User Forum

Our university already had Informacast working with our Cisco phones when we decided to go with AxisTV.  So now we need to get something working between our content server and Informacast to get our emergancy messages out.  We have a few options and I think we can do it without too much trouble but I wondered if anyone else out there had already done this or come up with a really great way to put out their emergency messages as automated as possible?

Thanks-cp

The AxisTV solution runs a number of asynchronous services.  So, in a given display you may have a wallpaper, a content block playing still images, a block playing Flash, a content block with auto-updating RSS, a ticker and floating date/time.  Each of the processes run independently.  Changing to "Alert" mode is actually quite disruptive programmatically.  We shut down all of the relevant services and then start a new service running the "Alert" message.

 The 7.0.x series of builds are capable of sending text messages, created in the "text messenger" tool, to Omnilert (e2campus) distribution lists.  AxisTV is not, however, capable of being "triggered" by another application to change modes.  We are in internal discussions to produce a two pronged plan that enables AxisTV to first be triggered by a third-party application via email (uniquely identified accounts, i.e. fire@visixtv.com) and launch a predefined playlist into "Alert" mode.  Through this approach, you may be able to launch AxisTV into a predefined "Alert" mode through the InformaCast console.  I am not familiar with how their product works or the scope of their features.

The second prong is more complex and would create a unique "critical announcement" interface capable of not only switching AxisTV into a specific mode but also sending the appropriate commands to a number of dispariate communications platforms - e2campus, Alertus, Exchange, etc...).

 I will keep you posted on our progress and may reach out for your input in the process.

 Sean Matthews

That is great to hear.  I'm sure others will face this as time goes on.