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Table Of Contents
Basic DMS Concepts and Vocabulary
Introduction
This chapter is an overview of the different components of the Cisco Digital Media System (DMS).
Basic DMS Concepts and Vocabulary
DMS helps organizations of any size to create, manage and deliver video content (whether live or on-demand) and digital signage content over an IP network to any general or targeted audience. With DMS, you can:
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Communicate with targeted customers, investors, press, and analysts.
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Table 1-1 lists and defines some of the most commonly used DMS terms, abbreviations, and initialisms.
Table 1-1 Concepts and Vocabulary
AAI
Appliance Administration Interface. Text user interface and command shell on every DMS appliance. System administrators use AAI when they set up, configure, or maintain a DMS appliance. (Text user interfaces use ANSI-style escape sequences to control the presentation of text and other shapes on a screen; they differ from command-line interfaces and graphical user interfaces.)
ACNS
Cisco Application and Content Networking System. ACNS software runs on the WAE platform for content distribution and interoperates with DMM to greatly reduce redundant digital media traffic over satellite and terrestrial networks. The streaming media features of ACNS deliver high-quality and long-playing digital videos live and simultaneously to thousands of users and DMPs, or on demand at a later time.
appliance
In the DMS family of products, an appliance is an MCS on which either DMM or Video Portal software is preinstalled. To administer the appliance chassis and configure its low-level behaviors, you use AAI.
application
In DMM-DSM, an application is a named tool that you can use to perform an administrative task, such as sending a particular command (or a particular sequence of commands) to one DMP or to all the DMPs in a DMP group.
bpp
bits per pixel, also known as color depth. Indicates both the number of bits that are required to represent the color of one pixel on a display and the total number of distinct colors that the display is configured to represent. When you use DMPDM, every pixel on the DMP display is 32 bpp and the display can represent a total of 16.7 million distinct colors.
codec
encoder-decoder. Any specific, named method to encode, decode, or transcode digital video files or digital audio files. The quality of an encoded file is determined in part by whether its codec is lossy or lossless, meaning whether it deletes potentially important data to reduce filesize.
container
The container for a video content offering is the "wrapper" that combines metadata, syncronization data, and video data to which a codec has been applied.
digital signage
Digital signage consists of any combination of messages or other kinds of information that people can see or hear, and that a DMP delivers to people. The content might pertain to commerce, popular entertainment, staff training, emergency awareness, combinations of these things, or nearly anything. The people who manage a DMP (or who manage multiple DMPs in a digital signage network) decide what to show or say, and when, and to whom.
DMM
Cisco Digital Media Manager is the collective name to describe the Web-based graphical user interfaces that are preinstalled on DMM appliances:
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DMP
Cisco Digital Media Player 4300G. Compact "set-top box" device hardware that delivers digital signage content to the one DMP display that is directly attached. DMPDM is preinstalled on every DMP.
DMP display
Any television screen or other kind of monitor that is attached directly to a DMP and that shows digital signage content to an audience.
DMP group
In DMM-DSM, a DMP group is an organizational and administrative convenience that helps you to manage any number of DMP devices as quickly and easily as you would manage one DMP. No physical, logical, or topological relationship among the DMPs in a group is assumed unless you organize your DMPs consistently. By registering your DMPs in DMM-DSM and organizing them into groups (by location, display type, or on any other basis), you can act quickly to activate new settings for, or deliver updated content to, multiple devices simultaneously.
DMPDM
Digital Media Player Device Manager. Web-based graphical user interface, served from a DMP, that you use to configure the DMP device during its initial setup or to manage the DMP device in isolation, as an alternative to using the centralized management features in DMM-DSM.
DMS
Cisco Digital Media System is the name of the product family that consists of DMM appliances, Video Portal appliances, DMPs, and all of their associated software components.
encoder
Cisco Digital Media Encoder 1000 or 2000.
MCS
Cisco Media Convergence Server 7825-H2 or 7835-H1 chassis on which DMS software is preinstalled.
metadata
Metadata is a formalized, hierarchical, and logical grammar to describe particular attributes of information, such as its context or purpose. In DMS, you can enter metadata attributes for the video and digital signage content offerings that you create. For example, you might use metadata to track when and where you recorded a particular video stream, who speaks in the video, and to what topics it pertains. When you use metadata, your information becomes searchable and retrievable in new ways.
planes
When you use DMPDM, the attached DMP display represenents video content and HTML content on two separate, virtual planes, each of which has a potential on-screen size of up to 4096 x 4096 pixels. The video content plane is always opaque and behind the HTML content plane, for which you can change amount of transparency. The two planes can overlap and you will see the video content plane through the HTML content pane if both of the following are true:
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playlist
In DMM-DSM, a playlist is an ordered sequence of files that you deliver to all the DMPs in a DMP group or that you show throughout your digital signage network. The workflow that you follow varies according to your requirements.
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program
In DMM-VPM, a program is a virtual container for one or more videos. For example, a program that you name "Sales Commissions" might contain videos that you name "Know Your Customers" and "Know Your Products."
screen zone
See zone.
video
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video part
Video Portal
Cisco Video Portal — Web-based graphical user interface that audiences use to browse, search, and view video content, whether live or on-demand. Video Portal fits easily into your existing IT infrastructure and supports established video formats including Windows Media, Real Player, and Flash. Video Portal features include:
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Video Portal Reports
Cisco Video Portal Reports — Web-based graphical user interface that video content developers use to capture, view, and export Video Portal activity reports.
Video Portal template
A Video Portal template uses a particular codec (such as Sorenson) to encode a video stream, then saves the output in a particular kind of container file (such as a Real Player file). There are four Video Portal templates:
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WAE
Cisco Wide Area Application Engine. The hardware platform from which ACNS software provides application and content services.
zone
A zone in digital signage is a rectangular area on a DMP display where you show any kind of content. For example, a ticker, a banner, an advertisement, and a video might simultaneously occupy four zones on one DMP display. You configure zones in DMM-DSM; DMPDM does not have any features for zone management.
zone template
A zone template is a "skin" that your organization creates and designs to control how different zones look on a DMP display. Cisco provides two zone templates in DMM-DSM, but you can create as many other zone templates as you want.
Cisco Video Portal
The Cisco Video Portal utilizes standard Web technologies to allow you to deliver a compelling live and on-demand video experience to your audiences. Platform-agnostic, the Video Portal fits easily into your organization's existing IT infrastructure and supports established video standards including Windows Media, Real, and Flash.
The interface allows you to conveniently and quickly browse, search, and view content interactively. The product's features provide the following benefits:
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The Video Portal is accessible to end users via a Web browser and is available in three templates:
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Table 1-1 on page 1-2 illustrates the different OS/browser/plugin/codec combinations supported by each Video Portal template. You will need this information in order to publish digital media to the Cisco Video Portal in the appropriate digital formats. Refer to the Cisco Video Portal 3.5 User Guide for more information.
The Video Portal is activated by a web browser and is available in four templates:
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Table 1-2
Supported OS/Browser/Plugin and Codec Combinations
Cisco Digital Media Manager
The Cisco Digital Media Manager is a Web-based, easy-to-use content-management application for organizing and publishing digital media. This tool is designed to help content authors upload, catalog, edit package, and publish all video content to the Cisco Video Portal or other end devices.
The Cisco Digital Media Manager features allow content authors to:
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