Streamlining Digital Signage
Academic Technologies
Posted on: October 8, 2023
In today’s fast-paced world, the education sector is continually evolving to meet the demands of the digital age. One significant advancement is the adoption of simplified, low-cost, cloud-based digital signage platforms. These platforms are revolutionizing how institutions communicate, engage with the community, and respond to emergencies. Partnering with UIT–Academic Technologies, the Department of Public Safety, Honors College, College of Liberal Arts, College of Health, and College of Science have embraced this digital transformation opportunity, and recently deployed, or converted over 20 display systems based on this new platform.
UIT-Academic Technologies have taken a pivotal role in this transition, recognizing the immense benefits of a simplified cloud-based digital signage systems. These platforms offer user-friendly content management, enabling faculty and staff to effortlessly, and securely update and customize displays across campuses. This streamlines communication plans, making it easier to share important announcements, event/department information, and academic content.
Furthermore, the integration of OSU Alert emergency notification capabilities into the digital signage system enhances the campus safety plan. With OSU Alert, institutions can swiftly send alerts and updates during emergencies, ensuring that crucial information reaches students, faculty, and staff promptly. This real-time communication capability can be a lifesaver in critical situations, fostering a safer and more prepared campus environment.
“Having the ability to broadcast our alerts to digital signage expands our public safety outreach during incidents. It allows us to reach more students, staff, and visitors in public areas in seconds so they can respond immediately to the emergency.” Mike Bamberger, CEM®, ORCEM, MEP | Emergency Preparedness Manager
Academic units like the Honors College, College of Liberal Arts, College of Health, and College of Science have embraced these technological advancements, recognizing their potential to enhance the learning experience and improve emergency response times.
In conclusion, the shift towards cloud-based digital signage platforms with OSU Alert emergency notifications is a significant step towards modernizing academia. This transition not only simplifies content management but also bolsters campus safety, making it a win-win for academic institutions and their communities. As technology continues to evolve, so too will our educational institutions, ensuring they remain at the forefront of innovation.
Behind the Scenes:
After an evaluation process, we worked with UHDS, specifically Chris White and Evan Poitevint, to adopt Yodeck as a campus wide digital signage system. UHDS had already been using Yodeck internally after their own evaluation, since September 2022.
We support more than 20 players at the moment across the university.
In collaboration with UHDS and Mike Bamberger from DPS, we also have integrated the campus wide OSU Alert emergency alert platform (hosted service by AT&T Rave Guardian) into these devices, allowing us to use these players to bring campus alerts to their displays.
Centralizing the support and deployment of Yodeck has allowed us to identify and manage signage players on campus, bring them into security compliance, and absorb them into the campus alerts system. Yodeck also functions through SSO so we’ve eliminated the need to create separate accounts, empowering users to create, manage, and deploy their content remotely over the network.
The cost of implementation is minimal. It’s approximately $80 for a player and $100/year for a Yodeck subscription. It’s expected that players will be replaced every 3 years. This is in addition, of course, to the cost of an enterprise/commercial level display (approx. $1000-$1200).
Onboarding a new player takes approximately 4 hours of labor. Support after the fact is minimal as users manage their own content, and we’ve engaged with University Relations and Marketing to collaborate with users to create visually appealing and brand conforming content.
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