Brentwood School - Customer Story 

How Brentwood School uses ScreenCloud to communicate with students and their families. Digital signage enables them to schedule content in advance and get the information to end-users in a timely manner.

Brentwood School is an independent day school with two campuses four blocks apart in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. They needed a digital signage solution to be able to share important information with students and their families.

Improve communication with students and parents

Find a system that allows for independent contributors but with centralized content control

Here, we speak to Meredith Storrs, Assistant Director of Communications at Brentwood School on her experience using ScreenCloud digital signage.

Our school is split across a West and East Campus and it’s important to the communications department that we’re able to reach everyone, regardless of location, when we have important information to share. 

We were looking for a digital signage tool that allowed different contributors across the school to manage their own screens independently yet enabled our department to approve the content remotely. 

Using ScreenCloud we have 13 screens across our two campuses to help us remind students and parents about upcoming events and other important news. 

The scheduling feature lets us plan ahead on what we’re sharing, while the zoning feature means we can split the screen and have multiple pieces of content showing at the same time.

We want the individual contributors to add their own content, but we also want to be mindful of it being accurate, looking good and being on brand. It’s really helpful that through ScreenCloud I can see and approve what our team have created to send out and that I can manage that from anywhere.

ScreenCloud has been tremendously effective in helping us get the information our families need in a timely manner and in a way that looks really good. It’s been such an effective way to promote our upcoming events.

I would recommend ScreenCloud to any other communications department because it helps you do your work and it’s so easy to use. 

How ScreenCloud digital signage centralized communication across Brentwood School’s two campuses, keeping students and their families informed in a timely manner through digital screens.

“ScreenCloud has been tremendously effective in helping the school get the information our families need in a timely manner and in a way that looks really good.”

Brentwood School Has Found Digital Signage to Be an Elegant and Timely Way of Communicating with Students and Their Parents

Lycee Francais De San Francisco - Customer Story 

How Lycée Français de San Francisco school use ScreenCloud to communicate internally with staff, students and parents. Digital signage allows them to democratize communication and empower the end-user with digital content on screens.

Lycée Français is a French school located in San Francisco, part of a network of 500 schools worldwide. The San Francisco branch has one centralized marketing department that looks after three different campuses. They needed a digital signage solution to effectively communicate with staff, students, and parents.

Save time in the marketing department by not having to filter incoming information but instead have a direct output channel via digital signage

Ability to use live feeds from events, and social media channels

Find a system that can be managed easily from any location

Here, we speak to Fabian Mach, Marketing and Communications Manager at Lycée Français de San Francisco on his experience using ScreenCloud digital signage.

Our marketing department is responsible for communicating with three campuses here in the San Francisco area. That’s 1000 students, their parents, and all of our staff. I wanted a digital signage solution that would allow me to create different feeds relevant to each campus and easily display that information via digital screens. I liked ScreenCloud because it didn't have the usual cheesy branding used in most products aimed at an educational market. 

Each department here has its own Twitter account. Before ScreenCloud, the communications department would receive the information, sort through it, then choose what to output meaning a lot of repeated and manual work. This took up a lot of time but also made us the gatekeepers of information. I believe in empowering people at the school to determine for themselves what is being communicated. Now, with ScreenCloud, the Twitter feeds connect directly to our digital signage screens and we can manage all of our content seamlessly. We let our 6-12th grade students create their own content and load it up to ScreenCloud to play on the screen. The children like seeing their photos on the screen, and the parents also see these when they visit. Every time we make a change, or upload an image, it's instantly shown on screen in real time. 

Because ScreenCloud is web-based, I can take my laptop anywhere and change feeds anytime. I wanted to customize one of the applications and found the support team incredibly responsive and helpful. That, to me, is priceless.

ScreenCloud has empowered people at the school to determine themselves what is being shared and to give real-time feedback on what they see. Instead of the communications department slowing down the flow of information, we can now make improvements instantly based on everyone’s feedback. It’s revolutionized the way we communicate at the school. 

How ScreenCloud digital signage software allowed Lycée Français de San Francisco school to manage its communication with staff, students and their parents using apps such as Instagram and YouTube.

“ScreenCloud has enabled us to create a direct and open communication channel with staff, students and parents alike. It’s democratized the flow of information because we now get real-time feedback on what we share.”

How Lycée Français de San Francisco Uses ScreenCloud to Democratize the Flow of Information Across Three Campuses

Berkeley National Lab - Customer Story 

How Berkeley National Lab use ScreenCloud as a cost-effective way to communicate important internal information to employees.

Berkeley National Lab is a DOE funded national laboratory doing basic energy research. They wanted a digital signage solution to help their staff keep up-to-date on company news.

Make sure staff see important internal communications 

Easily empower the communications team to share digital messages

Find a system that doesn’t require expensive hardware

Here, we speak to Kryshna Aviña, Web Program Manager at Berkeley National Lab on his experience using ScreenCloud digital signage.

Our strategic comms department are responsible for pushing out communications to all the employees at the lab. They were looking for a digital signage solution that was simple to use and didn’t involve expensive hardware. We had tried a few different systems throughout the Lab, but when I found ScreenCloud it was the easiest and most intuitive interface to use and allowed us to set screens up with cheap and easily accessible hardware. 

The messages from Strategic Comms are mainly logistical in nature such as telling employees about upcoming events. ScreenCloud lets us share these messages easily by embedding our regular internal communications platform. We can also use the screens to share social media feeds, and we have different content spread across different screens throughout the lab, the hallways and the café areas. ScreenCloud gives us a great platform for sharing good news, like when researchers win safety awards and Nobel prizes and ensures that everyone sees these important messages.

Setting up ScreenCloud couldn’t have been easier – you just attach any high-definition screen to inexpensive hardware and you're ready to go. 

ScreenCloud has enabled us to keep our staff regularly informed on internal news. The ability to easily beam out important content has been a game-changer for us.

How ScreenCloud helped Berkeley National Lab improve its corporate communication and keep employees up-to-date on important internal news, as well as sharing messaging with students in cafés for a shared screen experience.

“The ability to use ScreenCloud to easily beam out content that’s important to staff has been a game-changer for us.”

Nobel Prize Winning Berkeley National Lab Uses Digital Signage to Keep Staff Up-To-Date on Important Internal News

How Connecticut Public Learning implemented digital signage to share examples of student work in the real world and engage visitors at its media broadcast center. 

Connecticut Public is a public media company, producing award winning local and national television and radio programs and distributing PBS and NPR programs to Connecticut and surrounding communities. Connecticut Public also hosts a “Learning Lab” that delivers hands-on media education to students in middle school, high school, college, and offers unique educational opportunities for veterans and adult students.

Find an easy and visually sophisticated system to display student work on the walls

Ability to easily change content for different audiences and times of day

Find a cost-effective digital signage network that could work long-term

We spoke to to Paul Pfeffer, Director of Education at Connecticut Public Learning, on his experience using ScreenCloud to power their digital signage.

Displaying student work in the digital age was a challenge at Connecticut Public Learning. Traditional signage systems are difficult to set-up, maintain, and update - not to mention the equipment you need to purchase, along with the cost of an ongoing service contract.

When we first turned 20,000 square feet of our corporate HQ into a school, now known as the “Learning Lab,” we purchased a traditional digital signage system. We wanted a way to display the work our students were doing as part of our partnership with Hartford’s Journalism & Media Academy high school and our own Institute for Advanced Media for veterans and adult learners. 

With the system we purchased, even something really simple, like accurately displaying pictures, was difficult. The digital signage system would arbitrarily change image dimensions. Working with the interface was very much like being in a time capsule back to an early period of computer programming. We’re a cutting edge, innovative and entrepreneurial public media company, and we needed a simple, dynamic, digital signage system. 

The more we used it, the more it kept getting better. Every time we wanted to do something new, it was like, “oh you’ve got that covered.” It solved all of the problems we’d previously faced with other digital signage systems. We could easily ask new users to add or change the signage because ScreenCloud is so intuitive. Our staff can now change what is on our system so easily, without much time dedicated to training.

At the Learning Lab, we have 13 monitors set up to display, all using the Chrome browser to power the screens. When we display their work, our students have a sense of ownership of the Lab. It’s an open acknowledgement that we approve of their work and recognize their effort. 

In addition to students and families, the Connecticut Public staff and visitors are also inspired by the displays of student achievement. The Governor, Senate and Congressional representatives, Mayor, civic, community and artistic leadership, and industry professionals have all seen the work our students have done. 

ScreenCloud allows us to demonstrate to our students that we think so highly of their work that we will actually promote it and be proud of it. I guess it’s the digital equivalent of sticking your child’s work up on the refrigerator at home. 

We love ScreenCloud. Because the signal is cloud-based, anyone you share login credentials with can upload student work, leaving whoever you have in charge to add student work to a playlist and schedule it, which can also happen from anywhere, from any computer.

Scheduling is user-friendly, not the industry standard version that’s user hostile, making it possible to make both instant and long-term adjustments.

If we want to include a new graphic, it's not a problem. I’ll open Illustrator on my desktop to first create and then upload the graphic. Because ScreenCloud is web-based, the change to the display is immediate. Before I can take two steps out of my office to see the closest monitor, the graphic is already live. Awesome. 

For our students, we’ve created templates in our graphic art classes which the students use to prepare their work for the monitors. Their teacher is able to take all of those finished works and drop them right into the content folder on ScreenCloud to instantly publish them online. Within seconds, students start to see their artwork throughout the Lab.

The real benefit of having our digital signage system with ScreenCloud is the important link between our role as public media company and as a school. As Connecticut's PBS and NPR member stations, Connecticut Public Television and Connecticut Public Radio have very high visual standards. From the start, those standards are the benchmarks for inclusion on our internal monitors. Our students produce professional quality work, and it’s nestled in alongside staff content. Fo us, the only standard is broadcast standard, not the completion of an academic assignment. If the work is exceptional, we can actually do something really special - and put it out on the air. 

Students stop in the hall to engage with the screens, waiting to see their work. The screens can even be scheduled to combine the work of our veterans and adult learners along with the high school students, reinforcing the reality that the Learning Lab is a learning community. 

I look forward to incorporating new ScreenCloud features to continue to serve our students and public media community when they visit Connecticut Public and the Learning Lab. 

Update: This school year, our high school partner, the Journalism & Media Academy | Culinary Arts Academy | High School Inc., also transitioned from a legacy digital signage system to ScreenCloud. The reviews are very favorable.

How Connecticut Public Learning implemented digital signage to share examples of student work in the real world and engage visitors at its media broadcast center.

"The more we used it, the more it kept getting better. It solved all of the problems we’d previously faced with other digital signage systems. We could easily ask new users to add or change the signage because ScreenCloud is so intuitive."

ScreenCloud Enables Connecticut Public Learning to Easily Showcase Student Work While Meeting High Visual Standards 

How this school has improved its campus and given students more responsibility through ScreenCloud.

North Valley Baptist Schools is a very small K-12 private Christian school located in the Silicon Valley. The school is a ministry of North Valley Baptist Church and is open only to members of NVBC. The purpose of the school, since 1977, is to prepare young people for effective full-time Christian ministry.

Create high-quality media that is in accordance with the school’s mission statement.

Find a multi-use, affordable and flexible application to fulfill the school’s digital signage aims.

Begin using the digital signage framework already in place to inform, update and educate students and staff members.

Leslee Hussin, Webmaster, Upper Level Math Teacher, Media Team Adviser & Yearbook Adviser at North Valley Baptist Schools, tells us how she found ScreenCloud and what she uses it for today.

A few years ago, a generous family donated two HDTV screens to our school but before this school year, they were severely underutilized. In fact, one screen was installed at the front of our main auditorium but was never even turned on in the four years since it’s been installed. On the other screen, someone might have posted a generic photo gallery or two in the past few years, but otherwise, it was never turned on either.

After shopping around for about a month or two, it became very clear that there was no way we could afford the “bigger names” in digital signage out there. We signed up for a few trial accounts, but nothing was very user-friendly. On many websites, it was unclear what application/program was being offered, the price of the digital signage, or if there was a trial account I could access right away. If anything, most sites pointed me to sales reps. As a very busy educator, I don’t have the luxury or the inclination to sit around and wait on a sales rep to get back to me, to schedule a video conference with one, and so on.

Until we stumbled upon ScreenCloud! And I’m so glad. 

Both screens are Samsung HDTV’s. One screen is connected to a Windows 7-based computer (Intel NUC), and the other utilizes a Google Chromebit.

We use ScreenCloud to inform both staff and students on campus of daily, weekly and upcoming events, to display announcements and reminders, to recognize student achievement, to display student photography and other digital projects, and to celebrate student & staff birthdays and milestones.

I tell my media team (comprised of high school sophomores and juniors) that our goal is to inform and to educate the student body, and to enrich the quality of our school campus.

At first, I thought, compared to other examples I’ve seen, that ScreenCloud was just a ‘glorified slideshow’ provider. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Google Slides, in particular, has been a lifesaver. It allows my entire media team to share their work with one another on Google’s platform, to collaborate, and make immediate changes to our content (announcements, reminders, photo galleries, etc.). Updating our digital signage using Google Slides couldn’t be any simpler.

I’m also able to share Google documents with students without having to give them access to our ScreenCloud account.

We create all of our material in-house, using PhotoShop, Google Slides, and various graphic and typography apps found on Apple’s App Store.

It’s been a terrific way for my media students to learn graphic design skills and then be able to show off their handiwork in real-time. Their assignments are for the “real world,” and I’ve enjoyed seeing each student take careful, diligent ownership of our screens on campus.

ScreenCloud, though "across the pond" from us, has been very prompt and professional in every communication we’ve had. Everyone I’ve been in contact with, from the CEO to the support staff, has only validated that we made the right choice to go with ScreenCloud as our school’s digital signage solution.

As a small school, we appreciate the educational pricing offered. 

ScreenCloud is the best decision we’ve made. It’s been the ultimate affordable, attractive solution to digital signage. 

Our campus was recently renovated, and adding digital signage via ScreenCloud has just taken our campus to the next level in terms of aesthetics, communication, and professionalism.

We already had everything in place - flatscreens and a fast, reliable Internet connection - but it took ScreenCloud to put it all together for us!

An insight into how North Valley Baptist Schools in Silicon Valley has created an educational digital signage network using apps and Google docs to inform staff and students.

"ScreenCloud is the best decision we’ve made. It’s been the ultimate affordable, attractive solution to digital signage."

North Valley Baptist Schools Use Digital Signage to Inform and Educate the Student Body

How ScreenCloud allowed this school to adopt digital signage, after 8 years of testing different systems.

Merchant Taylors’ Schools is a family of schools based in Crosby, Liverpool including a primary school, Senior and Junior Boys’ School and Senior Girls’ School, for children aged 4 to 18 years. With a consistent 100% pass rate at A Level and 80% of all grades at A* to B, along with a focus on sports and extracurricular activity, Merchant Taylors’ is held in high-esteem within its area. 

Find a digital signage system suitable for schools that is cost effective, including the hardware.

Implement a system that is easy to setup and manage and work with a digital signage vendor where feedback is listened and responded to.

Find ways of sharing and curating content that isn’t labour-intensive on the staff and ICT department. 

Here we speak to Nigel Price, ICT Director, at Merchant Taylors' Schools on how he found ScreenCloud and how the school uses it today.

As someone who has a background of working as CTO in a digital signage startup, I have extensive knowledge of digital signage software and the pros and cons of different systems within the industry. 

When I joined Merchant Taylors’ eight years ago I started looking at digital signage solutions that were suitable for schools and also cost effective. We experimented with many solutions but they were too costly especially from the player point of view and licensing costs. 

That's why when I stumbled across ScreenCloud I was so pleased as their solution was very easy to use and cost effective - even before the educational discount that they offer to schools -  and their support is fantastic. Rather than expensive players and housing costs, our costs were the screens with Android player built in, or a screen we already had plus a tiny, cheap Amazon Fire TV Stick.

With this solution up and running it’s now easier to ask for budget as once our English department had their screen, our other departments like Biology wanted one. At the moment they have a small screen running off a memory stick, which means they can’t update it instantly, or add Twitter screens like we can with ScreenCloud.

For new installations within the schools we use screens from a company in the UK called AllSee which have an inbuilt Android Player, mounted in corridors in recessed areas. They’re great because the ScreenCloud player runs automatically on startup and we can schedule the screens to go off at night and turn on in the morning to save on power. 

Where we have existing TV screens we use them with Amazon Fire TV sticks. These are a great media player option due to low cost and the fact that the ScreenCloud app can be set to play automatically on startup.

We have four different screens currently running across schools, all showing different forms of content.

The ScreenCloud App Store has helped with content creation as the apps, particularly the Twitter, News, RSS and Facebook apps, mean that the content doesn’t have to be created in house. Once we’ve set up the schedule and playlist, the screens are fed by tweets and updates that are already happening elsewhere. We don’t have to reinvent content.

For example, in the English department we have a screen which shows what’s happening within the department, mixed with general news from around the world which sparks debate and topic discussions in class. Our students stop to read the screens and the congestion in the corridors shows that they're taking note of what’s on there! The Head of Literacy then uses the screen to promote reading clubs, book clubs, literacy sessions and all sorts of things. 

The screen at the Boys’ Sixth Form uses ScreenCloud apps to show current exchange rates, weather and news from the Financial Times, CNN and BBC. When the students are doing A Levels, real time events happening around the world are discussed in lessons and used to illustrate principles. We also show the Sixth Form Twitter feeds - for example if there’s a PSHE slot or morning briefing they will be told about it by the screens.

Within the shared sports centre located at the Boys’ School we show general Twitter feeds about the school and the centre’s own Twitter feed which is used to promote the rental of the sports centre which does have an impact on our bottom line. If the sports centre is rented out, it’s paying for itself and its staff. 

Since implementing the system the only drawback has been more and more departments wanting to display messages so my team and I have to work harder!

With school budgets, I found it very difficult to find a good, easy-to-use solution that was flexible enough and cheap enough for us to use, with buying players and so on. It’s taken me on-and-off, those eight years to really find a system which I liked enough, which was cost-effective enough. 

Until we found ScreenCloud we couldn’t adopt digital signage. 

I searched long and hard for a digital signage vendor that had a great solution, great support and pricing that was ok for schools and was easy to work with so I am really happy to recommend ScreenCloud.

I deal with many vendors and Mark and his team have been very helpful and responsive to suggestions as well so they are a pleasure to work with.

Interested in using ScreenCloud for your school, college or university? Sign up for our free trial - we offer 5% discount to all non-profit organizations.

A look inside the ScreenCloud digital signage software system being used for education across multiple departments at Merchant Taylor’s Schools.

"Until we found ScreenCloud we couldn’t adopt digital signage.”

Merchant Taylors’ Schools Use ScreenCloud to Promote Events and Share Educational Content Across Different Departments 