Reference

DOOH and Digital Signage Glossary

YAXI TV Editorial Team · Updated March 10, 2026

Key terms in digital out-of-home advertising and digital signage, defined in plain language for venues, advertisers, and operators.

Ad Server: Software that receives ad requests from player devices, evaluates available inventory and bids, selects the appropriate creative to deliver, and generates proof-of-play records. YAXI TV operates an ad server as part of its platform.
Bid Floor / Floor Price: The minimum CPM at which a venue's ad slots will accept a winning bid. Bids below the floor price are rejected even if they're the highest bid received. Setting a floor price too high reduces fill rate; setting it too low may result in accepting below-market rates.
CMS (Content Management System): The cloud-based software platform where venue managers upload content, build playlists, set schedules, and manage screen configurations. In the YAXI TV platform, the CMS is the primary interface for day-to-day signage management.
CPM (Cost Per Mille): The price an advertiser pays for one thousand ad impressions. "Mille" is Latin for thousand. DOOH CPMs typically range from $3 to $50+ depending on venue type, market, and demand conditions. Venue revenue is typically calculated as a percentage of the net CPM after platform fees.
Dayparting: Scheduling content or ads to play during specific time windows. In digital signage, dayparting allows venue owners to show breakfast content in the morning and dinner content in the evening. In advertising, it allows campaigns to concentrate delivery during the hours when the target audience is most present.
DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home): Advertising displayed on digital screens in publicly accessible or semi-public commercial locations — outside of the home. DOOH encompasses indoor venue screens (the YAXI TV network), outdoor digital billboards, transit displays, and more.
DSP (Demand-Side Platform): Software used by advertisers or agencies to buy programmatic advertising inventory. DSPs allow buyers to set targeting parameters, bid strategies, creative assignments, and budgets across multiple inventory sources. When DSPs participate in DOOH auctions, they access venue inventory through exchanges like Vistar Media or Google Ad Manager.
Dwell Time: The average time a customer spends at a venue or in front of a screen. High dwell-time environments (gyms, auto service waiting rooms, healthcare offices) are particularly valuable for advertising because they give viewers more time to process a message. Low dwell-time environments (checkout lines, building lobbies) require simpler, faster creative.
Fill Rate: The percentage of configured ad break slots that receive a paying ad, as opposed to house content or entertainment. A 70% fill rate means 70% of slots served a paid ad; 30% served non-paid content. Fill rate depends on market demand, time of day, venue category, and category block settings.
Impression: One display of an ad creative on one screen for its designated duration. In DOOH, one impression is a machine-generated event, logged as a proof-of-play record. Impressions are the primary unit of measurement for DOOH delivery and billing. Note: an impression confirms the ad displayed on the screen, not that any specific person was looking at the screen at that moment.
Media Player: The computing device that runs digital signage software and renders content on a display screen. Player devices connect to screens via HDMI. YAXI TV supports Amazon Fire TV Sticks, Android TV boxes, and smart TVs with built-in Android TV or Google TV.
OOH (Out-of-Home): Advertising displayed outside of the home environment — the broader category that includes both traditional formats (printed billboards, bus shelter posters) and digital formats (DOOH). DOOH is the digital subset of OOH.
Playlist: An ordered sequence of content items (images, videos, entertainment blocks, ad break slots) that a player device loops through continuously. Playlists are the fundamental unit of content scheduling in digital signage.
POP / Proof-of-Play: A machine-generated log record created each time an ad displays on a digital signage screen. Each POP record captures: screen ID, creative ID, campaign ID, timestamp, duration, and venue metadata. POP is the basis for advertiser billing and venue revenue payouts. It confirms display occurred — not viewership.
Programmatic DOOH: The automated buying and selling of DOOH ad impressions using real-time bidding technology. Programmatic DOOH connects DSPs to SSPs through exchanges, enabling advertisers to buy venue screen inventory automatically without direct negotiation with individual screen owners.
Revenue Share: The percentage of net advertising revenue allocated to a venue partner based on verified impressions from their screens. Revenue share percentages vary by platform and partner agreement. Venue partners receive a revenue share from each verified impression rather than a flat fee.
RTB (Real-Time Bidding): The auction mechanism used in programmatic advertising where multiple advertisers bid simultaneously on an available impression in under one second. The highest valid bid above the floor price wins and pays the second-highest bid price (second-price auction). RTB enables dynamic pricing and real-time inventory matching.
SSP (Supply-Side Platform): Software that represents venue advertising inventory to demand sources (DSPs and exchanges). SSPs aggregate available ad slots, generate bid requests, run auctions, and manage creative delivery and reporting. YAXI TV's ad server functions as an SSP for screens in its network.
Venue Category: The classification of a venue by the type of business it is — bar, restaurant, gym, auto service, healthcare, retail, etc. Venue category is a primary targeting dimension in DOOH advertising, because it predicts the audience profile and context of the screen environment.
Waterfall (Ad Priority Waterfall): A prioritized sequence of ad demand sources for filling an ad slot. A typical waterfall: direct-sold campaigns have first priority at guaranteed rates; programmatic open auction fills unsold inventory at market rates; house content fills any remaining unfilled slots. The waterfall ensures maximum revenue from each slot.

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