ANU College of Law digital signage

A suite of screens for student and staff information and live video

One of my projects at ANU College of Law was to design and manage the creation of a digital signage system – a suite of screens in the building that can show information to students and staff. The screen in the foyer has an additional feature where it can display a live video feed of the Law Lecture Theatre on the foyer screen, turning the foyer into an overflow room for public events when there are not enough seats in the theatre. The project started as a conversation with the head of the College’s IT unit and the executive staff. They approached me with the open brief of, “We want to be able to show information to staff and students, as well as get a live feed of the Law Theatre for popular events. Can you figure out how to do that, present a case and costing to Executive, and then make it all happen?” The signage system I created included a media server running on the Xibo signage system, which I assigned zones and permissions for various College groups (student admin, marketing, IT) to each have access to manage content in different ways for the screens through a web interface. New screens could be added to the system with very little fuss or expertise. The live video feed from the Law Lecture Theatre is through an IP camera installed at the back of the theatre, with the main theatre sound cabled into it. The camera can be remote controlled from a standard computer in the office of the event organisers, with full control over pan, tilt and zoom of the camera for display in the foyer. The foyer screen also has a small mini-computer sitting in a secure cabinet nearby and an all-in-one Bluetooth keyboard and mouse pad that can control the camera feed discreetly from within the foyer.

The screen also covered special events such as live displays of election poll counting, live twitter feeds and photo posting.

Engagement from staff and students with the College’s new system of announcements and events was huge, and initiatives such as the College Education Awards saw nominations and engagement by students double the numbers compared to previous years as a result of the wide reaching announcement and marketing power of the system.