Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University Gets Digital Signage
Nov 1, 2006 7:43 PM
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) became one of the first educational institutions in Singapore to deploy its very own inhouse network channel to serve as a dynamic visual communication platform for internal publicity and announcements within the campus.
Implemented last summer, Channel NTU is a flexible and efficient communications system based on the Scala InfoChannel platform. The network is managed and maintained by a small team comprising three staff members in the Center for Educational Development (CED). One staffer oversees the technical deployments, another staffer handles the design and content authoring, and yet another manages the scheduling. A fourth member is expected to join the team to manage the content coordination.
The multimedia content for Channel NTU is developed and managed using Scala InfoChannel Designer, with InfoChannel Network Manager scheduling the transmission that is currently broadcast to seven plasma screens around the campus. The CED team creates multimedia-rich content that is channeled to the strategically positioned plasma screens located in high-traffic areas—three screens in the cafeterias, two in the administrative building, and the rest in the film school and café.
Channel NTU provides students, staff, and visitors with informative and entertainment-rich content that includes prime-time news and headlines extracted with RSS feed technology (currently in the experimental stage). The integration with the NewTek Tricaster Pro provides additional features for the broadcasts of live events such as graduation ceremonies and freshman orientations.
Intranet streaming is made possible with the addition of the Windows Media encoder, which provides live webcasts of distinguished speakers or visitors as well as Internet videocasts. Student publicity announcements and trailers such as Singapore Idol are also played on Channel NTU. The channel also flourishes as a platform for university and student productions to be aired and viewed.
The infrastructure for Channel NTU includes an audio compressor for audio normalization, an FM transmitter to manage noisy locations, and remote software monitoring client to assess playback. Channel NTU is controlled and centrally hosted from the CED using fiber networks that connect the plasma screens throughout the campus, which spans more than 50 buildings. The channel operates for approximately 11 1/2 hours daily from Monday to Friday, 52 weeks a year.
The Scala InfoChannel solution has also become the tool of choice for NTU’s digital signage network in view of its powerful authoring capabilities and advantages. Goh Wee Sen, Instructional Design Manager of CED, compliments the solution particularly for its features, which provide the facility the ability to accept many varied formats and the smoothness of playback.
The deployment of the Channel NTU network was implemented with the help of Click Grafix, a Scala Certified distributor and system integrator for the Southeast region.
