TSN

Engaging digital signage media in schools and college campuses helps promote meaningful initiatives and reinforce core humanistic values. However, most signage solutions currently available are generic, often designed for use across various sectors like banks, car dealerships, and fast-food chains. In reality, the use cases and audiences for educational environments differ significantly from those in commercial settings. As a result, a one-size-fits-all solution is insufficient for effectively engaging students and fostering the desired school culture.

“Effective communication mediums are critical to not only improving safety, but also keeping students motivated and engaged in meaningful activities, thereby creating a positive and nourishing campus culture where students feel welcomed and remain engaged,” says Michael Broyles, CEO and founder of TSN Visual Communication Solutions. “We believe a better-informed citizen is a better citizen, and as such a better-informed student is a better student. It begins in the foundation of modern society— the schools.”

Broyles continues, “I have never met a teacher or administrator that is not thinking about two things: improving safety and creating a positive culture. Effective visual communication can do so much to strengthen both. In everything we do, we consider how TSN can improve and enhance school safety and school culture.”
Built on this philosophy, TSN, a leading provider of innovative signage solutions, created a portfolio of edu-centric products that truly fit the higher education and K-12 mold. Its products are designed with user feedback as the central piece, focusing on the use case, user base, and audience type to ensure tailored, effective communication across different school environments, from grade schools to high schools.

In a school setting, TSN actively seeks to answer questions like, "What is the use case?" and "Why is someone sharing this content?" It identifies the user base—those pushing the information—and the audience type—those receiving it.

For example, a student in the library will engage with different content than one in the sports locker room, so effective signage solutions must align with students’ unique interests and environments to keep engagement high.

Understanding the audience has enabled TSN to offer a purpose-built solution, made up of smaller, integrated networks aptly named Connections. TSN's platform includes Campus Connect, Classroom Connect, Athletic Connect, Cafeteria Connect, and Community Connect. In a world where traditional communication methods—such as bulletin boards and printed flyers—are often deemed inadequate, these solutions can help institutions resonate better with today’s digital-savvy learners.

Comprehensive Solutions for Diverse Needs

•CLASSROOM CONNECT

TSN’s Classroom Connect is designed with the learning environment in mind. Since interactive panels are widely used as teaching tools within the classroom, TSN has designed its signage application to function harmoniously within them. Classroom Connect allows digital signage to seamlessly display during scheduled passing periods, automatically displaying important school-wide announcements, addressing students as they enter the classroom before reverting to their classroom function while requiring no action from the teacher. This hands-free approach ensures that students receive vital updates without disrupting the teacher's workflow. Moreover, the emergency alert system takes over the screen if there's a lockdown or emergency, regardless of what the teacher is doing, ensuring critical information is delivered immediately. The product can also directly integrate with emergency management and digital safety systems like Centigex, Raptor, Alertus, CrisisGo, Informacast and others.

Another convenient feature of Classroom Connect is its live-streaming capability. Whether it's a morning announcement or a critical message from the principal, the system allows school leadership to broadcast live to all—or selected—classrooms at any moment. This replaces the traditional PA system with a more dynamic, visual approach, ensuring that important messages are never missed, even when teachers are busy with classroom activities. Under control of the principal, TSN will deliver the announcement to the panel ensuring the message reaches its audience directly without relying on teachers to manually pull up specific content.

• CAMPUS CONNECT

In addition to environment-specific solutions, TSN facilitates school-wide signage messaging through Campus Connect. This connection turns screens into a powerful broadcast ecosystem in mere minutes and displays messages through slides, videos, and live feeds in hallways, common areas, and wherever students gather - to make sure they never miss any information. It is designed for efficiency, allowing schools to disseminate important announcements, event notifications, and safety alerts in real time.

Outside the classrooms, TSN’s Athletic Connect is a great addition to sporting areas, effectively meeting the needs of coaches and athletes. For instance, in the locker room, athletes and coaching staff look for relevant information such as game highlights, player recognition, and details about upcoming opponents. Coaches can use Athletic Connect to celebrate achievements like the "300 Club" or showcase the week's top performers. This tool keeps athletes engaged with content that directly appeals to their interests, making it a valuable asset in the athletic environment.

• CAFETERIA CONNECT

Additionally, Cafeteria Connect meets the needs of the most frequented space in any school—the lunchroom. It answers the quintessential question, “What’s for lunch?” Cafeteria Connect allows the school’s food service team to control digital displays, easily updating the daily menu with options like cheeseburgers, pizza, or a taco bar. The staff can preload an entire year's worth of menus with just a few clicks. And, during non-serving hours, the Cafeteria Connect screens can be scheduled to automatically switch to the Campus Connect Network ensuring the school’s infrastructure remains in use throughout the day.

• COMMUNITY CONNECT

Community Connect allows schools to distribute content directly to the community to share information about upcoming bonds, school or district events, and on administrative changes or school policy. Schools reach out to existing partners such as a local restaurant, car dealership, bank, airport or Chamber of Commerce as most of these locations have existing televisions. The TSN system can be customized so that a user may have access to all, several or only one Connection. This allows the school to control who is able to push content to each location. District Communications and Administration typically manage Community Connect to engage directly with community stakeholders in a controlled environment where their message is delivered without the challenging white noise of social media.

Effective communication mediums are critical to improving safety, keeping students motivated and engaged in meaningful activities, thereby creating a positive and nourishing campus culture where students feel welcomed

All of these connections are independent and also integrated within the alerts. A user can be given access to any one, multiple, or all connections, however if an alert I activated in any connection, the alert is automatically activated across all (except Community Connect).

• Content Library

The platform comes with a library of pre-made content covering topics like anti-bullying, leadership, ongoing education and other topics important to the school culture. Teachers no longer need to spend time on content creation and formatting; instead, they can quickly select and push relevant content that supports the various topics being discussed across campus. The tool allows users to retain focus on their primary responsibilities while ensuring engaging and impactful messages are consistently communicated across the campus. These libraries will be different across each connection and at the various levels of a K12 school district (high school, middle school, elementary school, administration building) to make sure each user base has the appropriate tools to satisfy and engage their specific audience.

TSN’s platform includes a Student Project Module where student created content adds to the conversation and the culture of the school. Broyles says, “Schools have hundreds, and in some cases thousands of the most creative sources - the students. They are already engaged in AV class, graphic design class and other courses that center around creativity and communication. With our Student Creative Module, students in these classes can participate in the creation and delivery of information (informative and entertaining) across campus. This is done in a project-based setting where the teacher is always in control of any content delivered. Imagine a student seeing not only their creativity but also the creativity of their brother or sister, their best friend, their boyfriend or girlfriend, or a peer they admire. Often students cover topics like: Showcase what you love about your school, interview with your favorite teacher, what inspires you. This gives students a voice in the conversation and serves as a powerful source of positive influence across a campus while also providing students a way to gain new skills.”

Engagement at Every Level

All these solutions reflect TSN's philosophy of elevating communication mediums to create new avenues of engagement in academic and extracurricular programs.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) exemplifies how schools can engage students in valuable programs. While schools strive to promote these opportunities, students must understand and feel excited about them. Simply encouraging participation often falls flat; involving students in the creative process is key.

For example, videos featuring famous peers—like a football captain praising culinary arts or a student body president discussing business classes—can motivate others and help drive CTE enrollment. Recognizing the influence of peer testimonials, TSN partners with schools to teach them how to create compelling content and engage students actively. Its hands-on approach ensures that CTE programs resonate with students and foster enthusiasm for exploring these educational pathways.

Broyles emphasizes that the shift towards a more engaged educational experience is not merely beneficial; it is essential. “If students don’t know what’s happening on campus or the opportunities available, they won’t get involved, which leads to a loss or degradation of the school’s culture,” he explains.

A Texas school district's experience highlights the power of engaging students through TSN’s technology. This district, which spans elementary, middle, and high schools, recently acquired TSN’s product lineup.

After acquiring TSN, an elementary school principal expressed uncertainty about its use. Weeks later, she shared a breakthrough: her students loved seeing themselves on screen.

This school launched a reading challenge with small rewards, and when she announced that reading 11 books would earn a spot on the school TVs, excitement surged. The first student was celebrated with a graphic showcasing her achievement, inspiring others to join. Even parents took notice, and began asking why their children weren't featured and began encouraging their children to participate. This story exemplifies how celebrating student success fosters a vibrant school culture, motivating participation across all grade levels. TSN's product efficacy has earned a reputation in the state, and the company now serves over 1.3 million students nationwide across 39 states and over 1,600 campuses.

The Triad of TSN’s Success

While product excellence is one pillar, TSN’s successes have two more foundational pillars: seamless client onboarding coupled with superior service delivery, and a team of diverse talents and EdTech veterans.

TSN's client engagement process is not just straightforward; it marks the start of a collaborative journey focused on growth and dedicated support. The company begins with a comprehensive pilot program that allows schools to explore the system in a low-pressure setting. Team TSN encourages educators to engage and experiment, building confidence in the tools before total commitment.

Training sessions, lasting 30 to 45 minutes, are key to TSN's strategy. Ongoing support ensures seamless integration. The company customizes solutions based on user roles to meet diverse needs, empowering educators to maximize TSN's potential.

A Nurturing Environment

The third foundational pillar of TSN’s success in developing innovative solutions is its diverse team. The company’s strong culture encourages creativity and ensures that everyone is aligned in their efforts to deliver exceptional results.

Broyles describes the company’s atmosphere as family-like, where team members readily go above and beyond for each other and their clients. Team TSN’s camaraderie fuels creativity and responsiveness, allowing TSN to adapt swiftly to customer feedback and enhance its offerings.

“Our team is our greatest asset,” Broyles emphasizes. "We work together to determine what to do and how to do it. Everyone knows they have a voice. This collaborative spirit fosters an environment where innovation thrives and keeps us focused on continuous improvement."

This focus on teamwork ensures that TSN remains at the forefront of educational communication technology, continually refining its services to better support schools and their communities. “We are not in the software business, we are in the making schools better business. We just happen to do that with our software and our incredible team.”

Embracing New Technologies

Looking ahead, TSN is committed to integrating cutting-edge technologies to enhance its platform, with a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI). It is gearing up to launch exciting developments, including an AI-powered creative tool that simplifies content generation for schools.

As the educational landscape evolves, the company remains steadfast in its mission to empower schools to nurture responsible citizens in and out of the classroom. With its innovative approach to communication, TSN ensures that students are informed, engaged, and ready to contribute positively to their communities.