Page 18 - Campus Technology, October 2017

AV SMARTS alan c. brawn Why Higher Ed Is Poised to
Lead the Way in Digital Signage
Colleges and universities have not always been known for innovation in AV technologies, but advances in digital signage are putting higher education at the forefront of the field.
LET ME BEGIN with a bit of candor. Over the years, I have observed that when those in the AV integration industry speak about typical projects for the education market, they usually sound mundane and it is easy to assume what the project will entail. Since the turn of the century, most AV designs have embraced a standard cookie cutter approach, with simply a projector (with a screen) or a flat panel display setup in the classroom. For the more advanced designs, perhaps a sound system and remote control of some sort.
Until recently, the status quo meant that little creativity was inspired in education AV, and certainly few instances of pushing the technological envelope. For those out there who have more advanced systems, save the e-mails: I do know there are some examples of creativity and pushing the envelope, but most classrooms are just basic AV at the core. Rarely less, but rarely more.
There are a lot of reasons for this. First and foremost, there are budgets to consider. Education has always been budget conscious with variations in funding region by region, school by school and department by department. The largest portion of funding tends to go to the most visible (read: profitable) departments and the more obscure ones tend to languish money-wise.4
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | October 2017
Courtesy of the University of Michigan