Sun Surveillance, wireless solar powered video surveillance, glossary m

The Glossary

An all inclusive glossary of security lingo is provided for your convenience. This list
will undoubtedly be helpful when delving in to the realm of security.

M:

MAC - Multiplexed analog components. A system in which the components are time multiplexed into one
channel using time domain techniques, i.e., the components are kept separate by being sent at different
times through the same channel. There are many different MAC formats and standards.
Manual iris - A manual method of varying the size of a lens’s aperture.
Matrix - A logical network configured in a rectangular array of intersections of input/output channels.
Matrix switcher - A device for switching more than one camera, VCR, video printer and similar, to more
than one monitor, VCR, video printer and similar. Much more complex and more powerful than video
switchers.
MATV - Master antenna television.
MB - Megabyte. Unit of measurement for computer memory consisting of approximately one million bytes.
Actual value is 1,048,576 bytes. Kilobyte × Kilobyte = Megabyte.
MB/s - Megabytes per second. Million bytes per second or 8 million hits per second. Also written as Mbps.
Mb/s - Megabits per second. Million bits per second. Also written as Mbps.
MHz - Megahertz. One million hertz.
Microwave - One definition refers to the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that ranges between 300
MHz and 3000 GHz. The other definition is when referring to the transmission media where microwave
links are used. Frequencies in microwave transmission are usually between 1 GHz and 12 GHz.
MOD - Minimum object distance. Feature of a fixed or a zoom lens that indicates the closest distance an
object can be from the lens’s image plane, expressed in meters. Zoom lenses have MOD of around 1 m,
while fixed lenses usually much less, depending on the focal length.
Modem - This popular term is made up of two words: modulate and demodulate. The function of a modem
is to connect a device (usually computer) via a telephone line to another device with a modem.
Modulation - The process by which some characteristic (i.e., amplitude, phase) of one RF wave is varied in
accordance with another wave (message signal).
Moiré pattern - An unwanted effect that appears in the video picture when a high-frequency pattern is
looked at with a CCD camera that has a pixel pattern close (but lower) to the object pattern. Monochrome -
Black-and-white video. A video signal that represents the brightness values (luminance) in the picture, but
not the color values (chrominance).
MPEG - Motion Picture Experts Group. An ISO group of experts that has recommended manipulation of
digital motion images. Today there are a couple of MPEG recommendations, of which the most well known
are MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. The latter one is widely accepted for high definition digital television, as well as
multimedia presentation.
MPEG-1 - Standard for compressing progressive scanned images with audio. Bit rate is from 1.5 Mbps up
to 3.5 Mbps.
MPEG-2 - The standard for compression of progressive scanned and interlaced video signals with high
quality audio over a large range of compression rates with a range of bit rates from 1.5 to 100 Mbps.
Accepted as a HDTV and DVD standard of video/audio encoding.
Multiplexer - A device that combines several input signals into a single output signal in such a manner that
each of the input signals subsequently can be recovered.

Courtesy of CCTV Labs and CCTV focus magazine

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