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Digital Signage and the College Campus
By Jeff Porter, Porter Digital Signage Consulting
By Jeff Porter, Porter Digital Signage Consulting
The College Campus has been a long favorite venue to AV and
IT digital signage integrators for many years, but it seems that the adoption
rate of digital signage at universities saw a dramatic increase in interest
after the tragic shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA in
April of 2007. Digital signage went from
a “nice to have” to a “must have” for campus wide emergency notifications. Of course, having lower cost and easier to
use hardware and software systems to support a school network has also helped
make the deployment more affordable and easier to manage. Let’s take a look at some of the uses of
digital signage on the college campus today.
We’ll also take a look at the hardware and software systems, dive into a
cast study and stare into the crystal ball of the future.
Campus wide emergency notifications became the driving use
case, but the other 99.44% of the time, the network can be used to advise the
students and faculty of events that are happening on campus. Early in the year, the screens can tell new
students about activities and clubs or other items of interest to get new
students oriented to campus. Perhaps
there’s a special guest lecture happening in a particular school auditorium, or
a concert happening next month at the performing arts center with new ticket
availability. Notices on the screens can
tell students how to find out more information about job placement, available
internships, ride sharing programs, or notices from the health center to get
flu shots. And who can forget the campus
bookstore? Retail is a natural for
digital signage, especially at a high tech campus. The list goes on and on.
At the football stadium or basketball arena, digital signage
can be used to promote tickets for upcoming games, provide wayfinding for
visitors, digital menu boards at the concessions stands and even connect with
visiting alumni who might be returning for Homecoming with a schedule of
events. And for live events, digital
signage systems are often used to control the jumbotrons for the “big game”. ANC is one of the leading companies in this
space. (http://learfieldsports.com/anc-sports-enterprises-llc/)
In each school of the university, there are usually special
events and announcements that have traditionally be put on bulletin boards, but
now can be put on the digital signs in those specific schools. It may even contain a “Did you know?” for the
school or perhaps “Meet the new Faculty”.
Having a digital signage network on campus can easily be used for
wayfinding, which can be a huge benefit to prospective students and parents to
make sure they get to the right room in the right building at the right time
for their campus tour.
In the dormitories, a digital signage network can be used to
communicate social events happening and even what’s on the menu in the
cafeteria today. And in the cafeteria,
digital signage can be used by the food service team for digital menu
boards.
But if there is a campus wide emergency, every digital sign,
no matter where they are, or what they are used for, can be used to communicate
to everyone in a very efficient and effective manner, essential information to
ensure everyone’s safety.
Where do I start?
When designing a digital signage network for a university
campus, it is critical to think about “who is going to manage the
content”. Answering that question will
help you pick your software platform first.
For most people, that means picking a software platform that is super
easy to use with little to no end user training required. Having a web based GUI to manage the content
is almost a requirement, so you don’t have to “install” any software on your
user’s systems. Making sure that every
stake holder in each school or organization can contribute content easily to
the network will mean that the content on the screen will be relevant and up to
date. There is nothing worse than out of
date content on a digital signage network to convince people that it’s just not
worth the effort and expenses to run (let alone expand) the network. Not everyone contributing content will be a
graphic artist, so perhaps having a selection of pre-designed templates will be
important. And it is also important to
allow different users to have different roles and responsibilities to manage
different screens. Some software vendors
allow you to host the Content Management server yourself, versus having it “in
the cloud”. If you’ve got your IT
department involved, then setting up a server is no problem. But if not, a vendor hosted cloud based
offering can let you focus on content, and not the technical bits and pieces. Of course, that’s mostly on the software
side. What about the hardware?
Many of the top screen manufacturer’s today, such as Samsung
and LG, are building in digital signage players into their commercial
screens. I should probably point out
here that using consumer screens from your local Best Buy or Walmart might not
be the best investment. Those “TV’s” are
not meant for 7x24 operation and will potentially fail early if used in that
manner. Spending a little more money now
to make sure you have a commercial grade screens designed for 7x24 operation
will pay off in the long run, with a side benefit of having the “player” built
right in (and not a separate box).
More traditional monitors without built in players can also
work nicely however and may give you a wider choice of software platforms. Outboard digital signage players have gotten
a lot smaller and less expensive these days.
Consider the family of NUCs from Intel, about the size of a paperback
book. They are low cost economical
Windows based PCs that most software companies support. I might suggest getting a more industrially
built NUC from the folks at Seneca Data (http://www.senecadata.com) such as their HDn product, which includes a
built in power supply (instead of a separate AC adaptor) plus an RS232
connection to remotely turn the screen on and off. If you do choose a Windows based PC, be sure
to ask for Windows Embedded OS instead of a stock desktop Windows OS. Windows Embedded has been specifically
designed for robust and remotely managed operation, since no one wants to see
error messages or click OK on a digital signage screen…ever!
Android devices are becoming more powerful and more popular
as well as digital signage players.
Coming in at about half the price of a NUC, these second generation quad
core Android players can do a lot. One
of my favorites is from IAdea since they support a wide variety of software
platforms. (http://www.iadea.com) Of course, the fine folks at Intel are not
taking this lying down. Their latest
“Intel Compute stick” is only slightly larger than a Chromecast dongle. Just plug this fully featured Windows
compatible device into an available HDMI port, connect up to the Wi-Fi, and
away you go! http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html
Case Study: The
University of Illinois
Thomas Kunka, Senior Applications Specialist at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is responsible for one of the
country’s largest and most sophisticated digital signage networks on a
university campus. With 22 different organizational
units across campus, one of the major challenges Kunka had early on was to
create a system that would work for everyone.
His background and experience in higher education IT, AV systems and Web
Design made him the perfect choice at UofI to understand and advocate the
diverse signage needs and then architect system that can a single system that
can scale and adapt to meet the needs of the largest and smallest of
networks. Currently the smallest is three
signs in the Graduate College. The largest (and if taken by itself larger than
many campus-wide networks) consists of over 100 screens (and at least 2 video
walls) in the College of Engineering. Within the College of Engineering
network, 69 of those located in the state of the art Electrical and Computer
Engineering Building). Total, the University of Illinois has a network of over
300 digital signs on the Urbana-Champaign campus alone and there are more in
the pipeline.
Illinois has long been in the forefront of technology
innovations and digital signage would not be here today if it were not for the
inventions and contributions by the faculty and staff at the University of
Illinois. Nobel prize winning alumnus John
Bardeen co-invented the first semiconductor in 1947. A single transistor started a whole new generation
of modern electronic devices. The ILLIAC
was the first computer owned by an academic institution in 1952. Jack Kirby of Texas Instruments fame invented
the first integrated circuit in 1958.
The first plasma screen was invented at the University of Illinois
(monochrome orange by the way!) in 1964 by Don Bitzer, Gene Slottow and Robert
Willson. The first LED was developed by
Nick Holonyak, Jr. at Illinois in 1962. And
fast forwarding through many other inventions , Marc Andreessen pioneered the
first widely deployed web browser (Mosaic) at Illinois in 1993. Whew!
That’s quite a legacy.
One year ago this month, the University of Illinois
dedicated a new state of the art Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
building on campus with digital signage having a prominent position in the new
building. With 37 interactive touch
screen room signs (with custom aluminum enclosures built by the department
themselves) and another 30 other large screen monitors throughout the building,
the new ECE building is digital signage done right. “The campus gets it,” says Kunka,
“It isn’t about the technology, it’s about communication and innovation.” From
wayfinding, to room signage, to menu boards or kiosks, platform can do it all.
Of course, none of this comes without a price. You still have to buy and install the
hardware, pay for the software licenses, host the server, provide user support,
and manage new deployments. Illinois
uses a cost recovery model to share costs, making it less expensive to operate
than if each school would run their own network. “The notion of digital signage as an IT
service is predicated on lowering costs, lowering barriers, adding value and
looking strategically at the bigger picture. The better we do these things, the
better will be able to support the mission of the institution - now and in the future.”
Where can I find out
more?
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to
advance higher education through the use of information technology. Many university digital signage
administrators share information and best practices with a listserv that they
run.
Check it out here: http://listserv.educause.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=digitalsignage
The Digital Signage Federation supports “end user networking
circles” on their website, with higher education, being one of the special
interest groups. Check it out here: http://digitalsignagefederation.org/End-User-Networking-Circles
Many digital signage software companies have published case
studies on digital signage in education.
Here are just a few to check out:
CastNET: http://castnet.com/markets/education
Four Winds Interactive: http://www.fourwindsinteractive.com/industries/colleges-universities/
Tightrope Media Systems:
http://trms.com/newsroom?category%5B%5D=case_study_education&search=
Onsign.TV: https://onsign.tv/en/case-school-education/
Capital Networks: http://www.capitalnetworks.com/clients/case-study/audience-for-education
Conclusion
So what’s next? Most
of the “owners” of the digital signage networks on college campuses are people
in the IT department. And many times,
the IT guys are not graphic artists nor are they experts in content
production. Content production on the
campus is generally left to each school to “figure out on their own”. Having been in the business for over 20
years, I can still unequivocally say “Content is King”. Without good content, your digital signage
network will fail. And with the growing
number of screens in different operational units on campus, the need for well
designed content for digital signage is and will continue to be ever
increasing. So I see an opportunity for a new content services department in
the university that specializes in content production and content
management. I do realize that IT folks
and Creative types don’t normally “hang out” together, but I’m pretty sure
digital signage can bridge that culture gap to produce some really nice results
and I for one can’t wait to see the results.
About the Author
Jeff Porter is one of the industry’s leading experts in
digital signage and is the founder of Porter Digital Signage Consulting. From business planning, to sales and
marketing and technology choices, Porter has been helping his clients get all
the moving parts of digital signage in alignment for success. Prior to heading his own consulting business,
Mr. Porter was employed by Scala, Commodore, Bell Labs and Eastman Kodak. Mr. Porter holds a BSEE from Purdue
University and a MS from the University of Illinois. He can be contacted at jeff@porterdigitalsignage.com or
by phone 610-202-7676. For additional
articles of interest on digital signage, check out http://porterdigitalsignage.com/Blog.html
