Outdoor Digital Signage – Providing Information around Campus

One sector that has started implementing outdoor digital signage is education, with an increasing amount of screens deployed around college and university campuses. Outdoor screens provide some unique benefits to college campuses and provide a method of communication unrivalled by other forms of messaging.

The need for an effective communication system is essential for the modern further or higher education premises. Because of the large area of these locations, which quite often are spread across different locations around a town or city, it is difficult to provide immediate information across all sites and locations. Noticeboards and other traditional media require manual noticing, having people to go around the entire site pasting up the information. This can take hours or even days, delaying the dissemination of crucial information getting to students, staff and visitors.

Another problem with communication around campuses is the amount of people and the infrequency that they arrive. Students and staff start lectures and varying times, which means that people are continuously arriving throughout the day. Any audible messaging system, such as a public address system, would need, therefore, to operate throughout the day, causing noise nuisance and would obviously be impractical.

Of course, modern technology such as email and mobile phone text messaging are common in higher education locations, but these forms of communication rely on people accessing their email, or carrying their phone at all times. It is also impractical for a college of university to have everybody’s phone or email details to hand, and impossible when you consider visitors and new starters who may need access to the information.

Emergencies are another reason why colleges and universities are using outdoor digital signage. Several high-profile incidents on campuses in recent years have highlighted the need for an outdoor messaging system that prevents students from walking into danger or an emergency.

Outdoor digital signage addresses all these problems for communication around colleges and universities. Bright, noticeable medium, outdoor screens have the ability to provide content that everybody arriving on site can see. For large areas, a college of university can upload messages centrally. The screens across all areas can then display the information at the same time, with no delays in getting the information across campus.

Crucially, in emergencies, outdoor digital signage enables the instant uploading and dissemination of important information, providing visual warnings of incidents that warn people arriving and prevent them from stumbling into an emergency situation.