Digital Signage Deepens Security Awareness at West Virginia University

West Virginia University (WVU) has been using digital signage since 2007. Although the university began looking into the technology before the Virginia tech shooting that same year, the incident kicked the process into high gear.

“The Virginia Tech massacre showed the importance of being able to do broad emergency notifications across our campuses,” recalls Spencer W. Graham, II, manager of Operations for Information Stations at WVU. “Not just for us, but I’m sure, for all universities, colleges, and K-12 schools.”

Graham is pictured here.

WVU began their digital signage journey with just 10 displays. Since 2007, the school has expanded its use of digital signage. The displays aren’t used solely for emergency communication, but as an alternative to traditional posters and paper-based campus announcements.

“As of early 2013, we have deployed nearly 120 signs, all ready to display emergency alerts. Plus we have several multi-display video walls, and are continuing to work on adding new features, like wayfinding, and social media integration,” says Graham.

Digital displays range in size, vendor and model. You can find displays anywhere from 12 inches to 46 inches hanging near reception desks, in the cafeteria, dorms, the campus transit station and in the WVU Colieseum basketball arena. The exact size, vendor and model depend on how the signs are deployed and where they are placed.

The displays are connected to media players — small computers housed in secure data closets at multiple locations. The players receive content from WVU’s central digital signage content management system (DS CMS) via the campus LAN, and push the content to displays, through a broadcaster device that converts the computer video streams into TV-like signals that the displays can be tuned to receive.

Majority of the time, the digital signage at WVU is used for everyday communication and campus announcements like approaching deadlines, upcoming events or safety tips. The university also uses a lot of video which requires some special specifications for its media players.

“We use a lot of video, so our players are configured with a powerful video card and a lot of RAM,” says Graham. “Each player gets a small 16-port ‘broadcaster’ box next to it. Each port can connect to a CAT5 run that in turn would go to a digital signage display. Some buildings may have 6 to 8 signs, and we’re prepared in case we need to accommodate more.”

Content for the digital signage is created using an X20 media platform. In terms of content management and funding, the digital signage is payed for by individual departments or buildings on the WVU campus. However, Graham and his staff select which products can be used with the help of integrators and resellers. Digital deployment in common areas is purchased by the school administration.

WVU administration and police are responsible for determining when an alert needs to be issued. Alerts are broken into two categories: Emergency and Weather. Emergency is indicated with a red screen and weather is indicated with a green screen. Alerts are triggered through a text message using the SMS alert service e2campus.

“When X2OMedia Xpresenter gets the alert through its RSS feed, it switches all the digital signs into emergency notification mode,” says Graham. “This includes overriding the current info-loop with the alert message, along with having one of the speakers associated with the sign issue an audio alert to get people to look at the digital sign.”

The university has also taken precautions to ensure digital signage communication does not go down permanently if campus loses power.

“We have a fail-over server, located on a separate campus, on a different power grid and a different network switch,” notes Graham. “So if our main digital signage CMS server has a problem, the other server takes over within a few minutes, to maintain full Emergency Messaging capability.”

Once the alert situation has been taken care of, the WVU Police Department uses the alert notification system to issue a follow-up message — essentially an ‘all clear’ message — and the digital signage content management system then returns to its regular loops of info.

According to Graham, there is no direct ROI calculation for digital signage. However, he still considers the technology a savvy investment.

“For the daily feeds, there’s no doubt that using digital signage is both less expensive and more responsive than physical bulletin boards or signs,” Graham says. “A given display recoups its investment within the equivalent of what would otherwise have been three or four printed-sign changes… and the digital content can be updated within seconds to minutes, versus hours to days or even weeks to plan, print and distribute hardcopy signage.”

Graham also offers several tips for colleges and universities considering their own venture into digital signage.

“You need to do your homework, identify the best software. Consider your budget, and your commitment. Identify major scenarios, prepare templates. Do periodic testing, not just to make sure everything is working, but also because seeing these tests re-assures people that there is an alert system in place. And don’t over-issue alerts.