Managing Interactive Media Glossary: B

Glossary: B (26 entries found)

B2B: Business to business, trading between two businesses carried out electronically. See also B2C and C2C.
B2C: Business to consumer, trading between a business and consumers carried out electronically. See also B2B and C2C.
back end: A computer program whose operation is not apparent to the user, such as a supporting programming on the server which provides information that the web server can send to the user over the Internet.
bandwidth: The amount of data passed along a cable or communications channel of any kind. Sometimes the data channel, or pipe, is described as fat if it has a high bandwidth and can carry a lot of data quickly, or thin if it cannot. Bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second or bytes per second. Because of this confusion you should be clear whether bandwidth is being expressed in bits or bytes to understand how fast the data can be transmitted.
banner: An elongated narrow advertisement placed on a web page. There is a 'standard' size for banners of 468 by 60 pixels. Usually, clicking on a banner takes the browser to the advertiser's website.
bearer: A protocol that transparently carries another protocol. For example, wap carried over GPRS and even voice over IP.
beta: If your application or website has 'gone beta' then it should be finished, but it needs testing. This testing may be carried out by people outside the production team and even outside the production company.
bi-directional language: Enabling a computer to cope with a language that reads and writes from right to left - like Arabic or Hebrew - as well as left to right as in English. The individual languages would of course be uni-directional. This goes hand-in-hand with being able to handle many more characters than the standard European-centred ASCII text. See also double byte.
bit: The smallest unit in binary numbers. A bit can have a value of either 0 or 1. The number of bits used to represent a binary number limits the maximum value it can have. For example a 4-bit number can have values from 0000 to 1111 (0 to 15 in decimal).
bit depth: In graphics, the more bits a colour image has, the more colours can be used in it. An 8-bit image can have 256 colours, but you can usually choose those colours from a larger palette of perhaps millions of colours. If your 256 colours are all shades of grey then a photographic-quality monochrome image can be reproduced. A 16-bit image will have thousands of colours and can look photographic in many circumstances. However, for a truly photographic colour image the millions of colours available in 24 bits are necessary (or even more). Note that on the Apple Macintosh an 8-bit matte or alpha channel can be associated with the 24 bits, making 32 bits. See also 8-, 16-, 24- or 48-bit image.
bit rate reduction: Audio and video engineers often use this term to mean compression of data, as the term compression has another meaning, especially in audio. See also compression.
bitmap: A graphic image that represents the image by a matrix of every pixel, usually going from top to bottom, left to right. Bitmap images usually have a resolution in pixels per inch and a size in pixels.
blanking: In analogue television, the time between the end of one TV line and the start of the next (horizontal blanking) or the end of one field and the start of the next (vertical blanking or vertical interval).
blog: Short for weblog, this is a website that can be easily added to by the author to produce what is essentially a running multimedia diary. Often used to express points of view on current issues and to point readers onwards to other interesting blogs and pages.
Bluetooth: A short-range high-speed wireless data standard especially promoted for consumer and mobile telephony use. Named after a Scandinavian king. See also Wi-Fi.
boiler plate: A standard form of contract that is then modified or qualified to make up the contract for a particular agreement.
bookmark: A function of an application, notably a web browser, whereby users can store their place so that they can quickly go back there later, even saving the bookmark for retrieval many days later. The electronic equivalent of a piece of paper between pages of a book.
brand: The image that a company has built up from customer perceptions about its profile.
browser: A piece of software that allows the user to look through a number of resources, usually held in a variety of formats. A web browser is designed for viewing World Wide Web pages on the Internet. Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera are examples of web browsers.
buffer: A place for temporary storage of data, often to smooth out differences in speed between a data input and output.
build: The process of taking all the component parts of a multimedia application (or indeed any piece of software) and making the finished version.
bump mapping: In computer graphics, a technique for giving a surface texture to objects by slightly distorting the shape.
business case: The presentation of arguments to support the request for a budget to spend on the development of a project that will aid the business. Companies may have devised their own method determining the type of arguments and evidence that is needed for making a business case to the budget holders.
Button: A graphic on a web page that links to a feature or page on a website. A button is also a form of advert on a web page, being relatively small.
buy-out: Paying for all the necessary rights in one go rather than paying royalties.
byte: In binary arithmetic, and hence in computing, a byte is an eight-bit number and can have a value between 0 and 255.