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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

W

W/ch (Watts per Channel).
Measurement of power output for each channel in an amplifier.
Waterfall effect.
A slice across the TV picture that slides down the screen.
Watermark.
A watermmarked file contains inaudible /invisible binary information used for royality tracking and copyright management. The information may include copyright notices, time stamps, purchasing data, equipment serial data (personal player, User ID) and keys enabling a purchaser to make a specific number of copies. It should be about impossible to erase the watermark without degrading the quality of the file's sound /view. Watermarking enables tracking of piracy not preventing it.
Wave.
An audio waveform that increases in length with decreases in frequency and increases in height (amplitude) with increases in volume or power applied to it.
Waveform.
  1. A graphic representation of a video signal, showing signal levels (whites and blacks), colour, and timing (sync).
  2. The graphical display of a sound pressure wave over time.
Waveform monitor.
A specialized oscilloscope for displaying video signal levels and timing.
Wavelength.
Distance between two points in the same position on a wave in two consecutive cycles (two cycles directly following one after the other).
Wavetable
A storage location that contains data used to generate waveforms digitally.
Wavetable synthesizer.
Musical device that electronically generates sounds from digitized samples.
White balance.
The mix of primary colours which results in pure white light. On colour cameras, the controls which strengthen the blue or red colour so that none overpowers the other, allowing white objects to appear pure white, not tinted. By pressing one button and holding a white card in front of the camera, this will automatically adjust the camera's circuits to make pure white.
White Level.
Brightness of the lightest portions of an image (white areas).
White Noise.
Test tone featuring equal amount of energy per Hz (cycle per second) of bandwidth.
Widescreen
A general term for film presentation in which a film is shown in an aspect ratio of greater than 1.33 to 1. In today's terms, this now means in an aspect ratio of greater than 1.85 to 1.
Widescreen Video.
Video format that shows the entire image in a movie by fitting the movie image's width into a standard analog 4-by-3 aspect ratio video display and placing black bars above and below the image.
Wild sound.
Background sound without narration or performing going on. During editing it can be mixed with the performer's sounds if they have to redo their lines in a quiet studio.
Windows.
Microsoft's software that controls the computer (like DOS) but does so with menus and a graphical user interface (GUI).
Wipe.
Special effect in which two pictures from different video sources are displayed on one screen.
Wireless cable.
TV programs delivered via microwave signals. System requires a microwave antenna and decoder box.
Woofer.
Speaker driver that handles the low frequency signals of a sound wave.
WORM (Write Once Read Many).
An optical disk recorder that can't erase and record the disk over.

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