Glossary

Audience Scanning	When laser beams are pointed towards the audience. This can be very dangerous for your audience! Therefor ensure that laser safety regulations are complied!
Beat markers	The M-III offers a very powerful tool called “Beat Markers“. While playing show music, beat marks can be set to the time line using the space bar. Beat marks are positioned on the time line as small arrow icons with which scenes can be set later on. This enables an excellent overview of pending tasks. Obviously, these Beat marks can be deleted at any time.
Blanking	Turning off the laser during a projection is called Blanking. This way, two single objects need to be separated by one blanked line, in order to ensure that these objects aren’t merged. M-III offers in its output routines extended handling functions of these blanking lines to ensure a clean controlling of simple Galvos.
Blank shift	Time control of the laser modulations need to be adapted to the inertia of the system. This is because laser projectors usually use a mechanical deflection unit. This is done by a so-called “Blank shift“, which means an offset time while blanking the laser. With M-III this offset time can be set for every color separately and takes place with a test pattern.
Clipping	If a frame or an object is moved throughout the projection area, its edges and corners will be cut off and faded out. This is called “Clipping“. However, massive usage of this function can lead to quality loss of the projection.
Corner repeat	Especially with angular objects like rectangles or polygons, the mechanical system of the galvo scanner will need some time to stop the mirror at the corner of the figure and to speed up into another direction. This process is called “turning point“. If this point is not temporally delayed, a round corner is created. In order to get this corner sharp, new positions have to be added. The more positions, the more angular but at the same time brighter the corner gets. The optimum for this should therefor be experimentally determined as one thinks best.
Cue scene	See scene
DMX, DMX 512	The DMX protocol is a standardized, serial signal, which is primarily used for controlling of light. It controls 512 canals with a resolution of 8 bits each.
Frame	A “frame“ is an image, which contains one or more drawn objects. M-III is able to manage any number of frames in frame lists.
Galvo, galvanometer	A galvo, colloquially “scanner“, is the heart of a laser projector, because without a galvo it could not project. In principle a galvo scanner is comparable to a very fast servo drive. The scan speed of a galvo is given in pps (points per second) according to ILDA standards. Nevertheless, caution should be exercised! Some distributors offer galvo systems with fantastic scan speed, which are not comprehensible according to ILDA standards.
ILDA format	The ILDA (International Laser Display Association) developed some time ago a transportable file format that is able to saves both separate frames and complete shows in form of frame lists. By courtesy of this format, it should be possible for show designers to exchange shows and frames among one another. The M-III is able for unlimited import and export of ILDA files. A complete show can be exported as an ILDA stream, too. Here the file format 5 is used, which saves colors as RGB values. The original ILDA format only saves colors as a palette.
ILDA standard	The ILDA has developed other standards besides the ILDA format, too. This also includes i.e. the ILDA connection or the ILDA test image, with which scan speeds can be measured and compared. Further information can be obtained at the ILDA website.
Interface	An interface is a device between your computer and one or more laser projectors, which translates the digital information from the M-III to an analog control format. The ILDA standard has established itself as an international standard, which is, however, interpreted very individually by some Asian manufacturers. However, all MediaLas M-III interfaces are completely compatible with ILDA.
Interpolation	A methodology at the output algorithm. Inside the lines, support points called interpolations, are used to stabilize the output and enhance the image quality at the scan process. This method reduces both overshooting and overload to the galvos, which stem from too harsh position jumps. At the same time the brightness within the performed lines is going to be enlarged or stabilized. M-III offers a broad palette of adjustment possibilities for the treatment of interpolations of lines.
Key frame morphing	Morphing between frames can occur in different ways. Key frame morphing means that only two frames are going to be used for morphing, whereby the morphing happens between the first and the second frame.
Logical projector	A logical projector is a non-physically present, virtual projector, who can be routed onto physical, thus present, projectors. By means of logical projectors different tracks can be summarized or appropriately distributed. This is a special and very powerful property of Mamba. A for one single projector only designed show, assembled with many tracks, can be rebuild into a multi-projector show within a few minutes by distributing the tracks to different logical projectors, which again control physical projectors.
Modulation	The term “Modulation (of a Laser)“ refers to the on and off switching of the laser. There are two different ways of this laser modulation. TTL on/off or analog from 0 to 100 percent. The appropriate way used is determined by the quality of the laser projector. Both variants are represented on the market. TTL modulation is primarily used in cheap laser projectors, while analog modulation can lead to unstable laser function in cheap laser projectors. A proficient analog modulation can exclusively be found in professional lasers. A RGB laser with TTL is able to only display 7 basic colors, while an analog modulated laser can in theory display all available colors within its color range and also smoothly fade in or out.
MTC Midi Time Code	The MIDI time code (MTC) is an implementation of the SMPTE time code to the MIDI format. In contrary to the MIDI clock the MTC is pure time information, a conversion to a song. Positioning within this song and playback speed has to take place by the software. There are many digital feeds, which master the Midi Time Code.
Non linear cutting	Show production on time line at which one can intervene at any point. For example: You can start off with programming the end, then work on the beginning and the in-between. Thus, you programmed and cut “non linear“. Some older laser show applications use “linear cutting“. Here the cues are saved in a separate text file and played one after another. With “non linear cutting“ it is possible to select any point in time on the time line. It is not necessary to do this “one after another“. If you want to, you can start with creating the end of a laser show before the beginning.
Object-oriented editor	Drawings are separated into objects, whereat every object itself can be edited at anytime. A typical “non-object-oriented editor“ is the drawing editor of LD2000.
Picture repeat	During the distribution to the laser projector every frame is going to be repeated x times before the next frame will be banked. This often happens with very small image contents. According to the software and the output, picture repeat can be set separately. M-III does is however time-controlled, so that the picture repeat is automatically generated by the system. The user does not need to intervene.
Point-oriented editor	An editor at which drawings are rendered as points. These are very difficult to edit afterwards. A typical point-oriented editor is the drawing editor of LD2000.
PPS (points per second)	Points per second. This is a specification about the number of points per second, which are operated with by the graphics to the deflection. By now this speed information is admittedly very elusive. But the ILDA offers a reliable instrument for this issue with the ILDA test image in order to compare galvo systems by means of their scan speed in PPS or even KPPS (for 1000 PPS). This way, 30 kpps or 30.000 pps do not have to be 30.000 pps. Unfortunately there are many mass suppliers, who title their deflections by any numbers to generate a monetary advantage this way. Comparing the outputs to the real test images, the possible and real scan speeds have to be adjusted downwards drastically.
Physical projector	This is a “real“ laser projector, consisting of hardware, scanner, laser and so on. See “projector“. M-III is able to manage any number of physical projectors. For sending data to a physical projector, a virtual projector has to be routed to the physical projector beforehand.
Projector, laser projector	The laser projector is a device, which consists of most of the necessary components for projecting a laser image or a laser show - the laser and of course power supplies. A projector can be built with simple design or built for professional use like i.e. an Infinity or Mystiqe.
Scanners	See “galvos“.
Scan speed	The speed with which an image or a scene or a whole show can be played on a laser projector. It is measured in PPS (points per second). In Mamba the scan speed accounts between 1.000 pps and 130.000 pps. The faster the scan speed, the less the projection flickers. However, an overspending scan speed can lead to damage at the galvanometers.
Scene	A scene is a snapshot over a short period of time, in which one or more frames as well as motions can be contained. Usually a show consists of numerous scenes, which are arranged on different tracks. Each scene can be any length.
Time line	The time line contains several tracks and start at time zero, ending at an unlimited time. Starting point of the time line is at the same time exactly the starting point of the selected sound file. The sound file is going to be played synchronously and parallel to the time line.
Tracks	Tracks contain cues and scenes on the time line. Each track on the time line starts at time zero. Many tracks, in theory an infinite numbers of tracks, can be mounted to the time line. Cues and scenes, which point to different tracks and at different times on the time line, are going to be played at their exact starting time - never mind what’s on the other tracks.
Turning point	If the galvo has to change the direction, we speak of a “turning point“. While this turning point a temporally long time non-moving laser point is emerged, which enhances the specific performance and the MPE. Attention must be paid to containing only few or weak turning points in one beam show.