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Product News
University of Bedfordshire
Implementing Digital Signage as an integral
part of their communication strategy
T
he University of Bedfordshire was established in August 2006 by order of the formats such as Live TV feeds, RSS feeds, animations, still images and audio.
Privy Council and comprises five campuses, three within Luton, one at The University wanted a scalable system, particularly with the new campus
Bedford and one based in Aylesbury. There are 20,000 staff and students from centre in mind, and ONELAN fitted the bill.
over 100 different countries at the University creating a very diverse environment.
With planned developments valued at over £134m spread over the next few What is installed
years the University is an exciting and vibrant place to be now and in the future. One main publisher NTB supplies content for 17 subscriber Century 610 NTBs.
These are located in the main Foyer, in the Park Square campus, the Learning
Project objectives Resource Centres on the Luton and Bedford campuses, reception areas in
Digital signage has been in use at the University of Bedfordshire for some time, Butterfield Park, Buckinghamshire and Putteridge Bury campuses as well as
with standalone units being installed in different departments. The objective of various other social spaces.
this project was to bring all the existing digital signage together and to provide
for future expansion: the University is currently investing £35 million in a new IPTV OMNI-SERVER
campus centre where digital signage will play a key part in the communication One of the key aspects of the project was the installation of an Omni-Server.
strategy. Originally the University required an ‘off air’ recording solution for the academic
Any new digital signage needed to successfully network with the existing staff to use. With the Omni-Server, they are now able not only to do this, but
infrastructure and the previous installations. The University was also keen to also link into the digital signage network. This provide the screens with live TV
ensure corporate branding was used across all five campus locations, to create a feeds for news and educational TV channels across the network infrastructure
professional look. without the need to run additional RF cabling, thereby keeping additional costs
to a minimum.
Digital signage content
Of particular importance was the requirement to show the appropriate content How the digital signage is being used
on each screen, targeted at the local audience, while retaining the corporate A wide variety of content is being utilised including public content such as a TV
‘look’ to each screen. For example the screen installed in the Business School feed showing BBC News and Sky News, XML feeds for local weather and news,
foyer needs to show welcome messages and Business School specific as well as University news and events. An XML feed from the Association of
information. Train Operating Companies is planned. This will deliver up-to-date timetable
With units installed in 17 different departments the digital signage needs to information for Bedford and Luton stations to help promote sustainable
be easy to use by many different people, both technical and non-technical, as transport options.
they are very content hungry and need to be constantly updated. The systems The signage is also used for department specific information, such as
also need to be easy to set up, and quick to manage. information for registration and Open Days, and content throughout the
university.
How to do it
ONELAN’s Net-Top-Boxes (NTBs) were chosen as the Digital Signage solution, End result – end user feedback
due to their ease of use and their ability to apply highly customised layout Integration with the university’s existing networks has been straightforward.
designs, so anyone on the university staff can contribute without fear of Feedback has been very positive: staff like the look of the content.
problems. To reach an audience base of 20,000 students and staff, the screen
layout flexibility and scheduling were of utmost importance. The ONELAN NTBs
trianglertwww.onelandigitalsignage.com trianglertinfo@onelan.com
allow a screen to be divided into different Zones, which allow different media trianglert01491 411400
October 2009
www.education-today.co.uk
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