Texas A&M University Division of Marketing & Communications
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University Division of Marketing & Communications

Digital Signage Processes

The digital signage service is a centralized system for managing existing digital signage systems and procuring new hardware solutions with a shared responsibility between the Division of Marketing and Communications, Technology Services, and Facilities and Energy Services.

Streamlining digital signage operations increases users’ efficiency and effectiveness. The processes assist in delivering the digital signage service, establish roles and responsibilities and define the requirements for digital signage.

Responsibilities

Division of Marketing and Communications (Digital Experience Team)

  • Manage content delivery to the digital signage.
  • Manage access and operation of the digital signage platform.
    • A designated academic or administrative unit lead must request new user access.
    • Manage the software licensing assignment and processes.
    • Manage other Texas A&M University System members’ access to the platform.
  • Coordinate the license billing and purchase additional licensing between the academic or administrative unit and financial services.
  • Oversee content for digital signage — content must adhere to marketing, branding and accessibility requirements.
  • Provide branded templates for use.
  • Support the digital signage stakeholder.
  • Provide training.
  • Support content scheduling.

Technology Services

  • Provide the technical requirements of the necessary hardware.
  • Procure hardware.
  • Manage network needs.
  • Provide technical support for hardware.
  • Provide hardware maintenance.
  • Regularly inspect hardware.

Facilities and Energy Services

  • Identify appropriate installation locations and infrastructure required.
  • Coordinate installation of digital signage to ensure safe and correct installation.
  • Determine the best placement for signage installation to meet federal accessibility requirements.

Digital Signage End User (Affiliated with the Division of Marketing and Communications)

  • Ensure content adheres to accessibility requirements.
  • Review content for adherence to the recommended university style and voice, using the university’s Editorial Style Guide as a resource.
  • Review content for general quality control (e.g., spelling, grammar and accuracy of information) before displaying it on digital signs.
  • Approve appropriate content for designated areas, including the location of content.
  • Manage content playlists.
  • Manage content duration on digital displays.
  • Coordinate the purchase of new digital signage hardware (screens, players and all associated costs with networking) with Technology Services.
    • The academic unit or division at an operational level is responsible for payment of new or replacement hardware for signage and associated networking costs.
  • Conduct monthly spot checks on different campus locations to ensure signs are displaying content.

* The academic or division at an operational level is responsible for payment of new or replacement hardware for signage and associated networking costs.

Digital Signage Requirements

Content

  • Must work in the predefined templates.
  • Images can be in portrait or landscape.
  • Must be in a compatible media format.
  • The resolution must comply with the specifications of the display.
  • Must use Texas A&M University branding in screen layouts.
  • Content delivery (order of content delivered):
    • Code Maroon/emergency notifications
    • Approved content and messaging
    • Campaigns

Hardware

A representative from Technology Services must review and approve the digital display hardware. Various academic and organizational units may have configurations of their digital signs, such as touch displays, which will require Technology Services to evaluate those situations to determine the best solution for specialized hardware. To learn more about the recommended hardware, please review the Knowledge Base article provided by Technology Services. To begin the process of acquiring new signs, please email tamu-av.request@tamu.edu and include digitalsignage@tamu.edu in the cc of the email. The request will trigger a ServiceNow ticket and place it in their queue.

End-of-Life Schedule for Hardware

Technology Services will evaluate each unit’s hardware risk factors for the end-of-life (EOL) of displays and player hardware. The additional areas that will be evaluated are EOL contracts and touch-enabled displays. The evaluation will also consider supply chain needs and delivery for hardware purchases. Please contact your unit’s designated Technology Services lead to begin this assessment or replace hardware (screens and players).

Cost

  • New installations or the purchase of replacement hardware is the responsibility of the division, department or academic unit utilizing the signs.
  • Player device cost is dependent on the manufacturer, make and model.
  • Most Texas A&M academic units and divisions will not be charged for licenses. However, some will need to purchase yearly licenses at cost of $160 per license because of how funding is allocated.
  • Network installation (if installing a hard line).
  • Electrical jack installation (if needed).
  • Installation of new or replacement displays.

Content Submission Requirements

Sharing of general interest content created by university content creators is encouraged. However, images or media submissions for digital signs must meet the following requirements, or they will not be accepted for display. Please submit your request using the form provided by the Digital Experience team. The asset review checklist should also be used to check content before sharing.

  • JPG or PNG format.
  • Landscape orientation (16:9) or portrait orientation (9:16)
  • Maximum resolution of 150 PPI.
  • Content must be optimized for displays without losing quality.
  • All content MUST adhere to Texas A&M visual style requirements.
  • Information on a digital sign asset for an event must include the event name, location, date and time, and contact information.
  • The Digital Experience team is not responsible for editing text or confirming the copyright of images or logos.
  • If design assistance is needed, at least five business days (no later than 2 p.m. Central Time) is required.
  • The complete name of the sponsoring organization must be prominently displayed.
  • All submissions must be proofread; any grammatical or spelling errors will result in the content being returned to the requestor for correction before posting.
  • Promoting businesses’ products, services or events on the university digital signage system is prohibited unless the company has received prior approval from the Business and Brand Development office.

New Deployment Request

  • Send an email with the request to digitalsignage@tamu.edu.
  • The Digital Experience team will set up a meeting with the stakeholders.
  • During the meeting, the number of templates and the naming convention for each screen will be determined.
  • Identify the content creators and who will be maintaining the content in the digital signage platform.
  • Review best practices and content requirements.
  • After the meeting, a follow-up email with meeting notes will be sent.
  • The Mac addresses for Windows players or the serial numbers for other players using a non-Windows operating system will be collected from the unit’s Technology Services representative.
  • Displays will be set up within the digital signage platform with the correct templates and image slots for unit-specific content.
  • The content manager will deploy content to screens and verify that screens correctly receive and display content.

Things to Note

  • Unless an exception is documented, all divisions and academic units must use the same platform. Exceptions will include the following information:
    • What are the signs’ specialized platform requirements, and why must you continue using another vendor’s services?
    • VPAT for the service and a copy of a recently filled-out EIR Accessibility Exception.
    • What is the contract length with the vendor, and who is the contract’s owner?
    • How many signs are using the platform, and is there an expectation to add more soon?
    • How is Code Maroon incorporated into the digital signs, and if it’s not, what is the plan to add it to the platform?
    • Are there limits to the number of users with access to the platform?
    • What type of governance of the digital signage platform is in place?
    • Does a MarComm representative have access to the platform? If so, who? If not, what is needed to grant someone access to the platform?
  • The Digital Experience team will provide evergreen content that can be displayed across campus.
  • Centralization requires MarComm oversight of all digital signage messaging.
  • Any unique content that needs to be created by the Digital Experience team will have to be requested five days before the display date to allow for asset creation.

Advertising

Campus+ advertising using campus assets is reserved for the university organizational units, departments and official student organizations.

The primary partnerships with the university are:

  1. HEB (Athletics)
  2. Brookshire Brothers (Athletics)
  3. Aggieland Credit Union (Athletics)
  4. Wells Fargo (Athletics)
  5. 12th Man Technology (MSC)
  6. PepsiCo

Paid advertising on campus signage for businesses that do not fall under the Campus+ program and provide goods or services must meet the criteria outlined in Texas A&M University System Rule 21.99.09.M1 Access to System Property for Sales, Rentals and Soliciting Donations and be reviewed by the Business and Brand Development office.