Managing Signs in Horizon Hall

The signs in Horizon Hall are screens just inside most suites, just outside the Dean's Office suite (6100), and just below the Word Wall. CHSS IT and representatives from the units housed in Horizon Hall chose Carousel as our tool for managing those screens. CHSS IT and those same representatives also worked together to determine how we would use Carousel to manage the signs.

Our Approach

We have configured Carousel to allow individuals to manage their own signs and to post content for approval to all signs. The suite information and clock/footer for each sign are managed by CHSS IT.

We have asked the tenants of each suite to designate one person to be the main point of contact for their suite/sign(s). We will refer to those contacts as sign contacts. The sign contacts will stay aware of how the sign is being used, make sure their sign isn’t showing outdated content, and work with the various tenants of that suite to work out how to manage day-to-day control of the sign. Sign contacts will not necessarily be the ones who manage the suite's signs, but they will be able to answer questions from anyone who wishes to add content to a sign.

Beyond that, the groups will work out amongst themselves how they wish to manage their signs. They could have all content get posted by the sign manager. They could let multiple people control their signs. Whatever works best for each suite, provided somebody makes sure that in the end the sign is being used well. The CHSS IT team will manage user access to the signs. Requests for access changes must come from a suite's sign contact.

For the shared content, we will use linked copies of bulletins. Sign contacts will have the ability to create bulletins and post them directly to their own screens by creating them in their screen’s zone. If they want content on all screens, they will create linked copies of their bulletins on the relevant screens. Those bulletins will need to be approved by the sign contact for each sign.

We have a Microsoft Teams group for all sign contacts. We will archive documentation there, provide links to the Carousel documentation and instructions, and use the group to communicate openly among all screen users. We suggest sign contacts post to that team whenever they post linked copies to other signs or whenever they take any action that might affect other users. 

Project Goals  

  • Suite residents can manage their own signs
  • Residents of suites can decide amongst themselves how they will manage their signs; e.g. who will have access and who will do the work of posting 
  • The signs have a consistent look and feel throughout the building 
  • Posting content on the signs is reasonably easy 
  • Content contributors have nice, easy-to-use templates that maintain a good look and feel 
  • Content contributors also have the flexibility to design content outside the system and post it on the signs 
  • We also have a manageable way to get content to appear on all ten signs in the building. (If you want to advertise a course or an event, you can get it on all of the signs.) 

Challenges 

  • Most suites have multiple tenants
  • Most suites have two signs. Sometimes those signs serve the same tenants and sometimes they serve different sets of tenants.
  • Signs are not connected to the Internet; solution must work with Mersive, the system that drives all screens in Horizon