Paper flyers are out. Digital signage is in. College students have sent the message loud and clear to their campus IT officials: They want information broadcast on-screen—and recent statistics say decision makers are listening.
Digital signs—usually large, flat-screen TVs—were once used exclusively in common campus areas like the student union.
Today, even small colleges are installing digital signs in buildings across campus, and instead of controlling the messages scrolling across these signs from a central location, IT leaders are giving control to department chiefs who can customize each sign with announcements and news items.
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Texas college teams up with digital signage industry
And recent research shows that 2011 could be the year digital signs become a staple in higher education. More than 2,200 academic sites will add digital signage to their campuses this year, according to Northern Sky Research, a market research and consulting firm based in Massachusetts.
About 1,500 campuses added digital signage in 2010, and more than 8,400 digital signage screens were installed on North American educational sites last year. That number is expected to grow beyond 13,000 screens in 2011, according to Northern Sky Research.
Higher-education officials could have even more insight into campus use of digital signage networks this fall, when the Platt Retail Institute (PRI)—a leading researcher of digital communication tools—will study digital signage on up to 20 campuses nationwide after the company’s research showed that 97 percent of college students prefer digital communication to the traditional paper or static signs.
A handful of prominent schools already have announced their participation in the project, including Santa Clara University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Denver.
In a June report sponsored by NEC Display Solutions, PRI highlighted strategies for funding, building, and maintaining digital signs.
Santa Clara, a university with 9,000 students, has 40 digital displays in eight campus buildings, and while some displays are used as welcome signs to visitors or to recognize the campus’s most generous donors, student leaders acknowledge the technology’s communication potential, said Ron Danielson, Santa Clara’s CIO.
“The student government has asked for its own screens, and students seem to see the value of the network versus paper flyers and other forms of notification that have been used in the past,” he said.
Read more about digital signage in higher education…
Texas college teams up with digital signage industry
Avoiding hefty printing costs that have long been a part of university-wide announcements about upcoming events or campus deadlines could be the driving reason digital signage catches on in higher education, according to the report.
The PRI report said “access to students [via digital signage] gives universities the unique ability to develop content with a ‘for us, by us’ mentality, and reduces production costs.”
Travis Ballstadt, digital media coordinator at Iowa State University (ISU), who programs the school’s digital signage displays, said the digital screens aren’t yet considered one-stop shopping for all student announcement needs, but he’s noticed more students and faculty taking a quick look at the screens on their way to class.
“It’s not enormously popular yet, but students are noticing them,” he said. “Our numbers are more on the small side, but they’re going up.”
Signage hasn’t been on campus long enough for students to incorporate the screens as part of their daily routines, Ballstadt said.
“I don’t think it’s become much of a routine for students to look at signage,” he said, adding the technology is much more popular on campus tours. “We find it to be more popular among prospective students … because we’ve placed our screens in tour stop areas, where people gather to wait for the start of a tour group. For that purpose, I think it’s a very valuable tool.”
Digital signage as a campus marketing tool?
The proliferation of digital signage in the commercial sector has proven that a high-quality digital screen can grab the attention of any passerby, higher-education officials said. But college IT leaders hesitate to use the technology for pushing brand names, unless it’s their own campus brand.
Read more about digital signage in higher education…
Texas college teams up with digital signage industry
Western Kentucky University (WKU) uses its signage in 17 buildings to “promote the WKU brand,” Kelly Scott, the university’s digital design web developer for IT, said in the PRI report. Scott added that the technology is ideal for campus calendars, emergency messages, and class schedules, but the school would shy away from on-screen commercial ads.
“When visitors and students walk across campus, they will be provided with relevant information instead of a bombardment of advertisements,” he said.
Some digital signage displays are armed with video analytics programs that use camera-captured images to determine a passerby’s gender, race, and age. The sign, once this information is processed, customizes its on-screen message to appeal to the person.
A middle-aged man, for example, might see a shaving cream ad appear on screen.
Steven Platt, founder of PRI, said while video analytics will help campus IT chiefs better understand how many students and faculty are watching the signage—and for how long—retail will remain the domain of analytics.
“We’re really not finding anyone talking about selling ads” on campus-based signage, Platt said. “For [educators], video analytics is all about testing. … For companies, it’s important to understand message targeting, and if you’re not selling advertising on campus, the value just isn’t there. I don’t see video analytics as having any role today in higher education.”
Ballstadt said ISU technology staffers create the campus’s digital signage content, and talks of expanding digital displays to more buildings haven’t included discussions about the value of video analytics.
“I don’t see it as being something that we’re really willing to invest in,” he said. “It probably isn’t an expense that we’d consider.”
Read more about digital signage in higher education…
Texas college teams up with digital signage industry
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