History

In 2009, after a lengthy and diligent review, by a Technology Leadership Counsel (TLC) working group, a recommendation to the full TLC was made with a subsequent approval to move forward. In December 2009 Syracuse University purchased a digital signage application suite "site" license from Four Winds Interactive Inc. In 2022 Four Winds Interactive was acquired by Poppulo. For a time, you may see reference to both companies.

March 2011, Orange Alert messaging was integrated into the digital sign network (DSN). Most signs on this network will include a default subscription to the emergency messaging channel. In the event of an emergency message being sent via the Orange Alert (MIR3) system, sign players will switch to and broadcast the message full screen for the duration of the event.

Architecture

This software solution is comprised of three main components:

1. A centralized locally hosted SQL database that stores information on the Digital Signage Network (DSN),

2. A sign or "Content Player" are allocated by Organizational Unit, physical locations, configurations and formatting, including templates (sign layouts), specific pieces of content such as current weather, advertisements or news fees, and schedules, all access is managed by user and group permissions.

The Content Player (CP) application runs on the remote PC (content player) and polls the database for content and scheduling information to present on a digital display. Our current licensing allows for 400 active signs across our DSN. Actual content may come from a variety of sources, documents on a shared folder, multimedia streams, web content, rss feeds, and data repositories, to name a few. Meaning content providers/authors may never need access to the actual application in order to provide fresh content to various signs.

3. The Content Manger (CM) is what stitches it all together. From the CM console a player object is created, a template designed, and content defined. The template may be parsed into various regions to display specific content. Schedules may be assigned to players, templates and content.

It is recommended that those responsible for administrating the DSN for their unit to receive training of the application and its deployment before assigning responsibilities to various staff members or content providers.

Emergency Messaging Integration