Building an Effective Visual Communication System
For schools looking at using digital signage to support emergency communications, there are a number of components that go into a solution: displays, display mounts, network connectors, media players and, most important, content management software.
“The CMS, the content management system, is the most important component. That is where all the work is done to maintain daily and emergency communications in the school,” says Alan Brawn, principal at Brawn Consulting and president of the Digital Signage Experts Group.
The CMS integrates into the CAP-enabled emergency messaging platform a school uses. Because the CMS is vital to communications during an emergency, it needs to be simple and usable.
“It is crucial that the CMS you choose is user-friendly and intuitive,” Brawn says. “It needs to be simple for staff training and to easily work in the midst of an emergency situation.”
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Most schools build out their digital signage and communications systems over several budget cycles, resulting in a mix of hardware and software to support. This can be a challenge for short-staffed IT teams to manage and update for emergency communications.
Brawn recommends schools work with a reputable partner or audiovisual vendor. “They’ll sell you the right commercial equipment and follow up on the warranties for you,” he explains. “Their job is to take all the disparate pieces of equipment you might have and make them work seamlessly as a system. That’s what you want in an emergency notification system, and that’s why you want to work with a qualified integration company.”
A Fast and Easy Way to Send Emergency Notifications
Previously, Necedah Schools, which serves about 700 students, relied on an audio public address system for its emergency communications. Looking to deploy digital signage that could support safety initiatives more effectively throughout the district’s buildings, Saylor’s research led to a solution that integrated Rise Vision into the schools’ digital ecosystem.
Necedah Schools now has 22 displays set up strategically throughout its buildings. With InformaCast running emergency messages over the Rise Vision platform, Necedah Schools has been able to significantly reduce its emergency response times.
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“Our admin team has the ability, with a couple of taps through an app on their phones, to quickly get emergency communications out and lock down the building,” Saylor explains. “The industry says you have 20 to 30 seconds to lock down your building, from notification to escalation. We can now easily get it done in that time.”
Another consideration with setting up emergency communication systems is support for Alyssa’s Law, with some states now requiring the installation of silent panic alarms that connect directly to local law enforcement.
“In states where Alyssa’s Law is mandated, schools may need to choose a platform that supports the silent panic alarms,” Jennings says. “That could be a button on the wall, a button that the teachers carry on a lanyard, or on the phone. There are a lot of different options.”
Digital Signage Meets Schools’ Other Communication Needs
While schools have to plan for worst-case scenarios, the ability to run emergency alerts over digital signage is equally helpful in the less-critical emergency situations that schools grapple with regularly.
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“Sometimes, it’s medical emergencies, like a student having an epileptic seizure,” says Jennings. “You’re able to lock down the school so they can effectively deal with that situation and provide the attention needed for that student.”
For these situations, some systems have a feature that allows K–12 schools to target emergency message broadcasts to particular zones organized through the digital signage platform. A student health emergency, for example, might impact part of a building but not require emergency communication to everyone across all schools. “We can direct a message that pertains to only the high school, and the other schools don’t receive the communication,” Saylor says.
“It’s not just worst-case scenarios where being able to communicate over digital signage proves helpful,” Jennings adds.
