Channel

Lighting
A Channel is the number assigned to a pathway on the light console to control a dimmer. In older or basic light consoles this relationship is fixed at "1 to 1", meaning Channel #4 always turns on dimmer #4. In more modern light consoles the soft patch features allows you to assign any snumbers on the light console to any dimmer or group of dimmers in the rack. So by changing the patch, Channel #4 on the console can be programmed to turn on Dimmers #6, 34, and 95.

Remember the relationship of dimmer numbers to circuit numbers may or may not be fixed as well. See circuits.

With many modern advancements in lighting, Channels now do many other things as well. A channel can control the movement, color, gobo, zoom, iris, prism, and other parameters of a moving light, and even some fog machines and other atmospheric effects can be controlled directly from a control channel.

Sound
A channel refers to a single strip on a mixing console that has an input. Channel can also refer to the path from the microphone or other input through the console (often encompassing a transmitter/receiver link in a wireless system).