Warum Bildschirme wirken · Field guide
Glossary
The terms from practice, briefly explained.
- Candela per square metre (cd/m²)
- A measure of a screen's luminance. A television sits at 300 to 500, a shop-window display at 2500 to 4000. Save money in the window and you will see nothing in summer.
- CMS
- Content management system: the software used to manage media, playlists, schedules and screen groups. It determines how much work the installation creates day to day.
- DOOH
- Digital out of home: digital advertising beyond your own four walls, booked on third-party surfaces – at the station, in the shopping centre, at the gym.
- Contact
- A person who sees an advertising surface at least once within a given period. The basis of all media planning, not to be confused with the number of people passing by.
- Loop
- The recurring run-through of all the slides and videos in a playlist. Its length determines how often the same message appears.
- Pixel pitch
- The distance between two light points on an LED wall, in millimetres. The smaller the figure, the closer the viewer may stand.
- PoE
- Power over Ethernet: power and data over the same network cable. Saves a second supply line in awkward locations.
- Proof of play
- A log recording which content ran when and on which screen. The basis for billing on booked surfaces and a control instrument on your own network.
- Ingress protection (IP)
- A two-digit rating for protection against foreign bodies and water, for example IP65 for dust-tight and protected against water jets. Decisive outdoors.
- Signage player
- The device that plays the content. Either built into the display as a system on chip, or as a separate computer behind the screen.
- SoC
- System on chip: processor, memory and playback software built straight into the display. Fewer cables, fewer points of failure, but limited processing power.
- Dwell time
- How long a single slide stays on screen before the next one appears. Too short feels frantic, too long turns into wallpaper.
- VESA
- The standardised mounting hole pattern on the back of a display, given in millimetres. It determines which bracket fits.
- Zone
- An area within a layout that shows its own content – for example a main image, a ticker and a weather corner side by side.
- 16/7 and 24/7
- States how many hours a day a display is rated for continuous operation. Run a 16/7 unit around the clock and you lose the warranty.