thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Collaboration, Voice & AV · Foundational

Signal Flow

The path an audio, video or control signal takes from source through processing and distribution to destination devices.

Definition

Understanding signal flow lets AV technicians design systems logically and troubleshoot by tracing a signal stage by stage, such as microphone, preamp, DSP, amplifier and loudspeaker. Signal flow diagrams document every device, connector and cable label. Troubleshooting typically splits the chain in half to isolate the faulty stage.

Example

A technician with no program audio follows the flow from the media player through the matrix switcher, DSP output and amplifier to find a muted DSP channel.

Exam tip

On CTS exams, read flow diagrams left to right and identify where a fault or level change occurs.

Related terms