(n.) A rack-mounted panel with at least two rows of connectors, which are used to insert a piece of external equipment into the signal path. The top row consists of “send” jacks, and the bottom row consists of “receive” jacks. A professional quality patchbay has tip-ring- sleeve (TRS) jacks wired for true balanced line interconnection (tip = positive signal, ring = negative signal, sleeve = shield ground). The two rows of jacks are tied together by shorting contacts so that the “normal” operation is to short the send and receive tip-to-tip and ring-to- ring connecting points. The sleeves are always connected. This arrangement maintains the normal signal path until something is plugged in. This interrupts the “normalled” connections. A patchbay makes it easy to route patchbay (n.) A rack-mounted panel with at least two rows of connectors, which are used to insert a piece of external equipment into the signal path. The top row consists of “send” jacks, and the bottom row consists of “receive” jacks. A professional quality patchbay has tip-ring- sleeve (TRS) jacks wired for true balanced line interconnection (tip = positive signal, ring = negative signal, sleeve = shield ground). The two rows of jacks are tied together by shorting contacts so that the “normal” operation is to short the send and receive tip-to-tip and ring-to- ring connecting points. The sleeves are always connected. This arrangement maintains the normal signal path until something is plugged in. This interrupts the “normalled” connections. A patchbay makes it easy to route patchbay
