We recently caught up with Dave Kemp, IT and Data Lead at Thrive Co-operative Learning Trust, and Alex Rey, who manages Marketing at Kelvin Hall School. The trust started using TrilbyTV about a year ago as a replacement for their legacy signage system. Now Kelvin Hall School and The Boulevard Academy use TrilbyTV, with Newland School for Girls coming onboard this September.
We talked about why they decided to move to TrilbyTV, the benefits of engaging digital content for the whole school community, and their plans for the future.
Modernising signage at Thrive Trust
Before TrilbyTV, Kelvin Hall school used a hardware system for their digital signage. Dave explained that the setup was “inflexible and expensive” because they needed to pay for specific equipment and its maintenance. It was also difficult to manage without being on-site, so the trust had a limited overview of school content. Eventually, the system failed and Kelvin Hall was left with screens that weren’t being used. The Boulevard school didn’t use this legacy system but they didn’t have an easy solution for signage, which meant that their screens were often switched off too.
The trust trialled used projectors to display signage around their schools but it quickly became expensive when bulbs and equipment had to be replaced. LCD screens, on the other hand, were much cheaper and lasted a long time. Plus, the team realised that they already had lots of screens that weren’t being used.
TrilbyTV offered the solution – easy-to-use, cloud-based software that could be used with their existing screens. Without having to buy any expensive hardware, Thrive were able to get their screens up and running again with engaging content that can be managed from anywhere. Alex says, “it’s so simple to use! I know that I can easily hop on whether I’m at home or school and quickly change something for someone if I need to.”
From a trust perspective, Dave says that he loves TrilbyTV’s multisite feature which lets him quickly look at signage at different schools in the trust at the click of a button. He also mentions, “it’s not expensive to run, it fits in with our budget really well.” TrilbyTV’s unlimited screen subscription runs on a wide range of players which gives them the flexibility to choose which to buy. Thrive prefer using Amazon Firesticks but they like that they’re not tied to a single player.
Engaging students, staff and parents with digital content
Alex, who creates the majority of the content at Kelvin Hall, explains that the on-screen content should be, “relevant to students, so they want to interact with it. And when they interact, they learn something.”
One of his favourite initiatives is an interactive literary scavenger hunt for the students. Alex worked with the English department to create short video interviews with teachers about books they’re reading. He created a schedule in TrilbyTV so that different teachers are shown every day and students can take part in a ‘scavenger hunt’ by filling out a card with the information they find on the screens. He says, “I think it’s really had an impact in school as well, to have the screens up and running and for the students to be able to stop during break and lunch and to see what the teachers are doing for them, and what’s going on. I think it’s really improved the school culture.”
Five considerations for digital signage
Download free PDFTrilbyTV helps the trust to engage with the wider community too: “It’s great for open evenings, it’s great for when visitors are in school, it just looks really nice,” Dave explains. Alex goes on to talk about a recent Year 6 welcome evening, saying that he created a short video presentation that could be shown on screens around the school. Prospective parents and students could stop wherever they were in the building and see the key messages the school wanted to convey.
Plans for the future
David and Alex are excited about the future of TrilbyTV at Thrive. They are adding their third secondary school in September and hope to expand their digital signage estate at Kelvin Hall and The Boulevard too.
As the screens have been rolled out around the schools, staff from different departments have been inspired by the opportunities TrilbyTV offers. For example, Dave says that he’d love to see more screens in different areas of the schools, including the PE department, where they could promote sports fixtures and celebrate student achievements.
Dave and Alex also discuss using TrilbyTV in the classroom to share trust-wide messaging and educational content. Alex says he’d like to see curriculum content displayed so that students coming into the classroom can benefit from engaging learning material, relevant to their subject and level.
Dave finished by saying, “Trilby’s been great from the initial sale, to getting onboarded, to having the flexibility of viewing all schools in one place, the support is really fast. As a company to work with, TrilbyTV is fantastic.”
We’re so happy to hear about TrilbyTV’s positive impact at Thrive Trust, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds. If you’re interested in seeing how TrilbyTV can make a difference to digital signage at your school or trust, sign up for a free demo or try it out for yourself with a 30 day trial.