Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tech Talk


It is very interesting how the performing arts has different lingo when talking about the same thing or the same word could have a totally different meaning.
What I mean is, in traditional theater when talking about the person who runs the sound board, they refer to them as the SBO (sound board operator), while in the concert world we refer to them as FOH engineer (Front-of-House). However, Front-of-House would usually refer to the House Manager in a theatre setting.

When theater people are talking about "effects" they are usually talking about sound effects that go through speakers on stage for sound cues like a gun shot. Sound designers will use these speakers so that shot sounds like it came from the same side of the stage as the performer. However, in the concert world "effects" are delay and reverb that is added to an instrument or vocal for more ambience or depth to the sound.

Monitors or fold back are used for the artist on stage to hear themselves, but when you say monitors to a non-musician, they would immediately think of let say a computer monitor.
When talking about lighting fixtures, theater refers to them as instruments. The actual bulbs are referred to as lamps.

What are some other confusing language differences?

No comments: