Signage network gets messages to IU students

To ease the flow of information to a large audience on campus, IU launched a 30-channel digital signage network last spring, with a variety of LCD monitors installed around campus.

This semester, the network is functional and the monitors can be seen in all residence halls, various cafeterias and throughout the Indiana Memorial Union. While the screens worked in the spring, networks now allow marketing directors for RPS and the IMU to control the content.

The monitors were placed strategically, said Pamela Sprong, a marketing director for Residential Programs and Services.

“We have 24 signs located across the residence halls, on-campus apartments and our administration building,” Sprong said. “They are in heavy traffic areas like lobbies.”

The network gives each monitor its own channel, allowing each screen to have different messages.

Auxiliary Information Technology oversaw installation of the project and manages the servers and network that run the screens, said Aaron Sudduth, a senior systems administrator for Auxiliary IT. But the information posted comes from the marketing departments of the IMU and RPS.

“The marketing department in both RPS and the Union can put information into a template and post it on the signs in about three minutes,” Sudduth said. “If they want to put a message out, let’s say during an emergency, they could in about five minutes. And it would look good because it would be on predesigned templates.”

Although Sudduth mentioned an emergency, he said the University has not yet decided to integrate an emergency alert function into the system. The signs are also not available for students to post information, but both are options for the future.

For now, the messages are limited to RPS and RHA activities, information and announcements, Sprong said.

Sudduth said he believes the content has changed dramatically since the spring semester, when the monitors played the same ads continuously.

“We feel that the signs are an effective and fast way to get information in front of hundreds of people,” Sprong said. “We want students to be more aware of the events and activities available to them and to remind them of important RPS-related
deadlines.”