Resources
AV & IT Glossary
Quotes, drawings, and spec sheets in this industry are written in acronyms. This glossary translates them — and goes a step further: each entry says what the term actually changes about a real installation, not just what the letters stand for.
Every definition here was written by the Support305 engineers and project managers who specify, install, and service these systems across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. If a term costs money to get wrong, we say so.
81 terms across audio, video, conference rooms, networking, cabling, security, IT, lighting, and project delivery.
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- Lighting & Automation
0-10V Dimming
An analog dimming method where a low-voltage control signal from 0 to 10 volts tells a driver or ballast what output level to produce, separate from the load wiring.
Read more - IT & Cloud
3-2-1 Backup Rule
A backup baseline: three copies of data, on two different media types, with one copy offsite — extended today to include one immutable or offline copy.
Read more - Audio
70V/100V Line
A distributed audio wiring scheme where amplifier output is stepped up to a constant voltage so dozens of speakers can share one long run, each drawing a set wattage via its transformer tap.
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A
- Security
Access Control
A system that decides electronically who may open which door, when, and records every attempt — replacing mechanical keys with credentials and policy.
Read more - Audio
AEC
Processing that subtracts the room's own loudspeaker output from the microphone signal so remote participants do not hear their own voices echoed back.
Read more - Audio
AES67
An interoperability standard that lets different audio-over-IP systems — Dante, Q-LAN, Ravenna, Livewire — exchange streams on a shared network.
Read more - Project Delivery
AHJ
The local official or agency — building department, fire marshal, electrical inspector — with authority to interpret and enforce code on a given project.
Read more - Project Delivery
As-Built
Documentation reflecting what was actually installed — final device locations, cable routes, labelling, IP addresses, and configuration — rather than what was originally drawn.
Read more - Conference Rooms
Auto-Framing
Camera behaviour that detects participants and adjusts framing automatically — tightening on a group, following an active speaker, or giving each attendee an individual tile.
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B
- Audio
Beamforming Microphone Array
A microphone with many capsules whose outputs are combined electronically to steer narrow pickup 'beams' toward talkers while rejecting off-axis noise.
Read more - Conference Rooms
BYOM
A room design where a guest laptop drives the meeting, using the room's camera, microphones, and speakers over a single USB-C connection rather than a dedicated room system.
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C
- Cabling
Cable Certification
Testing every installed cable run with a certification-grade tester against the TIA performance standard, producing a per-link pass/fail record of length, insertion loss, crosstalk, and return loss.
Read more - Cabling
Cat6 vs Cat6A
Two copper cabling grades: Cat6 supports 10 Gbps to about 55 m, while Cat6A supports 10 Gbps to the full 100 m and resists alien crosstalk in dense bundles.
Read more - Audio
Ceiling Tile Speaker
A loudspeaker installed into a suspended ceiling grid, used in distributed arrays so coverage is even across a room instead of loud at the front and thin at the back.
Read more - Project Delivery
Change Order
A written, priced amendment to contracted scope, schedule, or cost — the formal mechanism for anything not in the original agreement.
Read more - IT & Cloud
Cloud Migration
Moving applications, data, and infrastructure from on-premises servers to cloud platforms — by lift-and-shift, re-platforming, or replacement with SaaS.
Read more - Project Delivery
Commissioning
Systematically configuring, testing, tuning, and documenting an installed system so it verifiably performs as designed — the step between installed and working.
Read more - Cabling
Conduit Fill
The code limit on how much of a conduit's cross-section may be occupied by cable, set so cables can be pulled without damage and can dissipate heat.
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D
- Lighting & Automation
DALI
A digital lighting protocol where every fixture has an address on a two-wire bus, allowing individual control, grouping in software, and status reporting back to the controller.
Read more - Audio
Dante
An audio-over-IP protocol that carries multichannel digital audio across standard Ethernet, replacing individual analog runs between microphones, DSPs, and amplifiers.
Read more - Video
Direct View LED
A display built from tiled LED modules where the diodes themselves form the image, giving a seamless surface at any size with no bezels.
Read more - Project Delivery
Division 27 / 28
The CSI MasterFormat sections covering low-voltage work: Division 27 is communications — cabling, AV, paging — and Division 28 is electronic safety and security, including access control and surveillance.
Read more - Audio
DSP
The processor that mixes, routes, and conditions every audio signal in a room — gating microphones, cancelling echo, and applying EQ and limiting before audio reaches the amplifier or far end.
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E
- Video
EDID
The data block a display sends back to a source describing the resolutions, refresh rates, and audio formats it accepts, so the source knows what to output.
Read more - Lighting & Automation
ELV / MLV Dimming
Two dimming types matched to transformer technology: ELV for electronic transformers and LED drivers, MLV for magnetic ones. Mismatching dimmer to load causes flicker, buzz, or failure.
Read more - IT & Cloud
Endpoint Security
Protection on the device itself that detects malicious behaviour, contains it, and preserves the forensic trail — going beyond signature-based antivirus.
Read more - IT & Cloud
Entra ID
Microsoft's cloud identity service — formerly Azure Active Directory — which authenticates users and devices and enforces access policy across Microsoft 365 and connected applications.
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F
- Security
Fail-Safe vs Fail-Secure
Two electric lock behaviours on power loss: fail-safe unlocks, fail-secure stays locked. Which is correct depends on egress code and the door's role.
Read more - Cabling
Firestopping
Sealing cable penetrations through rated walls and floors with tested assemblies so the barrier's fire rating is restored.
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G
- Networking
Ground Loop
A hum or buzz caused by two pieces of connected equipment sitting at slightly different ground potentials, creating current flow through the signal path.
Read more - Cabling
Grounding and Bonding
The code-required practice of connecting equipment, racks, cable shields, and telecom backbones to a common electrical reference so fault current has a safe path.
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H
- Security
H.265
A video compression standard that delivers similar quality to H.264 at roughly half the bitrate, cutting storage and bandwidth for surveillance.
Read more - Video
HDBaseT
A transmission standard that sends uncompressed HD video, audio, control, Ethernet, and power up to roughly 100 m over a single category cable.
Read more - Video
HDCP
Copy protection that encrypts video between source and display and refuses to pass content if any device in the chain fails to authenticate.
Read more - Video
HDMI
The standard digital interface for carrying video, audio, control, and copy protection between sources and displays over one cable.
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I
- Cabling
IDF / MDF
The hierarchy of network rooms in a building: the MDF is the main room where service enters and the core lives; IDFs are floor or zone closets that aggregate nearby horizontal runs back to it.
Read more - Audio
Impedance
The AC resistance a loudspeaker presents to an amplifier, measured in ohms; it determines how much power the amplifier delivers and how many speakers can safely share a channel.
Read more - Security
IP Camera
A network camera that encodes video onboard and streams it over Ethernet, typically powered by PoE and recorded by an NVR or video management software.
Read more - Security
IP Rating
A two-digit code for a device's resistance to solids and liquids — IP66 meaning dust-tight and protected against powerful water jets. IK ratings separately grade impact resistance.
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M
- IT & Cloud
Managed IT Services
An outsourced model where a provider monitors, maintains, patches, and supports a company's IT for a recurring fee, rather than billing per incident.
Read more - Video
Matrix Switcher
A device that routes any of several video inputs to any of several outputs independently, letting multiple sources appear on multiple displays at once.
Read more - IT & Cloud
MFA
Authentication requiring two or more independent factors — something you know, have, or are — so a stolen password alone does not grant access.
Read more - IT & Cloud
Microsoft 365 Tenant
A single organisation's dedicated instance of Microsoft 365, containing its identities, mailboxes, SharePoint content, licences, and security policies.
Read more - Conference Rooms
Microsoft Teams Rooms
A native Teams meeting appliance for a physical room, combining certified compute, camera, audio, and touch console so joining a meeting is one tap rather than a laptop connection.
Read more - Security
Mobile Credential
A door credential held in a phone's wallet or an app and presented over Bluetooth or NFC, replacing a plastic card or fob.
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N
- Audio
NC Rating
A single-number rating of a room's background noise level across frequency bands, used to judge whether mechanical noise will interfere with speech and conferencing.
Read more - Video
Nits
A measure of display brightness. Typical office displays produce 300–500 nits; window-facing and outdoor displays need thousands.
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O
- Lighting & Automation
Occupancy Sensor
A sensor that switches or dims lighting based on presence. Occupancy mode turns lights on automatically and off when empty; vacancy mode requires manual on and only handles automatic off.
Read more - Security
ONVIF
An open standard for IP video devices that lets cameras from one manufacturer work with recorders and video management software from another.
Read more - Security
OSDP vs Wiegand
Two reader-to-controller protocols. Wiegand is legacy, one-way, and unencrypted; OSDP is bidirectional, supports encryption, and reports reader tampering and health.
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P
- IT & Cloud
Patch Management
The controlled process of testing and deploying operating system, firmware, and application updates across a fleet on a defined schedule.
Read more - Cabling
Patch Panel
A rack-mounted termination point where permanent horizontal cabling lands, so devices connect via short, replaceable patch cords instead of directly to fixed cable.
Read more - Video
Pixel Pitch
The distance in millimetres between the centres of adjacent LEDs on a direct view LED display, which sets the closest distance at which the image still looks continuous.
Read more - Cabling
Plenum-Rated Cable
Cable with a fire-resistant, low-smoke jacket required by code in air-handling plenum spaces — typically the void above a suspended ceiling used for return air.
Read more - Networking
PoE
Delivery of DC power and data over the same Ethernet cable, so cameras, access points, phones, and displays need no local outlet.
Read more - Project Delivery
Punch List
The itemised list of incomplete or defective work identified at walkthrough that must be corrected before final acceptance and payment.
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R
- Cabling
Rack Unit
The standard vertical increment of equipment rack space, 1.75 inches per U, used to plan how equipment stacks in a rack.
Read more - Security
Request to Exit
A device — motion sensor, push bar, or button — that signals the access control system of a legitimate exit so leaving does not register as a forced door.
Read more - Security
Retention Period
How long recorded video is kept before being overwritten — set by storage capacity and by whatever regulation, insurer, or policy applies to the site.
Read more - IT & Cloud
RMM
The agent-based platform an IT provider uses to monitor device health, deploy patches, run scripts, and support endpoints remotely at scale.
Read more - Project Delivery
Rough-In
The construction phase where pathways, boxes, sleeves, and cable are installed before walls close, ahead of any device or equipment installation.
Read more - Audio
RT60
The time in seconds for sound in a room to decay by 60 dB — the standard measure of how reverberant a space is and how intelligible speech will be in it.
Read more - IT & Cloud
RTO / RPO
Two recovery targets: RTO is how long a system may be down, RPO is how much recent data may be lost. Together they dictate what backup and failover design is required.
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S
- Video
Scaler
Processing that converts an incoming video signal to the native resolution and refresh rate of the display it is being sent to.
Read more - Project Delivery
Scope of Work
The document defining exactly what is included, excluded, and assumed on a project — deliverables, quantities, responsibilities, and acceptance criteria.
Read more - Networking
SD-WAN
A WAN architecture that pools multiple circuits — fibre, cable, LTE — under software control, steering each application over the best available path and failing over automatically.
Read more - IT & Cloud
SLA
The contractual commitment defining response and resolution targets by severity, coverage hours, and the remedy when targets are missed.
Read more - Audio
Sound Masking
A system that emits precisely shaped background sound across a ceiling to raise the ambient noise floor, making nearby speech unintelligible and improving acoustic privacy.
Read more - Cabling
Structured Cabling
A standards-based cabling system built as an organised hierarchy — entrance facility, backbone, telecom rooms, horizontal runs, work area outlets — rather than point-to-point runs added as needed.
Read more - Project Delivery
Submittal
Documentation — product data, shop drawings, samples — submitted to the architect or engineer for approval before equipment is ordered or installed.
Read more - Networking
Surge Protection
Devices that clamp voltage transients from lightning, utility switching, and large motor loads before they reach connected equipment.
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T
- IT & Cloud
Truck Roll
Dispatching a technician to a site, and by extension the field-service programmes that deliver scheduled onsite work across many locations.
Read more - Lighting & Automation
Tunable White
Lighting whose colour temperature can be adjusted — typically 2200K to 6500K — so a space can run cool and alert during the day and warm in the evening.
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V
- IT & Cloud
Virtualization
Running multiple isolated virtual machines on one physical host via a hypervisor, so hardware is shared and workloads can be snapshotted, moved, and restored independently.
Read more - Networking
VLAN
A logical network segment on shared physical switching, used to isolate device groups — cameras, AV, guest Wi-Fi, corporate data — from each other.
Read more - Security
VMS
Software that records, stores, searches, and distributes video from many cameras, and hosts the analytics and access rules on top of them.
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