RECORDING Field Notes—Multiplexing Your Creative Workflow

What is a Multiplexed Signal?

Multiplexed signals, or specifically time-division multiplexed signals, are a way of dealing with a collection of signals that must be sent and received individually when only a single channel or path is available. Originally, Bell Labs in the U.S. used this technique to cram more phone lines into existing cables.

Time-division multiplexing is essentially a group of signals that are “time-sharing” the medium, with each signal allocated a small slice of time. In the digital domain, this all happens so fast that it can be done entirely transparently. But if you slowed the process way down, what you would see is this: first, signal one is processed, then signal two, then signal three, and so on, back to signal one and repeat. Round and round, advancing a bit each time around. Basically, this method breaks the task into smaller pieces, dedicating a brief period to each signal, one after the other, moving each signal forward from point A to point B.