Glossary

Key digital signage and CF Player® terms – briefly and clearly explained.

The most important terms around media players, synchronisation and digital signage at a glance. Jump straight to a term:

Digital Signage

Digital displays of image, video and web content on screens, video walls or projections – driven by a media player. Typical uses are museums, trade shows and events.

(Industrial) media player

A dedicated playback device for digital signage content. Unlike a PC, an industrial media player is fanless, has no mechanical hard disk and is built for 24/7 continuous operation. The CF Player® are designed exactly for this.

Frame-accurate synchronisation

Multiple players reproduce video frame by frame in lockstep – with no visible offset at the seams. The prerequisite for seamless video walls. The sync guide explains how it works.

PTP (Precision Time Protocol)

A network time protocol (IEEE 1588) that aligns the clocks of multiple players to fractions of a millisecond – the basis of frame-accurate synchronisation. The CF Player®8K additionally uses a hardware-based PTP time base.

Genlock

A method in which the picture output of several devices is "locked" to a common clock source. The CF Player®8K reaches genlock-grade precision via its hardware time base – ideal for large, seamless video walls.

DMX & Art-Net

Control protocols from the event industry. Via DMX or Art-Net the CF Player® controls light, LED, haze or mechanics frame-accurately in sync with the video – from the same timeline.

Video wall

Several displays or projections combined into one large picture surface. For the image to appear seamless, the players must be frame-accurately synchronised.

Soft-edge blending

A technique in which adjacent projections overlap slightly at the edge and are softly blended there – creating one continuous image without a hard seam. Used, among others, by our partner PROmapr® for projection mapping.

Touch project

An interactive application in which visitors navigate content via touchscreen. The touch guide shows how to build, test and deploy such a project.

CMS (signage content management)

A content management system manages content and players centrally via a web dashboard – media library, playlists and distribution to the devices. The CF Player CMS adds data-source and ERP integration for true, data-driven digital signage.

Solid-state player

A player with no moving parts: storage on flash/SSD instead of a hard disk, passive cooling instead of a fan. This makes devices like the CF Player® rugged, silent and fail-safe in continuous operation.

24/7 operation & industrial grade

Digital signage hardware often runs around the clock. Industrial-grade players are built for this: proven components, a wide temperature range and a defined state after a power loss. More on the digital signage overview.

Want to go deeper? See the guides, the feature overview or try the live demo.