The Village of McFarland just southeast of Madison, WI, has strategically extended the reach of its Carousel Cloud network over several years, bringing information on government services to residents with the goal of making a positive impact on the community. With an emphasis on high-traffic areas in municipal buildings, the village has now launched Carousel Cloud within its new Public Safety Center, bringing the network to nine locations across three buildings.
The Village of McFarland’s Public Safety Center was built to provide the McFarland Police Department, Fire and Rescue Department, and municipal court with a larger, more modern facility that could accommodate more services and improved operational efficiencies than its previous home. This made the 56,000-square-foot facility a natural choice as the Carousel Cloud network’s next home following successful deployments within the E.D. Locke Public Library and the McFarland Municipal Center, which houses the village’s Community and Economic Development, Senior Outreach Services, and Administration departments.
The Communications Division, part of the Administration Department, operates WCMF, the Village of McFarland’s municipal cable TV channel, among many other village publications and mediums, including digital signage. Both departments operate within the McFarland Municipal Center, which is where the digital signage network originated. The McFarland Municipal Center was a natural first step for the network, as employees had long been using Carousel to create bulletin-board TV content for insertion within WCMF’s broadcast schedule.
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The positive user experience of using Carousel at WCMF inspired the Village of McFarland Administration to take the network into municipal spaces, beginning with an internal-facing screen positioned outside employee offices. A second screen was later added to the main lobby, adding a wayfinding experience to the mix of graphics and PSAs with captions. The wayfinding experience offers a site map that steers the public to trainings, tai chi classes and other events.
The entire network uses Apple TV devices as media players at all end points, taking advantage of Carousel Cloud’s native integration with the devices to simply expansion to the E.D. Locke Public Library and Public Safety Center. Carousel Cloud’s Apple TV app immediately recognizes when digital signage content reaches the device, ensuring straightforward connectivity.
Ben Becs, media producer for the Village of McFarland, said that Carousel Cloud’s ease of use is among its greatest benefits given that users of any skillset can contribute to the network. That ensures that contributors working out of the library or Public Safety Center can keep their signs fresh and up to date with content that’s immediately relevant to visitors while saving the three members of the village’s Communications staff significant time each week.
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“We added a screen in the main lobby of the Public Safety Center that shares content from all three public safety departments, as well as a site map of the facility for wayfinding purposes,” said Becs. “The goal of digital signage in the Public Safety Center is to represent all departments and present clear information that is easy to absorb. Carousel makes that very easy because adding, editing and scheduling content is very straightforward. The fire chief has become an enthusiastic contributor, using Canva tools to create content. Direct integration with Canva makes it simple to bring that content into Carousel Cloud’s CMS.”
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The E.D. Locke Public Library’s five screens translate to a livelier digital signage experience, with signs found in the main lobby, children’s section, teen section, adult section and at the checkout desk. “The library screens remain lively and active, with a growing volume of rotating content mainly focused on library announcements and special events,” said Becs. “We can easily target content to specific sections, such as Bridge Club announcements for adults, and reach various age groups with information relevant to them. Digital signage offers a lot of cool opportunities to enhance a person’s experience, and Carousel is helping us make a difference in the community.”
