• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My TechDecisions

  • COVID-19 Update
  • Best of Tech Decisions
  • Topics
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Mobility
    • Unified Communications
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Network Security
    • Physical Security
    • Facility
    • Compliance
  • RFP Resources
  • Resources
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Project of the Week
  • Latest News
  • About Us
    SEARCH
Video

The Meaning of Digital Displays

The best digital signage and notification systems are only as good as the motivation and capability that drives their content.

October 8, 2012 TD Staff Leave a Comment

Emergency notification and public address systems at colleges and universities have probably changed more in the last ten years than in the thirty years prior.

During the anthrax scare following 9/11, someone at my small Pennsylvania college with a bad sense of humor and terrible judgment thought it would be funny to mail envelopes full of baking soda to two friends. It didn’t go well: Within hours the student union was shut down, sealed up with plastic and swarming with local and federal law enforcement officials and investigators clad in hazmat suits.

After a few hours, email alerts trickled out and for the next few days continued to irregularly update the college community about the ongoing investigation and the dislocation of most of the school’s core functions – with the mailroom, cafeteria, bookstore and most administration offices housed in the student union, most of us retreated to our rooms and lived a very disjointed life for a few days. And while we did get those sporadic and vague emails from school officials, most of our information was based on conjecture, rumor and word-of-mouth.

Colleges and universities today have a vast array of tools at their disposal to broadcast just about any type of news. Text messages, automated emails and calls to cellphones combined with digital signage displays across campuses in strategic locations can alert faculty, staff and students to unfolding emergencies. Those digital displays can also deliver day-to-day updates on more benign types of campus news – schedules for finals, upcoming events, the results for the school’s sports teams, promotional announcements.

Of course, whether they come by way of a clunky Telnet system from 2001 or an HD digital display in a 2011 dorm lobby, the quality of a school’s notifications depend on the administration’s commitment to sharing information with students and, just as importantly, how well IT administrators maintain such notification systems.

Recent campus tragedies have painfully illustrated the value of swift emergency notification systems.

But the more day-to-day functions of contemporary digital signage have the ability to reach students and create an engaged campus like flyers on bulletin boards never could. Schools that value such qualities must ensure they are willing to make the commitment – and that they have the staff and the capabilities – to diligently maintain such systems lest they become pretty, costly displays of stale information that do no more to engage students than the most active rumor mills.

Postscript: The Internet tells me that said student who mailed those envelopes did a brief prison stint, eventually got a degree from a different college, and today leads a happy, successful life. All’s well that ends well.

Tagged With: Display, Higher Ed

Related Content:

  • Top New Technology Awards ISE 2022 logo 2022 Top New Technology (TNT) Awards Winners Announced…
  • Poly Hybrid Work Technology and Understanding Workstyles Will Help Support Hybrid…
  • Writing Write for Us: Why You Should Write for…
  • Room with multiple computers outsourcing content on videowall to depict Datapath Aetria's connectivity. Datapath Aetria To Provide Direct Support for Videowalls

Free downloadable guide you may like:

  • The State of Digital Signage & Video Wall Technology

    Digital signs and video walls come in a variety of sizes, configurations and pixel pitches, but they share a common purpose: communicating information

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the FREE Tech Decisions eNewsletter

Sign up Today!

Latest Downloads

The State of the IT Department in 2022

The role of the IT professional has shifted from one that supports the business to one that is deserving of a seat at the table when it comes to ma...

Hybrid Work Challenges
The Three Most Common Hybrid Work Challenges Two Years Into the Pandemic

Many of us have been working in a hybrid environment for two years now. Our editors thought this would be a good time to take a look at what’s work...

These 10 IT Certifications Are Critical To An IT Pro’s Success in 2022

Here are 10 cloud, data and security certifications that we identify as critical to an IT professional’s resume in 2022 and beyond, according to a ...

View All Downloads

Would you like your latest project featured on TechDecisions as Project of the Week?

Apply Today!
Sharp Microsoft Collaboration HQ Logo

Learn More About the
Windows Collaboration Display

More from Our Sister Publications

Get the latest news about AV integrators and Security installers from our sister publications:

Commercial IntegratorSecurity Sales

AV-iQ

Footer

TechDecisions

  • Home
  • Welcome to TechDecisions
  • Subscribe to the Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Media Solutions & Advertising
  • Comment Guidelines
  • RSS Feeds
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin

Free Technology Guides

FREE Downloadable resources from TechDecisions provide timely insight into the issues that IT, A/V, and Security end-users, managers, and decision makers are facing in commercial, corporate, education, institutional, and other vertical markets

View all Guides
TD Project of the Week

Get your latest project featured on TechDecisions Project of the Week. Submit your work once and it will be eligible for all upcoming weeks.

Enter Today!

© 2022 Emerald X, LLC. All rights reserved.