/> Haivision is very proud of our partnership with UBC, said Leo Bull, vice-president of CoolSign sales at Haivision. As a forward-thinking university that welcomes the benefits of advanced technology, it is the ideal client for the CoolSign enterprise software platform. It is a great example of how to use this medium to communicate effectively and efficiently with your audience and deliver the right message in real time.

Establishing an efficient centralized communication system connecting campuses was both a priority and, given the university's extensive geographic and demographic network, a real challenge. said Wilson Lo, senior systems analyst for UBC. We knew from experience that the university needed a system that would enable delivery of emergency warning messages when they matter most. We also wanted a solution that would support daily provisioning of UBC content to our staff and students across all UBC campuses. After a successful pilot project with Haivision's Campus Signage Unlimited program, powered by CoolSign, we took the system live, thus realizing our goal of being able to push up-to-the-minute content to strategic locations campus-wide.

UBC is one of Canada's most renowned advanced learning institutions. The university is home to 50,000 students spread across the Vancouver campus at the tip of the Point Grey Peninsula and the Okanagan campus in Kelowna, and it is host to more than 45,000 people annually at its Robson Square center in downtown Vancouver.

Haivision's Campus Signage Unlimited program gives UBC unlimited access to CoolSign servers and players for each department choosing to invest in display panels. The program's unique fixed-fee model makes digital signage a low-risk and economically attractive option for educational institutions that otherwise couldn't consider a digital signage network. After experimenting with digital signage through the Haivision program, UBC purchased 300 CoolSign players, which give the university the ability to implement digital signage on a large scale across its campuses.

Digital signage offered us an easy solution for overcoming the physical distance spanned by the university while managing centralized content from a single administrative center, said Wilson. CoolSign provides these benefits and also serves as an intuitive, easy-to-maintain solution that scales well. Within a year the whole project has moved quite quickly, from pilot to deployment, and we expect it to move just as fast in the near future.

With the CoolSign Network Server and Network Manager, administrators at Point Grey charged with overseeing the digital signage network can easily manage and control content in a central repository without having to build individual infrastructure with each new unit. CoolSign's DataWatcher allows the university to create bidirectional engagement with its community and, most important, its students.

CoolSign allows UBC departments to get creative by pushing out unique content that reflects their areas of specialty. Students also are given the chance to get involved by using CoolSign Content Creator and Network Manager to create, upload, and submit their work for scheduled play. Going forward, the university will be able to integrate CoolSign capabilities and mobile platforms so that students and staff can use mobile devices to push content to physical displays on campus.