Bannister Lake has implemented a digital signage pilot project with the Waterloo Region District School Board in Southern Ontario. The project consists of a networked digital signage solution in 16 regional high schools located about an hour west of Toronto. The project is powered by Bannister Lake's Chameleon data aggregation and management product. Chameleon captures data from a wide variety of incoming sources and allows student, faculty, and staff network operators to moderate, edit, schedule, and distribute content to various displays.
Students are actively involved in the programming of the network, which provides an innovative way to communicate with students, faculty, and staff. The network displays both highly localized content targeting individual schools as well as global content that originates with the Waterloo Region District School Board and is shown in all 16 high schools.
Using Chameleon's data readers and management modules, operators can easily program and update content that includes high school sports scores, local weather, event calendars, and special announcements. The digital signage system is also programmed with student-produced content from YouTube and from Google Slides.
"Bannister Lake's signage solution provided us with an easy way for staff and students to communicate about school and community events," said Jane Mitchinson, head librarian, Glenview Park Secondary School, Waterloo Regional District School Board. "The visual nature of the medium and the immediacy of the messaging is very impactful and captures the attention of everyone in our buildings. We are especially impressed with Chameleon's networking capabilities, which give the entire team the opportunity to collaborate on content. Bannister Lake walked us through the entire process, showed us ways to optimize the system, and are always there for support."
Students who take part in programming the signage network gain valuable experience as content creators and receive academic credit for their participation. The system takes advantage of automation to repurpose existing content automatically and consistently keep the network fresh and up to date.
"Our pilot project with the Waterloo Region District School Board represents another exciting application of our Chameleon product," said Danny Ljubisic, business development & project management, Bannister Lake. "The digital signage network within the high schools leverages our extensive data capabilities, while providing students with an exciting new medium to share important information digitally."
The pilot project will continue to evolve and expand over the next few months and will eventually include expanded content from student newspapers and more extensive community news and events calendars.
