Patchbays: what is normal?

[Fatcatpro]

We're buying new patch bays and our consultant quoted us for half normal patchbays.
What is the difference between normal and regular? And when would you use each of them?

 

[derekleffew]

Normalling Jacks - ControlBooth
Half Normalled - ControlBooth

 

[waynehoskins]

Also, some patchbays are "programmable" where you can change, jack by jack, the normalling by moving jumpers or other means. Others break all the normals out to the back panel where you wire your own normalling (or the installer does); these provide immense flexibility since the normalling doesn't have to be straight-down.

For input-side patching, I like full-normal. For output-side patching, I can see some benefit to half-normal sometimes.