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Digital Signage

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4/1/2007

By Matt Villano

IS DIGITAL SIGNAGE FOR YOUR SCHOOL?

The Community College of Southern Nevada turned to digital signage when communicating events and information via e-mail proved ineffective. Because so many of the college’s students commute and change residences (and ISPs), there was no way for the school to make sure it had correct e-mail addresses, and critical communications went undelivered until the college installed 60 digital signage displays across campus.With 60 message rotations a day, students never miss updates and can schedule around events.

Their solution? A mix of digital signage displays from Rise Vision. The school now boasts a 10-foot LED ticker that displays financial market activity, as well as four 40-inch LCD displays that roll “slideshows” of information in a variety of forms. Chittenden says that one slide might display the biggest stock gainers for the day, while the next will show the biggest losers, and others will graph activity in various markets around the world. Of course, these systems also occasionally display campus news, giving students a mix of both types of information— campus and market.

“The design on each screen is customized to our needs, and we have the ability to edit our announcements area via the web,” says Chittenden. Even better news, he adds: “Everyone stops to read the ticker display.”

Digital Signage for Competitive Edge

At some institutions of higher learning, electronic displays are being used as much for their effectiveness as institutional marketing tools, as for their educational benefits. Take the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri- Kansas City. When the decision was made to install four large NEC LCD screens on campus, school administrators had them mounted not inside classrooms, but in a highly visible student commons area where both students and visitors can easily see them. The purpose: simply to show off the technology.

AT UMKC, digital signage 'glitz and pizazz' is sponsored by a powerhouse banking corporation.

Lanny Solomon, the school’s associate dean for academic affairs, says the university wanted to put such mediarich screens in a public area to send the message that it is tied into the latest technologies and utilizes contemporary communication media. With this in mind, UMKC hired Rise Vision to set up the displays. Today, the screens show a mix of school announcements, business facts, financial data, alumni spotlights, general news, even live TV. Solomon says the displays have added a certain “wow” factor that has excited students and alumni alike.