Pennsylvania-based Villanova, named by two magazines as one of the top “Most Wired Colleges in the Nation,” was an early adopter of digital signage when it installed an LCD display in its Business School’s Applied Finance Lab. Villanova has added 14 screens in other buildings to create a networked information system with another 30 screens planned.

“We wanted to introduce a better method for disseminating information throughout the University,” says Michael Hoffberg, digital signage project manager for Villanova’s University Information Technologies, Strategic Planning department.

The Rise Display Network gives university administrators control over the composition and timing of all content. Distributing information via digital signage enables the university to limit paper postings, and is intended to cut down on the volume of emails sent to the Villanova community. “There’s a big payoff,” says Hoffberg. “It’s an effective, low-maintenance system that does not impact heavily on our limited staffing resources.”

Each member of the Villanova community, including teachers, students, and staff, uses the Wildcard identification card to enter and check out books from the library and use campus resources such as vending machines, dorm laundry facilities and the bookstore. The Wildcard can also be used as a debit card that is accepted at a number of off-campus vendors including retail stores, restaurants, and fast-food chains. The Wildcard Office is now selling advertising on its Rise Display Network-powered signage to local merchants that accept the Wildcard.

The Rise Display Network from Rise Vision is a Web-based, software-as-a-service content management system for digital signage. Subscriptions include access to live content such as news headlines, local weather, sports scores, and stock ticker updates. Users incorporate this live content with their own information, including movies, graphics and text and publish it directly to their network of digital signs.