Alfriston College was opened in 2004 in Manukau, New Zealand, with a vision to meet the needs of a diverse student populous who expected a 21st century learning environment. Purpose-built, the school was designed to be an inspiring environment both today and for the youth of tomorrow.
With over 1,500 students segmented across five family groups, or whanau as they are known locally, Alfriston College is a large establishment and as such it had become difficult for central messaging and news to be distributed to all of its students in an engaging and interesting manner.
Traditionally teaching staff were asked to share news and information during form periods in the classroom, however, this did not allow for mass congratulations and celebration of particularly pertinent achievements or successes.
Deputy Principal of Alfriston College, Doug Black, comments; “To create an environment of success you have to create the desire for achievement within your students. Promoting students’ accomplishments in a public manner will heighten their sense of pride and drive others to try to emulate that achievement.
“We felt we needed a more public, open and eye catching medium by which to celebrate our attainments as an entire school family; digital signage seemed an obvious way to go.”
Having engaged with Digital Signage Solutions Ltd, Alfriston College decided to implement the server based Tripleplay digital signage solution, TripleSign. Initially screens would be placed in communal areas, with displays specifically assigned for each whanau in the school, ensuring that messaging was both relevant and specific to the audience who would see it most.
Tripleplay’s TripleSign was chosen for a variety of factors, with the ability to scale the solution a key factor, whilst having a flexible and comprehensive management system was of paramount importance.
Doug Black continued; “Schools invest in all manner of technologies, some of them prove valuable and some struggle to be integrated into the culture. We knew that to get digital signage working it had to be simple to manage, update and maintain. We also needed to have our investment future proofed; Tripleplay offered this.
“We can give access to administration and teaching staff, providing varying degrees of editorial and creative rights to those users, aggregating not only control but responsibility. We can allow a receptionist to access and update a single text box, or a head of year to create layouts and upload videos; we control every aspect of the solution.”
Simplicity itself was also a factor in the school choosing the Tripleplay solution. Doug Black confirmed; “Tripleplay just worked. Within two hours of setting up the system I was fully confident in my own ability to operate it, and knew that it would be easy to keep up-to-date.
“Doing the basics was simple, so we could get up and running very quickly. We also know it will be simple to expand the solution both in terms of screen numbers and additional features as and when we need them.”
Alfriston College aims to extend the solution further into the school Gym, staff rooms and other prominent locations and found that Tripleplay’s server based system and licensing model offered this functionality very simply.
Since its implementation, the digital signage solution has been utilised to promote events and achievements across the school.
This included promoting the success of its students at the Rock Quest music competition, in which Alfriston College students were voted the top three acts competing. Tripleplay’s solution also provided a great way to share photographs of the school prom with the entire faculty, ensuring the technology is inclusive of all students and has become engrained in the everyday culture of life on campus.
Alfriston College have been delighted with the solution and with the work of Digital Signage Solutions Ltd who have implemented the screens in-keeping with the school’s unique aesthetic, communicating with the school throughout the process to ensure the solution would be what they hoped it would.
Doug Black commented; “We have a great relationship with Digital Signage Solutions and the implementation was fantastic, matching the look and feel of our very unique and stimulating learning environment.”
