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Terminology / Glossary

Here we list the basic terminology used throughout embed signage

Dan Thody avatar
Written by Dan Thody
Updated over a week ago
  • Device - Supported Devices are used to playback media from embed signage. They range from an all-in-one displays / tablets, commercial grade media players or even your smartphone.

  • Layout - A Layout is where you design the content to be displayed on your device(s). Layouts are made up of pages, zones and zone playlist items. Layouts can be designed for specific and multiple resolutions and orientations to display on your devices.

  • Page - A Page is a designated area within a layout which you can add zones of content. Add multiple pages to a layout and insert different content to each page. Pages are great for building complex and changing layouts such as touch layouts.

  • Zone - A Zone is a specified area within a page of a layout that you can add content to. There is no limit to the number of zones you can have in a layout and they can be arranged, resized and repositioned in any order you wish.

  • Channel - A Channel is where you determine what layout is displayed on what device and when. In a channel you can schedule layouts to play at different times of the day and different days of the week. You can also specify certain layouts to play for specific date and time periods (known as overrides). You can also determine which devices will receive the defined content once you have published the channel.

  • Zone Playlist - A zone playlist is a sequence of content to be played under predetermined conditions and/or tags. 

  • Global Playlist - A Global Playlist is a playlist that is created and maintained separately to layouts and zone playlists. Global Playlists can then then be added to multiple zones and layouts meaning users can maintain a single playlist over multiple layouts from a single place.

  • Publish - This is when you push live / send your channel data (layout, schedules etc) to the assigned device(s). Schedules can also be set for a channel to be published on a specific date and/or time.

  • Media - Media are various forms of content than can be uploaded to embed signage and added to a layout. embed signage supports the following media types:
    Images
    (.jpg, .png, .gif)
    Video (.mp4, mpeg, .avi, .mov, .wmv, .webm, .flv)
    Audio (.mp3, .wav, .oga)
    Other (.html, .swf, .otf, .ttf) 

  • Device Controller - The device controller allows users to control device specific actions remotely. Screenshot, reboot, screen on/off, set device time, set on/off timer and set display volume are example of the device controllers functionality.

  • Conditional play - Conditional play allows Layouts, Pages, Zones and Media to only be displayed under specific rules. These rules are applied to conditions depending on time, dates, days, weather conditions, temperature, wind, connectivity, dynamic data query and room booking.

  • Repeat - This can be found in relation to playlist items for playback in embed signage. Once selected, that playlist item will play on repeat, without moving to any other items in the playlist, unless instructed otherwise. 

  • Content Trigger - Content Triggers can be set at either the start or end of a media item or zone to activate a specific action. For example, after a content item has played you may wish to add a content trigger which reveals a new page or piece of content. 

  • Animation - A choice of intro Animations can be set on zones and media. This is how a zone will animate into the layout on load, and how a zone playlist item will animate in and out of the zone. 

  • Dimension - Zone dimensions can be adjusted to any specific size, down to the pixel. It is recommend practise to set the size of the zone to the size of the media it contains.

  • Position - Zones can be positioned by eye-sight or down to the pixel. Adjustments can be made on how far the zone is positioned from the top left corner.

  • Shadow  X / Y - Drop Shadows can be set on zones. They can be adjusted along both the X (horizontal) or Y (vertical) axis to your aesthetic taste. 

  • Global Zone - A global zone is a zone that can be seen across all pages in a layout in the same position. Changes to the global zone will be seen across all pages.

  • Visibility - The visibility of a zone can be set in a layout. By default all zones are visible but they can be switched to hidden.

  • Interactivity - Or Touch events can be added to zones within a layout. These zones can then interacted with using a mouse or a finger on a touch device. Pre-defined actions be be set such as 'show hidden zone xxxx'.

  • Page Timeouts - A timer can be set on any page to perform an action once the timer is depleted. For example, the action may be to show another holding page or even activate the next playlist item in a zone. Useful for touch layouts for reverting back to the home screen or automatically cycling through different page designs of a layout.

  • Large Uploader - Some videos cannot possibly be under 133MB even when fully compressed. This is when you need the large uploader. Available on demand, the large uploaded allows for files up to 5GB to be uploaded to embed signage. Large media files may effect playback.

  • Templates - Create or save pre-made layouts as templates, that can be accessed under the account settings tab. Use saved templates as starting points for new layouts to uphold a consistent image across all of your layouts. Templates can also be uploaded and downloaded from embed signage.

  • External Services - External services, found under account settings, is used to link embed signage with third party systems and API's such as Office 365's calendar for Room Booking.

  • Default Settings - Found under account settings, 'default settings' can be adjusted to modify how Media, Layouts, Devices and Widgets behave when created or uploaded. 

  • Tags - Tags can be applied to media items, channels, devices, layouts and folders to label and easily group items. Tags can be used for: Filtering, Dynamic Media Items, Device Conditional Play and User Groups.

  • Advanced User Groups - Advanced User Groups allows users to segment an account into multiple groups with their own roles and permissions. Rules can then be applied to these groups to include or exclude items within embed signage.

  • Dynamic Data - Dynamic Data is a plugin that allows users to populate content using Excel/ CSV, JSON or XML feeds. It includes auto publishing features as well as FTP/ SFTP synching, perfect for data driven digital signage.

  • Schedule - In the channel settings, schedules can be set to allow layouts to be played under set conditions such as the days of the week and time periods. Multiple schedules can be added to a single Channel. 

  • Override - In the channel settings, overrides can be set to allow layouts to be played under set conditions such as the days of the week and time periods. Overrides take priority even of a schedule is set.

  • Dynamic Media Item (DMI) - The Dynamic Media Item feature allows users to build a playlist of media using tags. Users can then specify a playback order (A-Z, newest to oldest etc) as well as adding custom playback sequence rules.

  • Device Conditional Play (DCP) - Using Device Conditional Play users can tag media items and set up rules on their devices to only show or exclude tagged media. 

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