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Digital Signage and the College Campus
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:

Scala: http://scala.com/discover/education/

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=

Visix: http://www.visix.com/university-college-digital-signage.html

Navori: https://www.navori.com/digital-signage-solutions/industries/education

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