Throughout its network of K-12 schools, Wisconsin’s School District of Waukesha is using Carousel Digital Signage to efficiently deliver announcements, event information, and more. The school district’s staff has embraced the cloud-based software solution, with 60 content contributors now keeping displays updated across the campuses of 25 schools.
Serving approximately 14,000 students, Waukesha is the seventh-largest school district in the state, with 12 elementary schools, four middle schools, four high schools, and five charter schools. The district allows each school to decide the level of Carousel Cloud adoption they wish to pursue. However, Luke Christopherson, IT help desk coordinator for the school district, noted that once people see what it’s capable of—and how it can allow them to create and deliver engaging content—they’re enthusiastic about incorporating it into their communications.
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“When they see it in action and discover how easy it is to use, they usually want to get up and running pretty quickly,” he said. “My job is to support their creativity and make sure they can distribute the messaging they want when they need to. With Carousel, it’s definitely very easy to do that. All I need to do is spend a half-hour guiding them through it, and they just hit the ground running from there.”
One of the most important features for Waukesha is Carousel Cloud’s user-friendly approach to content scheduling and distribution. “One user may create content for one school, but if it has to be replicated, we can deliver it to multiple sites right away,” Christopherson explained. “Also, many of our users like to plan and pre-schedule their content a month ahead of time, and they really like that Carousel Cloud lets them do that.”
Aside from daily school announcements, several Waukesha district schools are also using Carousel Cloud to manage the menu boards in their cafeterias. “They have three slides that rotate beverage, main course, and side course choices regularly, and they’re really happy with how easy it is to update that information,” Christopherson said. Other schools use the system to distribute photos from special events, such as Grandparents’ Day, or images of artwork produced by students.
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Christopherson is responsible for the back-end management of the Carousel Cloud system and user training. Previously, the district used Chromebit stick PCs running on GoogleOS to deliver content to its displays. Google ceased support for Chromebit in 2020, creating an opportunity to refresh the district’s digital signage strategy.
Because Waukesha classrooms were outfitted with Apple TVs, migrating to Carousel Cloud made perfect sense. The initial rollout involved 25 players, which grew to 75 over the course of 18 months. The rollout continues to accelerate, with half of the schools now operating multiple players. “We began by gradually swapping out the Chromebits," Christopherson recalled, "but as people saw how Carousel works, we experienced an increasing demand for it. It’s very accessible and easy for users to get the hang of.”
Carousel’s partnership with Jamf and its integration with the developer’s mobile device management (MDM) platform allows the IT team to bring new devices online easily, and gives Christopherson instant visibility into how the system is operating. The Jamf partnership has also allowed the district to securely convert its Apple TV devices into media players for more cohesive, efficient messaging and device management.
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“Both the Carousel and Jamf engineers worked with us to ensure that configuring new devices and managing them is really smooth,” he said. “If someone contacts me about an issue, I can take care of it on the back end without much—if any—back-and-forth with the user. Setting up an account, configuring permissions, delegating those permissions, and updating those permissions when a user needs access to an additional zone is also extremely easy. It’s a huge advantage to have a centralized way to control everything.”
