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A B C D E F G H I J K L M [N] O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

N

Nanosecond.
Billionth of a second, a number used to describe the sharpness of a character generated letter. Professional quality CGs have 35 nanosecond or lower numbers specifying their sharpness.
Near Field
In close proximity to a speaker or speaker driver.
Negative Effect.
Special effect in which either blacks and whites are reversed or colours are inverted. For example, red becomes a blue-green, green becomes purple, etc. An electronic colour filter can be used for fine adjustment of the hues.
Network.
Group of computers communicating together via wire or optical fiber, sharing data, perhaps collectively rendering an image.
Neutral Density Filter.
A gray glass lens attachment that diminishes light coming through the lens, thus reducing picture brightness. NFM or near field monitor Small speaker designed to be positioned near the listener.
NLE
Non-Linear Editor.
Noise.
A general term used in electronics to indicate any unwanted electrical signal, unrelated to the original signal. Video noise is generally manifested as snow, graininess, ghost images or picture static induced by external sources such as the national power-line grid, electric motors, fluorescent lamps, etc. In audio, noise is generally manifested as hiss and static.
Noise Floor.
Level at which no useful signal is produced because the signal level is below the level of noise in the system; point at which the volume or power of noise is greater than the volume or power of an intended and desired signal effectively covering up and obscuring that signal thus making it useless.
Noise Gate.
A device used to modify a signal's noise characteristics. In video, noise gates provide optimal automatic suppression of snow (signal noise level). In audio, a noise gate provides a setable signal level threshold below which all sound is removed.
Noise Reduction.
An electronic process used to reduce noise levels in audio and video. In video, the most effective noise reduction is accomplished by digitizing the video signal and carrying out a computerized pixel by pixel analysis of the data. In audio, the most effective systems employ an encode/decode scheme, performed before and after recording, such as the Dolby audio noise reduction system. Noise reduction can be performed on an existing audio signal using systems such as DNR (dynamic noise reduction) but are less effective because they also affect the audio signal.
Noncomposite Video.
Video (picture) signal without sync combined.
Nondestructive Editing.
Computerized audio editing whereby the playlist changes as you edit and delete sounds, the original sound files remain undamaged.
Non-Drop Frame.
SMPTE time code mode that continuously counts frames, skipping no numbers.
Non-Linear Editing.
Assembling video sequences that are randomly accessible, typically digitized onto a hard drive. The process is much like word processing in that items can be moved, deleted, copied, or changed electronically before being printed or copied to video tape.
Non-linearity.
The amount by which a measured video signal output differs from a standard video signal output. The greater this deviation, the greater the video signal distortion and possibility of luminance and chrominance problems. Nonlinear edting The process of editing using rapid retrieval (random access) computer controlled media such as hard disks, CD-ROMs and laser discs. Its main advantages are: a.) allows you to reorganize clips or make changes to sections without having to redo the entire production; and b.) very fast random access to any point on the hard disk (typically 20-40 ms).
Non-Interlaced.
Also known as progressive, this term refers to the way a video image is displayed on screen where each line of a frame (one complete video image) is drawn on screen one after the other (one, two, three, four, five, and so on).
Notch Filter.
Filter used to eliminate chrominance (colour) information from the luminance (brightness) information in a composite video signal.
Non-linear Quantisation
means that the scales for the digital values used to represent loud and quiet sounds are different
Non-Lossy.
Compression scheme that reduces redundant data that will never be missed, thus retaining full picture quality while reducing the file size by a moderate amount.
Note On Commands.
A channel voice message that indicates a note is to begin sounding. Contains two additional data bytes: Note number and Note velocity.
NTSC video (National Television Standards Committee).
Method used in the United States for electronically creating a colour TV signal. The colour and brightness aspects of the image travel together on the same wire.
Nyguist Frequency.
States "for lossless digitisation, the sampling rate should be at least twice the highest frequency in the signal". The design parameter it is used to calculate is the sampling rate, also called the sampling frequency.

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