On-Campus Communication Enhanced With Digital Signage

The rapid distribution of information to students and faculty has become an important issue for colleges and universities looking to develop a unified on-campus communications strategy. Several factors have converged to make rapid communications a high priority for campuses. Recent headlines have made on-campus security a big issue. Students have an increased expectation that their on-campus environment will be an extension of their increasingly digital lifestyle. School administrators are becoming more aware of the need to adopt green technologies into their facilities.

Universities are embracing digital signage because it provides a cost-efficient and highly effective method for distributing information that solves the issues of speed, readiness, and reduction of paper. One of the advantages of deploying a digital signage network is the ability to provide a more consistent process for delivering information, even across great distances, because the screens are networked.

Digital signage on-campus delivers instant information by using the power of multimedia that includes audio, video, and RSS feeds. Information on events, course changes, cancellations, room changes, student activities, sports, weather, and alert notification is delivered campus-wide in a matter of minutes. A networked system of displays provides campuses with the immediacy of communications to reach students and faculty across all points of contact.

Security

Parents and students expect a safe, secure environment as part of their campus experience. A digital signage network is an important part of an effective on-campus alert notification system. When combined with other alert methods, such as sirens, mobile phone notification such as e2campus, and Rave Alert, digital signage provides school administrators with the capability to reach students and faculty for weather-related emergencies and other times of crisis. A digital signage network can also be integrated into existing safety systems such as fire alarms.

Creating and Managing Content

Behind every digital signage network are software applications that enable users to create and manage content. There are a wide array of applications on the market that facilitate the process of creating, scheduling, publishing, and monitoring content. Most digital signage software falls into one of three platforms: PC-based, Web-based, and Software-as-a Service (SaaS)-based applications. Each offers advantages depending on the requirements. Web-based platforms enable more users to contribute content using a standard Web browser; however, this method of digital signage management tends to be less powerful and feature rich than PC-based applications. An alternative is the SaaS-based model where the application is accessed from a hosted service provider. The advantage of the SaaS model is that the upfront costs for software and support are reduced while removing the need to maintain and upgrade the application.

Let’s look at some examples of how digital signage has been deployed on campus.

Villanova University

Villanova University is the oldest and largest Catholic university in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with more than 6,300 undergraduates enrolled in a wide variety of degree programs, has a reputation for high-tech leadership, earning recognition from PC Magazine and Princeton Review as one of the top 20 “Most Wired Colleges in the Nation.” It was an early adopter of digital signage by installing an LCD display in its business school’s Applied Finance Lab.

Villanova recently deployed a campus-wide information system using a SaaS-based solution from Rise Vision. The Rise Display Network is a Web-based, Software-as-a-Service content management system. Subscriptions include access to live content such as news headlines, local weather, sports scores, and stock ticker updates. Users incorporate this live content with their own information, including movies, graphics and text, and publish it directly to their network of digital signs.

The Rise Vision system is currently running on 15 LCD screens campus-wide with plans to add another 30 screens in the near future. The Rise Display Network shows information about campus events and schedules, and can be used for emergency notifications.

“We wanted to introduce a better method for disseminating information throughout the University,” says Michael Hoffberg, digital signage project manager for Villanova’s University Information Technologies, strategic planning department. “The Rise Display Network offers us an elegant, eye-catching, and affordable way to convey up-to-date information—events, special activities, schedules, and emergency notifications– to students, staff and faculty.”

The Rise Display Network that gives university administrators complete control over the composition and timing of all content. Distributing information via digital signage enables the university to limit paper postings, and is intended to cut down on the volume of emails sent to the Villanova community. “There’s a big payoff,” says Hoffberg. “It’s an effective, low-maintenance system that does not impact heavily on our limited staffing resources.”

Columbus Technical College

The Columbus Technical College campus sits on 13.6 acres in Columbus, Georgia. In 2008, the college provided training assistance to 407 companies and almost 12,000 people received training services from the college in the last year.

Columbus Technical selected a Web-based system from DT Research. The signs are placed at major junctions throughout the campus. The systems are used to broadcast live news feeds along with weather and other general college announcements to students and faculty throughout the day. The WebDT system also has a feature called UrgentCast that allows the college to immediately broadcast emergency information across the campus.

“We were impressed with the different types of media that the WebDT Signage System supports,” said Chris Graves, audio visual specialist at Columbus Technical College. “With the WebDT system’s zoning capability, we’re able to push different types of content into each zone. We also found the UrgentCast feature to be particularly valuable. We can quickly override content on all screens to broadcast alerts across campus in cases of emergencies.”

“It has become increasingly essential for colleges today to find a way to quickly distribute information to the entire student body—especially in cases of emergencies,” said Daw Tsai, president of DT Research. “We are pleased to be working with such forward-thinking institutions and glad that the WebDT Signage System can provide an efficient communications tool to meet the needs of these universities.”

There is no data available to estimate the exact size of the education market for digital signage, however, according to research conducted by Compass Intelligence, the U.S. education market (K-12 and higher education) will spend roughly $56.2 billion on information technology and products by 2012. 


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