Educational Institutions
Today's media-savvy youth respond well to a medium where the message is projected and amplified
on a larger scale. So using digital signage in the educational environment is a bit of a
no-brainer. This is true if you're charged with implementing technology to enable better
campus-wide communications, part of a team tasked with recruiting the best and brightest, or
looking for additional revenue to underwrite your educational expenses. And, of course, digital
signage can play an important role in the mission of K—12 and higher-ed institutions: to
educate.
Use digital signage to:
• Promote events on college campuses.
Install large LCD or plasma screens around campus to get the word out about upcoming concerts,
sporting events, visiting speakers, and the like. Mount screens anywhere students frequent:
dining halls, dorm lobbies, quads, student unions, and gyms. More eye-catching than posters
taped on walls, digital signage enables campus groups and staff to promote an event without
it getting lost in the flurry of flyers tacked on bulletin boards.
• Disseminate important up-to-date information.
Colleges spend a lot printing class schedule guides, only to deal with mass confusion when
classes printed in the guides are cancelled or rescheduled. E-mail has helped alleviate the
headaches, but dynamic message boards, updated in real-time, help reach students who aren't
near their computer, like when they're out and about buying books and supplies on registration
day.
• Broadcast emergency alerts and instructions.
Emergency messaging systems are essential in educational institutions. The same digital signage
you use to broadcast everyday info can also be used to alert students and staff to inclement
weather, lockdowns, or other emergencies. Sending prerecorded evacuation instructions or other
messages to digital signs campuswide can even be a virtually automated procedure, activated by
the entering of a code into a phone by campus police or other authorized personnel. This way,
there's no scrambling to get instructions on the air when panic ensues.
• Gain easy advertising revenue.
It's no secret that your students are a key advertising demographic. Digital signage can be a
tool for you to subsidize academic and operational expenses just by allowing advertisers to
stream content on your screens. Mix paid content with your own on digital signage in student
hubs, bookstores, and on-campus eateries, as well as stadiums and other sporting venues. In
some cases, advertisers are even willing to underwrite the cost of the digital signage
equipment itself.
• Aid your instructional efforts.
Large, Hi-Def panels communicate concepts to students in lecture halls more clearly than
blackboards and older, projector-based solutions. They also serve video-extension and
distance-learning setups well. Broadcast a lecture held in one classroom to a large screen in
another room—all while using a building's existing copper cabling. Or set up an IP-based
digital signage system to stream a lecture at the main campus to a branch campus over the Web.
For interactivity, digital whiteboarding tools can be used by students to upload work they've
done on a laptop to the screen seen by all. Students benefit from the convenience and you
benefit from the wise use of your resources.
• Centralize the distribution and production of content.
Schools painstakingly enact policies to ensure an accurate and consistent presentation of
graphical and editorial elements (official logos, wordmarks, and color scheme, for example) to
both internal and external audiences. Help others comply with these policies by centralizing
the point of distribution and becoming a clearinghouse for all multimedia content. With a
digital signage system administered from a single console, you can effectively become the
gatekeeper for all school-related content. If you want to stream media stored on multiple
servers, use a digital signage system that integrates easily with an existing LAN. Some of
the newer digital signage players do this particularly well, and even come bundled with
templates and other design tools, so you can create professional-looking presentations without
the need for dedicated designers.
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Read our Digital Signage in Education white paper.