Digital displays turn market-watching into a shared experience at Canisius College
Posted on Wed, December 17, 2008
Getting information may be easier than ever in the Internet Age, but sharing that information still poses challenges that can’t be solved by the personal computer alone.
At Canisius College, a private college in Buffalo, NY, students in the Department of Economics and Finance learn the intricacies of global financial markets in part by managing a real-life investment fund. They analyze different business models and market opportunities, and discuss strategies for the fund as part of their business school curriculum. And they needed a way to view and analyze the market together, in a classroom setting.
“The Golden Griffin Fund (GGF) is a student-managed, real money equity investment fund,” explains GGF Director Mike Piemonte. “There are several institutional investors in the fund, which researches and invests in small and mid-cap domestic companies. What sets the fund apart is the work done by the students. They produce high quality investment research and graduate from the program with ‘real world’ skills in both analysis and presentation.”
Mr. Piemonte, who serves as the primary faculty advisor to the student-managers, says that the College went looking for digital displays because “we wanted to be able to see what was happening in the financial markets and what was happening with our portfolio companies.”
Specifically, Canisius business students needed to see that information collectively. “Prior to getting our displays, that information was difficult for a group to access. Information could be accessed on individual computers, but could not be viewed and discussed by a large group.”
To make the particulars and vicissitudes of the financial markets visible to everyone, Canisius invested in a new data board, a ticker display, and two 46” LCD displays, all supplied by Rise Display.
According to Mr. Piemonte, the displays were mounted in prominent locations within the College: “The data board, the ticker and one of the LCDs are located in the financial markets lab, which is used as a classroom for the GGF and is also an information resource to others in school outside the GGF program. The other LCD is located right outside the lab, mounted in a major thoroughfare hallway.”
Along with associated live data feeds, that particular combination of electronic LED and LCD displays “fit our needs,” says Mr. Piemonte. “Information is now available to the GGF class and to others in the college. It’s easier to talk about the goings on in the financial markets to a group of students.
“Everyone has been very happy with the appearance and function of the Rise displays. Rise provided us with a comprehensive solution at a reasonable price.”
System Planning Corporation gets an attractive digital signage solution under a tight deadline
Posted on Thu, December 11, 2008
Of course we all try to avoid them, but sometimes, a Rise success story starts with a problem. We were pleased to hear, for example, how Rise Display software and hardware saved the day for the System Planning Corporation (SPC), who sought us out after their previous display system let them down right before a big Open House. SPC’s Rich Griffin, Network Administrator, tells the story:
“System Planning Corporation provides research and development, systems engineering, and technology support services to a wide variety of government and commercial clients. We had been using static signage to provide our conference customers with information on where to find the conference room locations for their meetings, but the building owner had become unhappy with our signs being placed all over the elevator lobbies.
So we were looking for a very modest digital sign alternative: dual elevator lobby monitors on three separate floors here at our corporate headquarters, as well as larger monitors in reception areas on the same three floors. As for content, our elevator lobby monitors would be used for corporate PR, new and existing employee spotlights, conferencing schedules for our internal users, as well as conference services we provide for external users, the occasional in-house produced video, and cable TV.
When we first discovered Rise Display, we were essentially trying to find an acceptable digital display solution for a failed implementation provided by a previous vendor. We had contracted with a local digital signage provider, but after all the paperwork had been signed, it was determined that their solution would be wholly inadequate for our purposes.
There was a great deal of urgency, because the fact that the previous vendor’s signage product was completely unacceptable forced us to scramble to find another vendor who could meet our now compressed deadline. Basically, we needed to have our digital signage up and running in time for our Open House – which included a walk-through by our CEO to show off our newly remodeled corporate headquarters – that was scheduled for June 18, 2008.
I did some quick research and determined that Rise’s internet-based solution would meet our needs and that Rise could implement it within a very tight deadline that we were working under. After trying the Rise Display Network demo before we decided to purchase it, I felt confident that it would be an easily manageable solution.
We liked that it’s internet-based. We felt the combination of the Rise-created templates with our own in-house content, as well as the web-based management approach, was the easiest solution for us.
So we had Rise do the full installation of all monitors and monitor mounts, including three 42-inch monitors we had purchased from another vendor. They got it all done in time for our Open House. Rise was able to provide us with an attractive web-based solution with low overhead under a very tight deadline.”
SPC’s managers and employees alike have been very pleased with the look of our Rise digital signage. The ability to integrate the subscription features, such as the weather, sports, news or stocks, has been a hit. And the overall look of our current templates is exactly what was envisioned when a digital signage solution was first proposed here at SPC.”
