Carousel Digital Signage Modernizes Local Government Communications in California

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Carousel Digital Signage has substantially increased the efficiency of internal communications for the San Bernardino County Department of Child Support Services in California, a local government branch operating in the Los Angeles region. The Department’s IT organization recently deployed a Carousel Cloud digital signage network across its three locations in Loma Linda, Ontario, and Victorville, California.

Headquartered in Loma Linda, San Bernardino’s Department of Child Support Services currently uses Carousel Cloud to communicate content and messaging related to the company’s mission of delivering reliable child support services, and making a positive difference in the lives of local children. The organization previously used SharePoint to disseminate messaging, which caused significant challenges in reaching staff members in a timely and consistent manner.

“Items would get posted to our SharePoint site, and staff members would receive an email alerting them to new messages,” said Timothy Stewart, systems analyst at the organization. “If they read it, they read it––if they didn’t, they didn’t. We were looking for a solution that let us deliver these communications in a real-time format, and that didn’t require logging into the system and finding the right link to read it. With digital signage, the messaging is everywhere. Carousel Cloud ensures that our staff only has to look at the displays mounted throughout our offices.”

While Stewart has a solid background in audiovisual technology, he shares that this was his first digital signage rollout. “Carousel Cloud made it easy,” he said. “It required almost no engineering; you drag-and-drop your configurations into the platform and away you go. I was able to get my head around it in a day.” Over the next two weeks, he and his team deployed BrightSign players at all three office locations. “It was pretty much plug-and-play. There wasn’t much to it.”

Network content today is primarily made up of COVID safety information, case management best practices, and communications from staff committees about current projects and events. That content, shared across all three locations simultaneously, is built from text and graphics, with the Department’s media team responsible for content creation, playlist management, and network distribution. He notes that the organization’s media team leader picked it up in less than an hour, citing the learning curve as a huge benefit for an organization that has limited AV experience.

Stewart expects to diversify content across the network in the near future, having created separate channels for each office. Currently, a real-time weather bug local to each office represents the only targeted content – but he has plans to go further, including public-facing messages and content to lobby screens.

“Carousel Cloud makes it easy to customize content and target the distribution,” he said. “Thanks to Carousel Cloud’s user-friendly platform, scaling and management is hassle-free when we add new screens and mix in different content. The content management interface is surprisingly well-designed, and the workflow is very intuitive. This was exactly the right choice for taking organizational communications to new heights.”