Digital signage for schools, colleges and universities.

Where the screens go

A school has more walls than places worth a screen. Put them where people pass or where they wait, and give each place the content it is looked at for.

The main corridor, at the junction everyone crosses between lessons, is the screen that does the most work. It is read on the move, in a few seconds, by people who pass it several times a day — so it is the school's digital notice board: today's notices, this week's events and little else.

The entrance hall is read by visitors as much as by students: parents at the end of the day, families on an open day, the delivery driver looking for the office. A welcome, the week's events, the weather and a QR code to the school website belong here.

The canteen and the library are where people stand or sit for longer. This is the place for the student council's slides, club posters, photos from the trip, On this day or a Daily Wisdom quote.

The staff room gets a playlist of its own: today's cover lessons from a Google Sheet, staff meetings from the calendar, reminders nobody else needs to read.

In higher education the same pattern repeats in every building on campus, with one more place: the door of a lecture hall, where a portrait screen can show that room's day — if the room has a Google Calendar of its own.

Size, height and which way up

Measure from where people actually read the screen. In a corridor that is often four or five metres, which calls for a 55" to 65" screen. An entrance hall or an atrium read from five metres and more wants 75" and up. A portrait screen by a lecture-room door is read up close, and 32" to 43" is plenty. The hardware guide has the full table.

Hang corridor screens high enough to be seen over a crowd and out of the way of bags and elbows, but keep the box behind them reachable for whoever looks after them. Decide portrait or landscape before you drill: a week view of the calendar reads best in landscape, a schedule list by a door works in portrait. The orientation is a setting on each screen in the dashboard.

A corridor screen runs the whole school day, five days a week. A consumer TV is built for a few hours a day; a commercial display rated for long daily hours is the part worth spending on.

What goes on a corridor screen

A corridor screen is glanced at, not read. Someone walking to a lesson gives it a few seconds, so the playlist has to be short and every item has to make sense on its own. A good one has three things:

1. Today's announcement, as a Text item — one message, large.
2. This week's events from Google Calendar, in the week or the schedule view.
3. The weather, or a countdown to the next date that matters.

Short notices that do not deserve a slide of their own go on the Ticker, which runs along the top or bottom of the screen over everything else.

Writing for a corridor:

• One notice per slide. Two messages on one slide means neither gets read.
• A date on every notice. “Choir practice moves to Thursday” means nothing a week later.
• A headline readable from the far wall. If it needs a second line to make sense, it is too long.
• Few items, each on long enough. Give every item enough seconds to be read at walking pace. In a long rotation, most people never see most of the items.

Letting others put things on the screens

The screens work best when the people with something to say can say it without queueing for one person. There are two ways to do that.

Through the tools they already use. The office keeps events in Google Calendar; the student council keeps a deck in Google Slides or a design in Canva. Connect each one once and put it in the playlist; from then on their edits reach the screens without anyone opening the dashboard. Whoever can edit the deck can change what is on the screen, so the deck's sharing settings are your approval step.

Through logins of their own. Invite the staff who change content as Members, and anyone who only needs to look — a head of department who wants to see what is planned — as Viewers, who see everything and change nothing. Keep Admin for the one or two people who run the system.

The emergency message, ready before it is needed

The Emergency Alert is the one item to set up on the first day and hope never to use. Write it in calm conditions: a short headline — “Evacuate the building” — a line of detail, and the severity colour. Choose the screens it covers, then leave it switched off. Prepare one for each situation your procedures name: an evacuation, an early closure, a severe-weather warning.

When it is needed, someone with a login switches it on in the dashboard, from a phone or a computer. Every chosen screen is covered within a second, including screens that are dark because they are outside their working hours. A screen that is offline at that moment shows it once its connection returns, and nothing can wake a TV switched off at the wall.

It is not connected to a fire alarm or a PA system: a person switches it on, and off again afterwards. Decide who that is, make sure they can log in from their phone, and include the screens in the next drill.

Keeping it right through the year

• Switch notices off when they pass. A screen still announcing last week's concert teaches everyone to stop reading it.
• Look at the screens list now and then. Every player reports when it was last seen and what it is playing, so a corridor screen that went dark shows up in the dashboard before anyone has to report it.
• Change working hours before a long break. They follow the days of the week, not the term dates.
• The Public holidays app lists the country's holidays, not the school's. Put half-term and the end of term in the calendar or in a countdown.
• Nothing personal on a corridor screen. If it would not go on the noticeboard by the entrance, it does not go on the screen.