Technical rider", "aka": "tech rider", "category": "Paperwork", "definition": "The artist's production requirements: PA, monitors, DJ booth gear and layout, lighting, power and stage size. For a DJ it usually names exact player and mixer models.", "section": "paperwork" }, { "term": "Technics SL-1200", "aka": "1200s, Technics", "category": "Booth", "definition": "The direct-drive turntable that became the club standard. The 1972 original was a hi-fi deck; the 1979 MK2, with a vertical pitch fader, is what Technics calls the first turntable developed specifically for discos. Technics says about 3.5 million were sold over 35 years, and the DJ model returned as the MK7 in 2019.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://www.technics.com/global/home/60th-anniversary/technics-brand-story/history-of-the-sl-1200.html" }, { "term": "Temporary threshold shift", "aka": "TTS", "category": "Sound", "definition": "A temporary loss of hearing sensitivity after loud exposure. DJs develop it over a set, so the room seems to get quieter and gain creeps up.", "section": "sound", "source_url": "https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/186112/cdc_186112_DS1.pdf" }, { "term": "Terminator", "aka": "DMX terminator", "category": "Network", "definition": "A plug with a 120-ohm resistor fitted to the last fixture on a DMX line to stop signal reflections. A missing terminator is one of the standard DMX line faults.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMX512" }, { "term": "The Loft", "category": "Venue", "definition": "David Mancuso's private, alcohol-free party in New York, opened on 14 February 1970. Its sound engineer, Alex Rosner, put the crowd at \"probably about sixty percent black and seventy percent gay\", and a 1975 Department of Consumer Affairs ruling let private, alcohol-free parties continue.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loft_(New_York_City)" }, { "term": "Three-flash rule", "aka": "WCAG 2.3.1", "category": "Access", "definition": "The web accessibility rule (WCAG 2.2, success criterion 2.3.1) that content should not flash more than three times in any one second unless the flashes fall below defined thresholds taken from broadcast standard ITU-R BT.1702. It does not bind live lighting but is a defensible benchmark for LED wall content and streams.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/three-flashes-or-below-threshold.html" }, { "term": "Three-phase", "category": "Power", "definition": "The power supply used for large loads, carrying three alternating currents offset in time on separate hot legs. In a common US entertainment color code the phases are black, red and blue; three-phase hookups are a job for licensed electricians.", "section": "power", "source_url": "https://www.ticketfairy.com/blog/2025/07/09/power-and-electrical-safety-on-festival-stages/" }, { "term": "Timecode vinyl", "aka": "DVS, digital vinyl system", "category": "Booth", "definition": "Records (or CDs) pressed with a control signal instead of music. Played on ordinary turntables through an interface, they let a DJ scratch and mix digital files on a laptop. Final Scratch pioneered it in the early 2000s and Serato Scratch Live followed in 2004.", "section": "booth", "source_url": "https://djworx.com/history-of-serato-the-rise-to-global-dj-software-powerhouse/" }, { "term": "Timecoded show", "aka": "timecode show", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A production whose lighting, video, lasers and effects are pre-programmed and locked to SMPTE timecode from the playback, so every cue lands at the same moment every night. Unscripted DJ sets instead drive systems from beat data, though bridges like ShowKontrol can generate timecode from the decks.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://djtechtools.com/2017/10/12/cdjs-will-send-track-data-visualslighting-techs-showkontrol/" }, { "term": "Tour manager", "aka": "TM", "category": "Crew", "definition": "The person who owns a tour's money, schedule and people: builds the budget, advances each show, settles the fee with the promoter, pays per diems, prepares the day sheet and guest list, and handles passes. A road manager handles one act's details; one person can do both.", "section": "crew", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_manager" }, { "term": "Tresor", "category": "Venue", "definition": "The Berlin techno club opened in March 1991 by Dimitri Hegemann in the vaults of the former Wertheim department store, with hard techno in the basement; its label released Detroit artists including Juan Atkins, Robert Hood, Blake Baxter and Drexciya. It closed in 2005 and reopened in 2007 inside the Heizkraftwerk Mitte power plant.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tresor_(club)" }, { "term": "Truss", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "Lightweight lattice beams, usually aluminum, lifted by chain hoists to carry lights, LED walls, speakers and scenery.", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_rigging" }, { "term": "Twitch DJ Program", "category": "Broadcast", "definition": "Twitch's label-licensed scheme for live DJ streaming, announced in June 2024 with the major labels, independents and Merlin. Music costs are split with most streamers out of channel revenue, non-monetizing DJs pay nothing, and archived VODs are not covered.", "section": "artist", "source_url": "https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2024/06/06/introducing-the-twitch-dj-program/" }, { "term": "UK garage", "aka": "UKG, speed garage", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "A London style of the early 1990s drawn from New York garage house, jungle, ragga and R&B, which grew partly as a \"Sunday Scene\" because jungle held the Friday and Saturday bookings. In 1994 DJ EZ playing Todd Edwards records at 130 bpm instead of 120 helped create speed garage.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_garage" }, { "term": "Underground Resistance", "aka": "UR", "category": "Scenes", "definition": "The Detroit collective formed in 1989 by \"Mad\" Mike Banks and Jeff Mills, with an anti-corporate stance, anonymity (balaclavas) against the superstar-DJ model, and an Afrofuturist vision of self-determination.", "section": "scenes", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Resistance_(band)" }, { "term": "Universe", "aka": "DMX universe", "category": "Network", "definition": "One full set of 512 DMX channels, the capacity of a single DMX cable. A moving light may use a dozen or more channels, so big rigs need dozens or hundreds of universes, which is why lighting data moved onto Ethernet.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMX512" }, { "term": "Vari-Lite", "aka": "VL1", "category": "History", "definition": "The moving-light system developed by the Dallas sound company Showco and named by Genesis' manager. It premiered on 25 September 1981 in a Barcelona bullring on the Abacab tour, and is the first commercially successful touring moving light, though remotely moved lights had been patented since 1906.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://timeless.mydigitalpublication.com/article/Backstage+History/4111881/721065/article.html" }, { "term": "Variance", "aka": "laser variance", "category": "Laser", "definition": "A numbered FDA exemption, granted under 21 CFR 1010.4, that allows a show producer to use lasers above Class IIIa. It carries conditions and an end date, renews yearly if the annual report is filed, can be withdrawn immediately for an imminent hazard, and its number must appear on the product label.", "section": "lasers", "source_url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-J/part-1010/section-1010.4" }, { "term": "Vendor training", "category": "Careers", "definition": "Courses that manufacturers run on their own gear, such as MA Lighting's MA University, L-Acoustics' system engineer paths and Resolume's video training. They build skill and credibility but are not a license.", "section": "careers", "source_url": "https://prolight-sound-blog.com/ma-lighting-ma-university-training-curses-fully-booked-early/" }, { "term": "Versus deal", "aka": "vs. deal", "category": "Money", "definition": "A deal that pays the artist a guaranteed fee or a percentage, whichever is greater. A booking agency's example: a $5,000 guarantee versus 60% of gross pays $6,000 if the show grosses $10,000. An entertainment attorney calls versus deals rare and used by top acts.", "section": "money", "source_url": "https://jeffroberts.com/faq/what-does-a-versus-gross-deal-mean/" }, { "term": "Viewing platform", "category": "Access", "definition": "A raised accessible area so wheelchair users and other disabled people can see over a standing crowd. Attitude is Everything's 2014 report found disabled patrons rated venues 7.1 out of 10 with one and 5.1 without.", "section": "access", "source_url": "https://attitudeiseverything.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/State-of-Access-Report-2014-Executive-Summary.pdf" }, { "term": "VJ", "aka": "video jockey", "category": "Video", "definition": "A performer who mixes and plays visuals live to the music, the visual counterpart of the DJ. Merrill Aldighieri at Hurrah in New York in 1980 is described as the first full-time VJ.", "section": "video", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VJing" }, { "term": "VLAN", "category": "Network", "definition": "A virtual LAN: a way of splitting one physical switch into several isolated networks, so audio, lighting, video and DJ traffic can share hardware without interfering.", "section": "network", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLAN" }, { "term": "Wall of Sound", "category": "History", "definition": "The Grateful Dead's 1974 PA: about 75 tons of speakers stacked behind the band in six separate systems, serving as both house PA and monitors. Built by Owsley \"Bear\" Stanley with crew and Alembic engineers, it toured from March to October 1974 and was retired because the costs spiraled.", "section": "lineage", "source_url": "https://www.mixonline.com/live-sound/grateful-deads-wall-of-sound-pa-to-be-auctioned" }, { "term": "Wash", "aka": "wash fixture", "category": "Lighting", "definition": "A light with a soft, wide beam for coloring areas of the stage or crowd. ETC calls Vari-Lite's 1988 VL4 the first practical wash light.", "section": "light", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_lighting" }, { "term": "Weak link analysis", "category": "Rigging", "definition": "Checking every component in a rigging chain to find the lowest-rated one, which sets the safe load. It is described as the most common rigging assessment.", "section": "rigging", "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_rigging" }, { "term": "Welfare team", "category": "Crew", "definition": "Staff who look after attendees who are distressed, unwell or vulnerable. This guide found no reputable source for welfare-team staffing; its recommendation, not a standard, is welfare staff who are not security, trained by an accredited provider, with a visible way to report a problem.", "section": "access" } ]