Jump to: navigation, search

Descriptions of acronyms, technologies and concepts used in Digital Signage.

Contents 1 Digital Signage Software 1.1 Dise LS 1.2 Dise DS 1.3 Dise Composer 1.4 Dise Replay 1.5 Dise Bridge 1.6 Dise Probe 1.7 Dise Complete 1.8 Synchronized Playback, NoBorders 2 Screen Technologies 2.1 LCD 2.2 Plasma 2.3 Projectors 2.4 CRT 2.5 LED 3 Video connectors 3.1 DVI 3.2 VGA 3.3 HDMI 3.4 DisplayPort 3.5 UDI 3.6 CVBS/Composite/S-Video/TV-Out 3.7 SDI, HD-SDI 4 Communication 4.1 TCP/IP 4.2 UDP/IP 4.3 Broadcast 4.4 Multicast 4.5 Serial communication 5 Application Protocols 5.1 FTP 5.2 HTTP, HTTPS 5.3 MMS 6 Computer Graphics 6.1 DirectShow 6.2 DirectX 6.3 Direct3D 6.4 Alpha channels 6.5 YUV 6.6 Aspect ratio 6.7 Gradient 7 Technologies 7.1 AJAX 7.2 RSS 7.3 SOAP, Web Services 7.4 XML 8 Databases 8.1 MySQL 8.2 MSSQL, Microsoft SQL Server 8.3 PostgreSQL 8.4 SQLite 8.5 ODBC 9 Media file formats 9.1 MP3, MP2 9.2 Ogg, Vorbis, Theora 9.3 WMV, WMA, WMF, ASF 9.4 QuickTime, QT, MOV 9.5 VOB 9.6 MPEG 1 9.7 MPEG 2 9.8 MPEG 4, H.264 9.9 JPEG, M-JPEG 9.10 JPEG 2000 9.11 PNG 9.12 GIF 9.13 BMP 9.14 PSD 9.15 TGA / Targa 9.16 TIFF 9.17 WAV 10 Dise-specific terms 10.1 Channel 10.2 Dependencies 10.3 Destination 10.4 Dise Movie 10.5 Dise Preset 10.6 Dise Scene 10.7 Display Scheme 10.8 Movements 10.9 Path 10.10 Remote Control 10.11 Resources 10.12 Synchronization 10.13 Transition

Digital Signage Software

Dise Digital Signage Suite is a unified design and distribution environment that combines the latest versions of Dise professional digital signage software, Dise Composer, Dise Bridge and Dise Replay with additional add-ons.

Dise LS

Dise Local Signage is suitable where the creation and display of content is done on the same location. LS licenses include one Dise Composer and one Dise Replay.

Dise DS

Dise Distributed Signage allows for setups with multiple players and distribution through Dise Bridge.

Dise Composer

Dise Composer is a powerful and easy to use timeline based editor for digital media and digital signage applications. With Composer you create Dise movies that can be played directly from the application, by a separate player or sent to remote players.

Dise Replay

Dise Replay delivers reliable playback of broadcast quality graphics in any display application such as digital signage or cable TV playout. Dise movies created in Dise Composer or Display Schemes assembled in Dise Bridge are dynamically played in real time.

Dise Bridge

Dise Bridge takes care of the work of distributing content to your local or remote digital signage players. With Dise Bridge you can create and schedule multilayered playlists, so called channels. Content is distributed using FTP over Internet or a LAN.

Dise Probe

Dise Probe is located on your Player PC and is responsible of downloading content and ensuring that the content located on the Player PC is kept up to date.

Dise Probe can download content from a network (or local) path or from an FTP server, before downloading the files it will compare the files with the files located on disk to make sure that it will not download files that has been downloaded on an earlier occasion.

Dise Complete

Dise Complete combines the real time compositing and playback engine of the Dise Composer and Dise Replay applications with System- and Content management Software in one integrated system creating a complete environment for digital signage, from network planning and installation to monitoring, ad sales, statistics and follow up.

Synchronized Playback, NoBorders

Dise NoBorders is a feature of the Dise system providing excellent broadcast quality synchronized play out of presentations utilizing multiple player computers and creating large multi screen canvases. This enables content to be designed for multi screen play out in better than HD resolution without limits including multi screen effects.

Screen Technologies

LCD

Liquid Crystal Display. One of the most common technology for digital signage purposes. LCD screens has excellent performance and are quite cheap to purchase.

Read more: LCD television - Wikipedia

Plasma

Plasma display panel (PDP) is the main competitor of the LCD screens. Plasma displays equals LCD displays in quality and performance. There are however some differences between the technologies. Recent events shows that the market is moving more toward the LCD screens instead.

Read more: Plasma display - Wikipedia

Projectors

Projectors display the image through a lens system on to a screen.

• DLP - Digital Light Processing. Single chip systems use a rotating color wheel and a light source which produces the image. The use of a color wheel (specially on the older projectors) can produce a irritating rainbow effect on the screen. Three-chip systems which use one chip per color does not suffer from this problem.
• LCD - Liquid Crystal Display. The light goes through a transparent LCD panel which in turn gets projected on to the screen.
• CRT - Catode Ray Tube. Works like a normal CRT TV but instead the image gets projected on to a large screen.
• Back Projection - This technology can use any of the above projection systems (and now even LASERs). Instead of the image being projected on to a screen it is projected from behind the screen which is of a white translucent plastic material.

CRT

Catode Ray Tube. Older technology used for television, computer and informational displays.

Read more: Cathode ray tube - Wikipedia

LED

Light-Emmiting Diode. Used in large outdoor display systems for video and informational purposes.

Video connectors

To extend the cables defined here beyond its limits it is possible to use special cable extenders.

DVI

Digital Visual Interface. Used for connecting display equipment such as LCD panels and projectors. DVI can have both digital and analog video signals.

Variants of DVI:

DVI-D	Digial only (compatible with HDMI)
DVI-A	Analog only (compatible with VGA)
DVI-I	Both digital and analog
M1-DA	Digital, analog and USB

DVI-D has two modes. Single Link and Dual Link. In Dual Link mode it is possible to use higher resolutions.

Note: A DVI-I connector will not fit in to a DVI-D socket.

The official maximum cable length is 5 meters (16 feet). However in reality the maximum length depends on the quality of the equipment used. For example the quality of the cable, the transmit power of the graphics card and the ability of the display equipment to detect the signals. Normally cables of 9 to 10 meters can be used. For longer distances consider using a powered DVI extender or use VGA or HDMI.

VGA

Video Graphics Array. Used for connecting analog computer display equipment. Nowadays mostly replaced by DVI.

The maximum cable length depends on the resolution and refresh rate used. Higher resolutions is more demanding in terms of cable and equipment quality. Normally you should avoid lengths above 15 meters. If the image is blurry and has shadows try a shorter or more high quality cable.

HDMI

High-Definition Multimedia Interface. Digital autio and video interface. Normally used with consumer grade equipment.

The maximum cable length is not defined in the standard but high quality (category 2) cables of 15 meters (49 feet) should not be a problem. For longer lengths it is possible to use active HDMI cables for cable lengths of up to 30 meters (98 feet).

DisplayPort

A new digital display interface created by Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It supports more colors (16 bit per channel) than DVI/HDMI and apart from RGB also supports YCbCr video.

UDI

Unified Display Interface. A digital display interface based on DVI. Mainly used as a low-cost alternative to DVI/HDMI. Right now UDI seems to be a dead format.

CVBS/Composite/S-Video/TV-Out

Normal standard definition (PAL: 720x576, NTSC: 720x480).

In the Digital Signage area, normally used to transmit video into a analog CCTV network.

The maximum cable length is not defined in the standards but it professional equipment is used and the cables and connectors are correctly terminated (75 Ohm), cable lengths of over 100 meters should not be a problem. With consumer electronics however things can be more of a challenge. In those cases you have to try different lengths to see what works. Normally keep the cable lengths under 10 meters.

SDI, HD-SDI

Serial Digital Interface. Digital video transmission format mainly used in professional video broadcast equipment.

SDI cables can be up to 300 m if high quality equippment are used.

Communication

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol. One of the most common IP protocols used today. Data transferred with TCP is guaranteed to be correct (no bytes lost and all data in correct order).

Read more: Transmission Control Protocol - Wikipedia

UDP/IP

User Datagram Protocol. UDP is a lightweight data transfer protocol which does not require the communicating parts to "connect" to each other prior to sending data. Because of the simple nature of the protocol no checks are performed to ensure that the data is correct or in the right order.

Read more: User Datagram Protocol - Wikipedia

Broadcast

Data packets that are broadcasted on the network is sent to all computers/devices within the same subnet. Normally this is done by sending UDP packets to the broadcast address. Ex: 192.168.0.255 is the network is 192.168.0.0/24.

Multicast

Multicast is similar to broadcast but instead of only sending data to all computers in the same subnet it is possible to send data to multiple subnets. For this to work all network equipment (routers, switches) in the network must support multicast and be correctly set up.

A network device can subscribe to a multicast stream by sending IGMP messages on to the network.

Serial communication

There are many types of serial communication standards. The most common variants are RS-232, RS-423 and RS-485.

Serial connections together with digital signage is mostly about detecting hardware signals from screens and other external equipment such as emergency signals, vehicle status and control panels.

Application Protocols

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. A common protocol to transfer files between computers on a network.

Read more: File Transfer Protocol - Wikipedia

HTTP, HTTPS

Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This is the protocol used to transfer web pages on the Internet. It can also be used for many other purposes such as SOAP, file transfers, WebDav, etc. HTTPS is a secure version of the protocol where the data transfer is encrypted and verified by a server certificate.

Read more: Hypertext Transfer Protocol - Wikipedia

MMS

Microsoft Media Server. A common protocol to stream media over a network.

Read more: Microsoft_Media_Server - Wikipedia

Computer Graphics

DirectShow

A multimedia framework used in Microsoft Windows. It can be used for most multimedia record and playback purposes.

Read more: Direct Show - Wikipedia

DirectX

A multimedia application programming interface used in Microsoft Windows. It allows the use of accelerated graphics and audio in the Windows enviroment.

Read more: DirectX - Wikipedia

Direct3D

A part of the DirectX API by Microsoft which is responsible for 3D and 2D accelerated graphics.

Read more: Direct3D - Wikipedia

Alpha channels

An alpha channel can be used to composite an image on to another image. The alpha channel describes what parts of the image that should be transparent.

Read more: Alpha channel - Wikipedia

YUV

A color space (color model) taking human perception into account.

Read more: YUV - Wikipedia

Aspect ratio

The proportion between the width and height of an image or screen.

Read more: Aspect_ratio_(image) - Wikipedia

Gradient

A smooth blend between colors.

Read more: Image gradient - Wikipedia

Technologies

AJAX

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Defines a group of techniques mostly used in interactive web pages.

Read more: AJAX - Wikipedia

RSS

Really Simple Syndication. A web feed format used to publish news, weather information and other frequently updated data sources.

Read more: RSS - Wikipedia

SOAP, Web Services

Simple Object Access Protocol. A protocol for exchanging information between computer systems. It uses XML as the message format and normally uses HTTP as the transfer protocol.

Read more: SOAP - Wikipedia

XML

Extensible Markup Language. A markup language that is distantly related to HTML. XML can be used to define a collection of data. For example data from a database a news feed or other kinds of information.

Databases

MySQL

A popular open source relational database system.

Read more: MySQL - Wikipedia

MSSQL, Microsoft SQL Server

A relational database server from Microsoft.

Read more: MSSQL - Wikipedia

PostgreSQL

A high performance and free open source relational database system.

Read more: PostgreSQL - Wikipedia

SQLite

Small and embeddable SQL database.

Read more: SQLite - Wikipedia

ODBC

Open Database Connectivity. Standard application programming interface for connecting to different database systems.

Read more: ODBC - Wikipedia

Media file formats

MP3, MP2

MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3/2. Lossy audio encoding formats.

Read more: MP3 - Wikipedia

Mp3 is typically used for digital music. MP2 is seldom seen, but is used in DAB radio and DVB television transmissions.

Ogg, Vorbis, Theora

Free technologies developed by Xiph.Org Foundation.

• Theora - The video codec is call Theora. It is a derivate from the VP3 codec by On2 Technologies. It can be used in any suitable container but is generally contained using Ogg. The video quality is compareable to Mpeg4 or WMV.
• Vorbis - The audio format is called Vorbis and is a Mp3 replcaement. The audio quality is normally equal or better than Mp3 or WMV at the same bitrate.
• Ogg - The container format used to house Vorbis audio and Theora video.

WMV, WMA, WMF, ASF

Media technologies from Microsoft.

• Windows Media Video - Video codec based on Mpeg-4. There are several versions of the codec (WMV7, WMV8, WMV9, VC-1). Newer versions have more features and better image quality.

Read more: Windows Media Video - Wikipedia

• Windows Media Audio - Audio codec. Comparable to Mp3 and Vorbis.

Read more: Windows Media Audio - Wikipedia

• Windows MetafileFormat - Graphics file format that may contain both vector and bitmap graphics.

Read more: Windows Metafile - Wikipedia

• Advanced Streaming Format - The container format that is used to house WMA and WMV data.

Read more: Advanced Systems Format - Wikipedia

QuickTime, QT, MOV

QuickTime is a multimedia framework developed by Apple. It can handle many types of media (video, audio, images).

There are several different audio, image and video codecs available in the software. The video quality is normally very high.

Read more: Quicktime - Wikipedia

VOB

Video Object. VOB is a container format used on DVD-disks and is based on the MPEG2 program stream format. All players which can play MPEG2 files should be able to play VOB files. Yo may have to rename the files to .mpg.

Read more: VOB - Wikipedia

MPEG 1

Video standard with quality comparable to VHS.

Read more: MPEG-1 - Wikipedia

MPEG 2

Video standard with high quality at higher bit rates. Widely used for DVD-Video and digital television broadcasts.

Read more: MPEG-2 - Wikipedia

MPEG 4, H.264

Collection of video standards with high quality at medium to low bit rates. Widely used for all kinds of high quality computer video graphics.

Read more: MPEG-4 - Wikipedia

JPEG, M-JPEG

• JPEG - The most common format for digital images. The file sizes are usually smaller than most other formats (depending on the image content).
• M-JPEG - Moving JPEG. Video format where all the individual frames are compressed with JPEG.

JPEG 2000

Conceived as a modern replacement of JPEG. But is not so common so far.

Read more: JPEG 2000 - Wikipedia

PNG

Portable Network Graphics. A lossless bitmap format that is very common on the Internet. It was created as a free (and better) replacement for GIF. PNG support 32 bit graphics (with alpha channel).

Read more: PNG - Wikipedia

GIF

Graphics Interchange Format. An older lossless bitmap format. Limited to 8 bit graphics.

Read more: GIF - Wikipedia

BMP

Windows and OS/2 file format used for lossless bitmap graphics. Supports up to 32 bits per pixel.

Read more: BMP - Wikipedia

PSD

The native file format for Photoshop.

TGA / Targa

Older bitmap graphics format. Supports 32 bit graphics.

Read more: TGA - Wikipedia

TIFF

Tagged Image File Format. Common bitmap format for lossless storing of graphics and photographs. Supports 32 bit graphics.

Read more: TIFF - Wikipedia

WAV

Lossless Microsoft audio file format. Mainly used for short sound effects and high quality audio recordings.

Read more: WAV - Wikipedia

Dise-specific terms

Channel

A container for Dise Movies that Dise Replay can display simultaneously with, but independently from, other channels.

Channels may be layered on top of each other and scheduled to play only in certain conditions.

Read more: Channels,_Setup_and_usage_of

Dependencies

A listing of where to find files required for playback of a Dise Movie.

The file extension for a dependencies file is .dependencies.

Destination

A distribution point which may be located on an FTP server or a shared network folder. A destination is defined in Dise Bridge.

It acts as a source of data for one or more player computers.

Read more: Destinations,_working_with

Dise Movie

A top-level container which consists of one or more Dise Scenes.

The file extension for a Dise Movie is .disemovie or .evs.

Read more: Movies,_working_with

Dise Preset

A collection of objects with preserved properties, saved to file. This may later be drag-and-dropped onto the Edit area to insert a new instance.

The file extension for presets is .scenecomponents or .disepreset.

Read more: Working_with_Presets

Dise Scene

Contains information about objects' properties and times. Scenes may be ordered, scheduled and imported/exported.

The file extension for exported scenes is .dsc or .disescene.

Read more: Scenes,_working_with

Display Scheme

A description of how Dise Replay should display content. It includes definitions of channels, scheduling, and multi-screen setup.

The file extension for display schemes is .displayscheme.

Movements

An object may have single or multiple movements, that may be saved to a file and later drag-and-dropped onto other objects.

The file extension for preset movements is .disemoves.

Read more: Movements

Path

An object may follow a path (a sequence of points), that may be saved to a file and later drag-and-dropped onto other objects.

The file extension for preset paths is .disepath.

Read more: Paths, working with

Remote Control

A means to control the behaviour of Dise products by sending network messages.

Read more: Remote Control

Resources

Some of the more complex content in Dise requires its own engines to run in the background so that playback will be as smooth as possible. Content that is processed by these engines is called resources and there are currently four types: Video, Image, Web and Flash.

Read more: Resource_and_File_information

Synchronization

Feature that makes sure no player in a distributed system falls behind. Achieved by relaying network messages from an appointed master player to other players.

Read more: Dise NoBorders

Transition

A progression between sections during playback.

The file extension for transitions is .disetransition.

Read more: Transitions, working with