Georgia State’s Digital Signage Transformation
Visix recently completed a project for Georgia State University, an educational system with six campuses in metro Atlanta, serving 55,000 students and 2800 staff, with more than 71 acres and 60 buildings on the main campus alone. GSU went in search for a high-quality digital signage system to cover this vast territory and reach all their staff and students. The university sought a way to communicate important messages related to programs, activities, weather, campus news, current events, emergency alerts, and more, with four main goals. The university aimed their messaging activities at affecting student and faculty behavior, keeping everyone informed and safe in emergencies, reducing cost and clutter associated with paper communication, and transmitting the university vision more successfully.
The project required educating the various departments on the new platform and coordinating efforts between the university and Visix, choosing the proper equipment for the job, and then integrating the new system into GSU’s current programs. The results exceeded expectations when, in 2017, the university opened the main entrance to the Creative Media Industries Institute to more than 150 industry professionals, who were impressed and pleased with the new signage’s abilities and performance.
In addition, the project won Visix a prestigious award nomination at DSE 2018, the most well-respected and attended tradeshow of the Digital Signage Industry. Sean with Visix was on hand at DSE to speak about the project and his excitement over the award nomination and opportunity to showcase the project for the digital signage audience. He explained that his colleague Wade Johnson was on campus regularly at GSU, as part of their large deployment there, evangelizing the technology and helping maintain 300 media players, running several thousand signs.
In addition to the DSE nod, the project has reduced the campus’ printing costs by 40%, saved the educational institution tens of thousands of dollars in technology-related fees, and rocketed GSU to a #4 ranking by US News & World Report in the Most Innovative University category.