This page explains Setups and Provisioning in more detail and is highly recommended reading.
Generally speaking, the process of setting up a player involves applying a Setup to that player. The Setup includes various player settings including the critical Publishing Mode which defines the method with which content will be delivered to the player. The Setup also includes a Player App which, at a minimum, must contain an autorun.brs file (the .brs extension denotes a BrightScript file) which instructs the player what to do upon startup.
Applying a Setup to a player using BSN.cloud (via Admin > Provision using BrightAuthor:connected, bsn.cloud, or control.bsn.cloud) is known as provisioning. Since most situations involve using BSN.cloud to apply Setups to players, the term provisioning is often used to refer to the process of setting up a player.
Publishing presentation content is separate from provisioning, but these steps can be combined. For example, you can deliver the player app with the content as a single package via an autorun.zip file.
Activate
A QR code appears on the connected display when a player is first powered up. This code can be used to provision the player and automatically apply a default Setup:
If the player is using bsn.Control, it will be configured for DHCP with Local Network publishing and given a default name.
If the player is using bsn.Content, it will be configured for DHCP with BSN.cloud publishing and given a default name.
If you do not want to use the default Setup, first create a Setup to apply to your player. If you use the QR code to set up your players and then try to change to a different Setup type, you will have to go through the re-provisioning process. See this page for more information about that process, and see Activate for more details about player activation.
If a player has already been provisioned (that is, it already has a Setup assigned to it), the QR code will not be displayed.