"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Arfa Daily wrote:
No Dave, they aren't. The term "phantom power" is used for many
situations where an active device needs powering and only the signal
cable is available. Antenna amplifiers, satellite LNBs, cable
operators' distribution amplifiers and so on, are all routinely
described as being "phantom powered". There are plenty of web
references to the technique of phantom powering in these applications.
Long ago, when I worked in the early days of cable TV, all of our line
amplifiers were powered in this way, and it was always referred to as
phantom powering, both by all of the high-end network engineering bods,
and also our in-house lecturers, responsible for training of all of the
company's engineers.

In fact I would go as far as to say that the technique has been around
and called that for a very long time, and the 'hi-jacking' of the term
by sound engineering to try to mean something very specific, is
actually the questionable use of the phrase.

Phantom powering was first used by the telephone industry long before TV
of any sort. If the cable TV industry - hardly a bastion of good practice
- hijacked it for something which is patently not phantom, they're the
ones that are wrong.


This is getting out of hand, and you seem to be being deliberately obtuse,
as you sometimes are about some subjects that seem to release a swarm of
bees in your bonnet. It was you who suggested that the term "phantom
powered" had some particular meaning, specifically with regard to
microphones, and that it shouldn't be used in other contexts. I never
particularly suggested that it was a term 'belonging' to the TV industry, or
indeed any other industry. As a sound engineer, I'm sure that you believe
that it has this specific meaning in the context of microphones only, but
that isn't so.

It is a general purpose term that describes the feeding of DC power to any
active device, using only the signal pair from that device. The telephone
people may well be the original users of the technique, and coiners of the
name "phantom power" for it, but it is just as valid to use the term for any
similar system, including microphone powering, and various items that I
happened to pick from the TV business.

And I'm still not clear what distinction in technique that you believe there
to be, between 'phantom powering' and 'line powering' ? Why do you believe
the powering scheme that they are using for their line amplifiers to be
"patently not phantom" ?

If you don't believe me that the manufacturers of TV distribution equipment
consider that what they are doing is employing 'phantom powering', then take
a look at for example

http://www.lashen.com/vendors/channe...VT-RF-Amps.asp

And why do you believe the cable TV industry to be "hardly a bastion of good
practice"? What is it you feel that they do wrong, or could do better ?

Arfa