Mr. T (Power)

Finally, it seems like people are starting to catch on to the comparative lack of info for production audio, relative to the reams available about video. To that end, Skylor Morgan, Product Specialist over at Trew Audio, has started a monthly tech column. Snip:

Since I receive calls from around the world with questions from basic to complex, my mind is quickly filling with technical jargon, model numbers, specs, history, and techniques of audio recording. Trew Audio, Inc. has decided that my somewhat delusional self-conversations and mumblings are more useful if I share them with you. Periodically, I'll write about a topic in the audio profession. From the most basic "how microphones work" to complicated "timecode pull-up frame rate" chaos, I'll try to cover it all.

Since Skylor works for a dealer, obviously there will be numerous references to Trew audio, but the info is still valid and useful. To that end, I'm choosing to link first to an older post about T-power, which explains it in a very accessible way:

The T in T power is Tonaderspeisung. Let’s break this German compound word into its parts…

Ton- Tone or sound

Ader- vein, artery

Speisung- Supply

Simply stated T- power is sound line supply power.

The engineers accomplish this feet sending the voltage up the same lines the audio came down. During the last 50+ years, the polarity of the voltage has switched pins as did the Nagra. Pins 2 and 3 carry the voltages through a 180 Ohm resister, and the audio is carried back down the same lines. The ground is not involved in the powering circuit.

Link to post, via trewaudio.com.