Glossary
© 2013 Harmonic Inc.
371
Ellipse 3000 r.3.0, Rev. B
Base quant
A measure of the “loss” introduced by the coding process. This is an indication of the
degradation in video quality produced by the encoder.
Base quant is the average of the quantization scales used for encoding video during the
sampling period. The range is 0 to 130. A low value means less video quality degradation.
BER
Bit Error Rate. The ratio of bits transmitted in error to the total bits sent. For example, a BER
of 10
6
means 1 bit in a million is received in error.
BISS
Basic Interoperable Scrambling System. An open standard for protecting digital contribution
applications.
Bit rate
The average bitrate of the bit stream, in bits per second, during the sampling period.
Black video
A video signal where there is no luminance or chrominance information. Either intentionally
created for a short period of time or the result of a failure in a transmission system.
blanking interval
The process or time period when the cathode ray tube (
CRT
) beam is turned off so that the
beam retrace does not interfere with the picture.
BNC
A standard coaxial cable connector named for the inventors (Neill and Concelman) and the
connection type (bayonet).
BOOTP
Bootstrap Protocol. Used to supply hosts with IP addresses and a
boot file name. BOOTP
requests and replies are encapsulated in a User Datagram Protocol (
UDP
) packet. The BOOTP
server uses an address resolution protocol (ARP) cache to map MAC addresses to IP
addresses. When the server receives a BOOTP request from a MAC address listed in its cache,
the server sends a reply to the
.
broadcast encoding system
An assembly of components that compresses, multiplexes, and scrambles program material.
broadcast modulator
See
C
CA
Conditional Access. Provides operator control over customer access to broadcast materials.
