Security alerting is always a major goal, a key aspect—and the more public the environment, the more important it becomes, says Steve Lamphear, global key accounts manager for X20 Media. The importance of this digital signage as a security tool means that the technical and management issues that accompany it are also that much more imperative.

That’s why all parties involved must be on board if you are turning to digital signage as part of your emergency notification solution. From those responsible for installing and maintaining the hardware and software, to those creating and posting the messages, this team must act as one. It should also plan for future growth, buying products like scalable software that will support an organization’s future plans, says Morgan Williams, digital signage account manager for Kipp Visual Systems.

Once you implement digital signage into your mass notification strategy, you can never abandon it. “The content needs constant attention. It can’t be left alone,” says Williams.

A static message is an ineffectual one. Your message must seem and be immediate, otherwise it will lack the authority to get people to act.

“Particularly for security messaging, it’s about specific messaging — target to the zone, region, mobile device. People didn’t previously know you could do this, and now that they do and you can, map those zones and considerations out,” says Lamphear.

In addition, organizations must decide specific levels of alert. “[They] should range from courtesy notes or ticker feeds to a full-screen takeover that may also include audio alarms,” says Doug Chase, product manager at Four Winds Interactive.
One the technical side, there are important issues to consider as well. “What happens if your power or network goes down? You need to make sure you have redundancy, including for network connections to the outside world, and be able to store content locally, so you don’t have to rely on routing outside your LAN, says Chase.

It’s essential to allocate enough resources to implement this fully, including doing regular testing, he says.