Information for admin staff to maintain and create content for display televisions
Getting started
Digital signage is best described as your digital version of a newsletter. It can display content from simple pictures to carefully worded text. Below you will find some of the tools you
may find useful for designing your message.
- Microsoft Powerpoint - Microsoft Word - Graphic editors Krita and Apple's Preview
- Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign
If you do not have any of these applications please contact the tech department to get them installed.
As an alternative Carousel has a built-in editor for adding text and images.
You should already have been given your login for the administration area of your site, if not request if from the tech department.
Next steps
Once your ready to begin and have the tools you would like use, its time to start planning content for uploading.
The current TVs are setup to use a landscape layout,
keep this in mind when starting a new document.
When starting a new document if given the choice select a landscape style of approximately 1900 x 1060 pixel size.
This is the current canvas size limit. You can also select a smaller size like 800 x 600 and upsize it later in the editor you are using.
Insert photos or text blocks to convey your message saving the document in either JPG or PNG type.
Initial steps to start building ...
When designing a message to be displayed think of the screen as your canvas and can have a blend of pictures, text or video added to it. If you create generic templates these can be
re-used to build bulletins later.
The Carousel signage system breaks down into 3 major parts, media, templates and bulletins as show here.
Don't worry the system while it seems complicated is actually very easy to use. Once you have your site up and running maintaining it is a simple matter.
You can use any mix of text, pictures, videos or other media types like RSS feeds from social media services. But keep in mind people have to be able to see it in a passing glance.
The best place to start is by uploading a couple of photos so we have content ready to display as we work on other things. Watching the video below you will see how easy
to upload and manage media.
Once you have media uploaded its now time to create a template which will form a frame to put your photos and text information.
It is a good practise to create templates for different topics such as ..
Room changes
Future events
Class timetables
Substitute teachers
Building directions
Lunch Menu
Ideally you can think of templates as placeholders for your content. Normally a template would be considered the background but Carousel uses it in such a way that it can be either the background
or just a spot for photos with captions or other additions.
In this section we are going to create templates.
Now you have some content for your site Its time to start putting it together. To achieve this we start by building a template. Templates are great because
you can have a handful that are reusable when comes time to create bulletins, which is the final stage of producing an image on the display.
Watch the video below to see a blank template created using powerpoint, you can use any graphic editor the methods will be similar.
In the example a template with some text, logo and a gradient was applied then exported as a PNG file. PNG is the suggested file type for its compatibility between different applications.
You could add the items to your powerpoint document, however in the next video you will see how Carousel makes this task easier.
In this video a bulletin was completed using the template previously created. You can reuse this bulletin by going into its editor and edit the text blocks individually.
Digital signage has been around for a very long time and there are numerous support resources out there for you.
Using a search engine such as Google will yield many ideas and
free images specifically for signage. If you choose royalty free or CCL (Creative Commons License) images they can be used or manipulated as you see fit.
Also a quick search for how-tos and videos on working with graphics will yield many on the various applications you may want to use such as
Photoshop/Illustrator, Krita, Apple preview, Powerpoint and others.
The video demos from Carousel can be of benefit to view but has some content that will not be applicable in our school district.
Content creation tips
While there are no limits to the content you can publish most of your workflow will consist of working with pictures and text. Click the link below to go to a page dedicated to the
different composing methods.
How you produce content does not matter as long as what you make is in a convenient package for the viewer to see. Some tips on creating
good content ...
* Keep your message short and concise. * When inserting photos use the highest quality original then shrink to fit. * Use the largest text size possible.
* Keep current district or school branding in mind. * If possible verify your work by viewing the display.
