Schools, colleges, universities

Educational digital signage: the right information, in the right place

A timetable that changes, a canteen opening early, a room moved, an open day on Saturday. The same questions come back every day, and they wear the office down. A well-placed screen answers them on its own — at the entrance, at the canteen, outside the room, in the staff room.

7,000+connected screens

1,000+customer accounts

20+countries

130+partners

Definition

What is digital signage in a school?

Digital signage is a network of connected screens driven remotely from a single piece of software. In education it takes over from the noticeboard in the entrance hall, the sheets taped to classroom doors and the printed notices nobody reads twice.

Three things change compared with printed notices:

  • ✓Information is updated remotely: a room change entered at 8 am is visible everywhere within the minute.
  • ✓Every area carries its own message: the entrance hall welcomes families, the canteen shows the menu, the corridor lists the day’s lessons.
  • ✓Publishing is scheduled ahead: exams in June, the open day in March, safeguarding notices all year round.

From one screen to a whole campus

The setup scales with the school: a single screen in a primary school entrance, or a full network across a university campus. Same interface either way, from 1 to 1,000 screens per account.

Timetables

Today’s timetable and room changes, on screen

A teacher off sick, a room double-booked, an exam moved: in a school the timetable shifts every day. Shown in the entrance hall and along the corridors, it saves the crowd gathering at the school office window and the pupils hunting for their room.

The timetable is updated from E-MANAGER, and the current lesson is highlighted automatically. You can enter the periods by hand or connect your existing MIS — SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom and the like — so the data flows through on its own, with no double entry.

  • ✓The current lesson highlighted, the next ones announced.
  • ✓Today’s changes flagged along the bottom of the screen.
  • ✓A view per building or per floor: each screen shows only what concerns its own area.

Screen showing today's timetable and room numbers in a school corridor

E-PAPER

At the classroom door: e-paper and attendance by QR code

E-paper panel beside a classroom door showing a QR code for registering attendance

Outside each room, an E-PAPER electronic ink panel shows the lesson in progress, the class and the time — and carries a QR code that students scan to register their attendance. The paper register that travels along the rows, goes missing and then gets typed up by hand simply disappears.

Electronic ink suits this job particularly well: it draws no power while the display stays the same, runs up to five years on a charge and reads without glare in a lit corridor. No cable to pull to every classroom — the panel goes up like a picture frame.

  • ✓Time-stamped attendance: each scan is dated and the register fills itself in.
  • ✓The panel follows the timetable: at the change of period, the display follows.
  • ✓EMITY is the first French publisher to support electronic ink, with SOLUM and SAMSUNG.

The journey

Where do screens earn their place in a school?

The principle fits in one line: the right information, in the right place, at the right time. A school does not need more screens, it needs each screen to say what matters where it hangs. These are the five places that come up everywhere, from the front gate to the staff room.

1

At the entrance

What’s on today, wayfinding, pupil and visitor badges

→

2

At the canteen

Today’s menu, allergens and diets, live queue length

→

3

Outside the room

Lesson in progress, room free or busy, attendance by QR code

→

4

Inside the room

Lesson slides, live streaming, room house rules

→

5

In the staff room

School diary, today’s meeting, statutory notices

A day on site

One school day, five screens

The same network, five places, five jobs. Follow an ordinary Tuesday from the front gate to the staff room — each screen says only what matters where it hangs.

Pupils in uniform crossing the entrance hall of a British school past a wall screen announcing the open day1

7.50 am · At the entrance

Pupils, families, visiting speakers and guests all come through the same door. The hall screen announces what is on today, points people to the right building, and badges are collected on the spot.

Screen above the serving counter of a school dining hall showing today's main course and serving times2

11.45 am · At the canteen

Today’s menu goes up at the entrance to the servery, with allergens and special diets. The screen also shows how busy it is, so the queue spreads itself across the sitting.

Electronic paper panel beside a classroom door showing the room, the lesson and a QR code for attendance3

1.30 pm · Outside the room

An e-paper panel beside the door shows the lesson in progress, the class and the time. Pupils scan the QR code on their way in: attendance is time-stamped, with no register to call.

Students walking past a screen outside a university lecture theatre showing the current lecture4

2.00 pm · Inside the room

The room screen takes over: lesson slides, a lecture streamed to another building, and the house rules for the room between two bookings.

Two teachers talking in a school staff room beside a screen showing the school diary and statutory notices5

4.15 pm · In the staff room

The last screen of the day, and the only one that does not speak to pupils: the school diary, today’s meeting and the statutory notices, always in their current version.

Uses

What do screens actually do in a school or college?

Six situations schools meet all year round — from the safety drill to enrolment day. One piece of software covers them all, with different content on each screen.

Digital signage screen in a school corridor showing the assembly point during a fire drill, with pupils walking calmly

Raise the alarm in seconds

An alert playlist takes over every screen in one click: lockdown instructions, evacuation, fire drill. The same message everywhere, at the same moment, including in outlying buildings.

Parents in a school entrance hall in front of a digital signage screen announcing the parents evening

Welcome families→

Parents’ evenings, open days, governor meetings: the entrance hall directs visitors without tying up the school office. The visitor book goes paperless too.

Pupils chatting in a school common room in front of a screen showing trips, clubs and sport

Show the school off

Trips, class projects, sports results, pupil artwork: screens put on display what the school actually does, for pupils and families alike.

Two pupils in front of a careers touch screen kiosk showing jobs, fairs and tours

Guide and inform→

Placement offers, careers fairs, enrolment steps: a touch kiosk lets everyone browse at their own pace and sign up on the spot.

Digital signage screen replacing the printed noticeboard for statutory notices in a school administration corridor

Keep statutory notices current→

Safeguarding information, fire procedures, evacuation plans: required notices stay current and dated, with nothing to reprint after each revision.

Families waiting in a school entrance hall in front of a screen calling ticket numbers on enrolment day

Manage enrolment queues→

At the start of term or during enrolment, queue management calls each turn and cuts the time spent standing in the corridor.

What to look for

What to expect from educational digital signage

A school is not an office: budgets are tight, staff wear several hats and the calendar follows the academic year. These six points are what make the difference once the screens are up.

Publishing without IT

The school office, the pastoral team or a teacher lead must be able to publish on their own. If every change needs a supplier, the screens end up frozen.

A link to your MIS

Timetables, absences, rooms: the data already exists in SIMS, Arbor or Bromcom. The real question is whether the platform can read it rather than have it retyped.

Multi-site working

A trust, a college group or a campus drives every screen from one dashboard, while each site keeps control of its own information.

Areas with no power

Outside classrooms, outdoors, in halls of residence: electronic ink displays without a permanent supply, where running a cable would cost more than the screen.

Estate monitoring

Knowing which screen is on and what it is showing, building by building. A fault shows up on the dashboard rather than in a phone call from reception.

Screens you already own

Many schools already have screens or projectors. Compatibility with every manufacturer avoids replacing a whole estate.

Topic The question to ask How EMITY answers
A school budget Do we have to invest before knowing it works? A free three-month trial on the Excellence plan, up to 3 screens, lets you prove it on one entrance hall before going further.
Existing screens Do we need to replace the hardware? Compatibility with every manufacturer: the E-SOFT app installs inside the screen (Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Android), otherwise an E-BOX player plugs in over HDMI.
Timetables Do lessons have to be retyped? Periods are entered in E-MANAGER or pulled from your MIS through the API.
Attendance How do we take the register without paper? An E-PAPER panel at the door shows a QR code: the student scans it and attendance is time-stamped.
Safeguarding How do we alert the whole site at once? An alert playlist takes over every screen in one click, from a computer or a phone.
Support Who installs it and trains the staff? More than 130 certified distribution partners across France and Europe, with an engineering team for multi-building projects.

How it works

How does a screen network fit into a school?

A screen network rests on three parts. The software — E-MANAGER — is the dashboard everything is driven from, in a plain browser. The player feeds the screen: the E-BOX box over HDMI, or the E-SOFT app installed inside the screen where it supports it. Then the screen itself: a display in the hall, a totem, an E-CLICK touch kiosk or an E-PAPER electronic ink panel at the classroom door.

1. Create

The EMITY built-in editor makes a notice or an announcement straight in the platform, from templates. And if the school already works with Canva or Adobe Express, both connect to it.

2. Schedule

You pick the screens, the times and the duration: menus at 11 am, lessons all day, the open day for a fortnight.

3. Publish

It reaches the chosen screens in seconds. The E-BOX player, the E-SOFT app or the E-PAPER panel displays the content.

The free three-month trial opens the Excellence plan, up to 3 screens — enough for an entrance hall and two corridors before you decide.

Track record

Screen networks already running on EMITY

From a single-site school to a multi-building campus, the support scales with the size of the estate.

7,000+

connected screens worldwide

1,000+

customer accounts, from 1 to 1,000 screens

130+

certified distribution partners

FAQ

Educational digital signage: your questions answered

It is a network of connected screens installed around a school — entrance hall, corridors, canteen, library, classrooms — and driven remotely from a single piece of software. Content such as timetables, menus, news and safety notices is updated from a browser, with nothing to reprint and no walking between buildings.

Periods are entered in E-MANAGER, or pulled through the API from the MIS you already use — SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom — so nothing is typed twice. The screen highlights the current lesson, announces the next ones and flags the day’s changes. The view can be filtered per building or per floor.

An E-PAPER panel beside the door shows the lesson in progress along with a QR code. The student scans it with their phone on the way in: attendance is time-stamped and the register fills itself in. At the change of period, the panel follows the timetable.

An electronic ink panel draws no power while the display stays the same, runs up to five years on a charge and reads without glare. It goes up like a picture frame, with no cable to pull to every classroom — which matters a great deal in an existing building.

It depends on the number of screens, the subscription plan and the hardware already in place. The three plans — Standard, Premium and Excellence — are set out on our subscriptions page. The free three-month trial lets you cost the project on your own site first.

Yes, in the great majority of cases. If the screen runs Samsung Tizen, LG webOS or Android, the E-SOFT app installs directly inside it; otherwise an E-BOX player plugs in over HDMI. Taking over an estate fitted by a competitor is also provided for, under the Replay label.

An alert playlist takes over every screen in one click, from a computer or a phone: lockdown instructions, evacuation, fire drill. The same message appears everywhere at the same moment, including in outlying buildings.

The school office, the pastoral team or a teacher lead, with no technical skills required: the built-in editor puts the notice together in the platform and publishing takes a few clicks. No IT staff are needed to change an announcement.

Yes. The setup scales from a primary school entrance to a multi-building campus, with 1 to 1,000 screens per account and the same interface throughout. Lecture theatres, halls of residence and training centres share the same uses: timetables, campus life, alerts.

Let us look at what your screens could be telling your pupils

A 30-minute demo on your own school, or three months free on the Excellence plan, up to 3 screens. No card details required.