CODA at the University of Detroit Mercy
When one of Michigan’s top academic institutions wanted to bring their internal communications up to date, a set of CODA displays was a key component.
“The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law”, says its website proudly, “redefines legal education to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century”. This reputation draws students from across the United States, and from around the world. It’s one they are understandably keen to promote.
Founded nearly a century ago, the Law School occupies a pleasing red-brick building at the foot of the gleaming Renaissance Center – the world headquarters of General Motors which, at 750ft high, dominates the skyline for those crossing the Ambassador Bridge from Canada. In fact, an example of the school’s range of innovative law degrees is a joint program they operate with the University of Windsor, Ontario: students completing the course are qualified to practice law in both countries.
With an intake this year of over 260 new students, from 28 US states and 7 nations, and with degree courses that extend beyond the building not only to other campuses but even to other countries, keeping everybody up to date with what’s happening, where, and when, is quite a challenge.
With this in mind, the Law School has begun to deploy information screens powered by the CODA system developed by Camvine, a UK-based company bringing the world of ‘Web 2.0’ cloud computing to public information displays. CODA screens can be plugged into any network anywhere, and managed from anywhere, without the need for any software installation at all: everything is controlled through the web. A small device connects each screen to the network and so to the CODA service. Users are therefore freed from installing and managing their own content servers, backups, antivirus software and software upgrades, and can instead focus on their content and how best to present it.
Chris Congdon, the director of Information Technology, is pleased with the system. “I did a significant amount of research when looking for electronic signage solutions. CODA was an ideal choice for our use because of its lower cost, ease of deployment, minimal training requirements, flexibility, and responsive customer support.”
“It’s already 1000% better than what we had before!”, said one enthusiastic staff member when the new displays were first connected. ‘What they had before’, in this case, was a large and elderly TV in a big enclosure, driven by a similarly large and elderly PC that was periodically updated by copying slides from a USB stick.
“It was virtually unreadable, and the content was rarely changed”, says Chris. “We wanted a more effective way to communicate to students as they walked in the door about any important up-to-the-minute changes such as class cancellations, new opportunities, or deadline reminders.” The new displays in the entrance hall, in contrast, provide a bright, crisp image, and the small, networked ‘CODApod’ players which drive them are constantly checking for new material to display.
“You have to earn the right to people’s eyeballs”, says Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Camvine’s founder. “Gone are the days when a looping sequence of static Powerpoint slides can capture anyone’s attention. Even an HD movie clip may attract little more than a glance from passers-by. What matters now is live, up-to-date, relevant information, information that affects your life differently today from the way it did yesterday. That’s how you get information across to the people who need it.”
The installation was paid for partly by the Student Bar Association. (Nick Hawatmeh, its President, is keen to emphasise that the name refers to ‘bar’ as in law, not as in alcohol.) So why would a student association want to subsidise part of the school’s technology infrastructure?
“We have over 38 student organisations, if I’m not mistaken”, says Nick, “and we would normally have paper flyers about their activities littering the entire law school. With the plasmas, we’re able to put all of our content, all of our daily events, all of the student organisation calendar, onto these screens. Not only does it help us keep ‘with it’ and get into this new century with new technology, it also helps make the school look much nicer and much cleaner. We’re a professional school, and we need to maintain a professional image. Having these plasmas and these monitors definitely helps us accomplish that mission.”
The first few displays are located in the entrance lobby, where they are the first thing students see as they enter, and in the atrium – an airy, open space at the heart of the college’s buildings, with cafe-style layout that encourages students and staff to mix, to read, to gather and chat between lectures. It’s a great place to let them know about key information.
Chris hopes that this will just be the beginning. “Our initial implementation has been very well received by our students and faculty, and we have a number of additional ideas that have been proposed for the screen content: for example, videos of university events. We certainly plan to add more displays on our local campuses, as well as expand our display coverage to include our Canadian and Mexican associate campuses.”
In the world of education, many digital signage installations span multiple buildings. Some even reach multiple campuses. But when a single faculty has plans to deliver live information to several countries, you know they’re serious about communications