Signagelive, a leading content management platform, has been selected by the prestigious Italian University of Turin (Università degli Studi di Torino or UNITO) to support its ambitious “Iscreen” Digital Signage project.

Entrusted to power a network of 71 AOpen Chromebox Mini Players, the Signagelive platform has helped centralise communications to optimise learning outcomes, as well as drive a more inclusive and engaging campus culture.

Ranked one of the top five universities in Italy, the University of Turin is often referred to as a “city within a city”, encompassing an enormous area that includes 120 buildings located across the region of Piedmont.

The sheer size of this centuries old educational institution has presented significant communication challenges, making the need for digitalisation essential.

With the implementation of a Signagelive-powered Digital Signage network, many of the various faculties and departments, separated by kilometres of ground across 26 sites, have been connected, brought together by a cutting-edge integrated communications system. As well as supporting generic University-wide notifications, the Signagelive-driven network can now also deliver hyper-targeted information exactly when and where it’s needed.

Through the free-to-use integrated Web page app on the Signagelive Marketplace, the University is able to share relevant pages from its University Planner (UP) application.

For ease of reference, pages outlining up-to-the-minute exams as well as lecture timetables are being delivered and showcased on big screens in exactly the right faculty location. The move has helped to improve the student experience, as well as boost learning outcomes.

A more inclusive and engaging campus culture

More than this, the Signagelive-powered network has quickly become key to the fabric of campus life. Serving as a multimedia communications hub, it’s driving an inclusive university campus culture, allowing for the showcase, campus-wide, of up-to-the-minute news and initiatives as well as all the latest events.

The integrated Seenspire app maximises engagement, bringing UNITO’s social media channels to the fore. With this integration, the curated UNITO social media feeds can now be displayed on-screen alongside other University news and events, using the Signagelive multi-zone content template. The net result of this is a more engaged student community that makes greater use of all the University’s digital media.

Fast, ultra-convenient content management

Bringing together all communications from the various editorial and faculty offices across the University, Signagelive is also facilitating and speeding up the day-to-day management of UNITO content workflows.

With features, such as its Nested playlist tool, all or some of the content from University-wide playlists can be dropped into faculty-specific notifications to ensure the consistent and uniform roll-out of messaging.

Seamless compatibility with ChromeOS devices

Optimised for use with UNITO’s network of ChromeOS devices, the Chrome Enterprise Recommended platform consistently delivers smooth-flowing graphics for everything from high definition video and web pages to image files and RSS feeds.

Enterprise-grade content management support

All Signagelive enterprise-grade functionality also seamlessly works on UNITO’s ChromeOS devices. With the platform’s advanced functionality, UNITO content can be scheduled instantly, or for a pre-set time and date, either remotely, or on location.

UNITO has also benefitted from a number of other Signagelive features that have helped simplify the management of such a large network.

With the In-built Tag Manager, players are, for instance, being categorised together by location, so that relevant notifications only need to be sent once to each group, instead of to each relevant individual player.

Additional features, such as Proactive Monitoring have proven equally useful for network maintenance. Supporting remote monitoring, the function automatically delivers opt-in emails to the network administrators in the event that any content fails to reach the displays.

Signagelive has, according to UNITO, been integral to the overall success of the Iscreen installation:

“With ourSignagelive platform, we’ve been able to achieve everything we set out to do, and have managed to simplify what would otherwise have been a complex project, given the scope and scale of our network.“

The platform’s tried and tested compatibility with all our hardware, its user-friendliness as well as the ease with which we’re now able to centralise and scale out content have helped transform our communications system. It has brought together students and lecturers from different faculties, offering a shared University experience.

“Integrated with such a wide range of services and apps, the platform has, in effect, given us everything we need to build a next-generation multimedia hub that can extend the impact and reach of all our University communication channels.”

Jason Cremins, Signagelive CEO adds:

“We’re excited to be part of such an important project and for one of the oldest, and most renowned universities in Europe. The benefits of digital transformation for educational establishments have long since been proven, but with Iscreen, you can see that, even for the most historic and vast institutions, digitalisation is now quick and easy to achieve.

With our Signagelive platform, we’ve been able to help UNITO build on their communications strategy to engage the next generation of students and bring the University, with all its remarkable history, research traditions and resources, into the future.”