I'll chime in here as the older guy and used the older systems.
BQQ-5B had two analog broadband trackers. Tracker Alpha and tracker Bravo. They each had an exact mechanical representation of the sphere (they were about 2.5ft diam), called a Compensator. The sonar operators had to clean these two compensators each day. The Q5B also had two digital (non-compensated) trackers, Tracker Charley and tracker Delta.
The beamformer would scan the entire sphere for incoming energy in under 1 second, (I know the actual time.....), and display the result on the display.
You also have an audio cursor, which allows the operator to listen to what ever they want to. This is that sonar by trackball that was mentioned.
An average or better broadband operator can just listen to a contact and give you a good id... merchant, trawler, warship, submarine. Sometimes in seconds. There are other things they can do aurally but I will not get into that here.
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