Deliver Live or Recorded Video and SMS Alerts to Your Audience
The Priority Alert system is built-in to the DiscoverVideo media systems. Priority Alert delivers live or recorded video, text messages, or web pages to viewers desktops and cell phones without the viewer needing to take any action. It simultaneously displays your alert on selected Digital Signage displays.
This is seriously cool.
Most of us spend our day facing a computer screen, walking the halls of a building, or at least carrying a cell phone. The best way to notify people in an emergency is to show the information where they are looking. People may not read email in time or at all or they may be away from their desks. Phone calls take time and often go unanswered. And audio public address systems may not be available, may not reach everywhere, or may be inappropriate for the situation.
Let’s explore some use cases, starting with the most obvious:
Lockdown
Educational organizations, companies, and government agencies and departments today need to alert everyone in a security emergency. The information people need may be fluid and unique to the situation. During such an emergency, an authority can press a button. The button may be a web page button, a physical “panic button”, or an existing 3rd part alarm system triggered by existing procedures. When the alert is initiated, one, some, or all computer screens show a live video of an authority giving instructions. Or showing a prerecorded video, or a color-coded large text message. If the organizations has a special web page that give information, that may automatically appear.
At the same time, one, some, or all Digital Signage displays switch to the same announcement.
To be sure the alert is widely distributed, groups of people can receive a text message on their cell phone. The text message headlines the alert and displays the video, text, or web page, the same as the desktop alerts and the Digital Signage displays.
When the alert ends, desktops automatically close the alert and Digital Signage displays return to their normal operation.
Morning Announcements
It can be frustrating when announcements don’t reach the intended audience. A teacher in a classroom may be distracted with other duties at the appointed hour and can’t “click” on a video to show the class. A busy employee may miss the CEO “Town Hall Meeting” despite email alerts and calendar invites.
When a live video event is scheduled to begin at 7:30 AM, it might not start until 7:32 AM and everyone would prefer to just start to watch when it actually begins, right?
Just create a Priority Alert for only your intended audience. Traders can receive the “Morning Call” broadcast while the IT staff does not. The middle school gets their “Morning Announcement” and the High School gets theirs.
Weather Emergencies
If there is an immediate weather emergency, such as a tornado, alert everyone to seek shelter. Provide a recorded video reminding them what to do.
Early closing because of snow or other events is displayed everywhere.
Fire / Drills
Fire alarm systems are pretty loud, and flashing strobe lights help to inform those who may not hear it. Augment your alarms with Priority Alert and you can also provide specific instructions like “Use the South Exit, not the North Exit”.
Paging
Priority Alert is well suited for “Paging” uses. Simply send a text alert “Mr. Jones please call the office” to desktops and Digital Signage displays.
Special Events
- Inspire your sales team with instant, fun notifications of wins.
- Broadcast local sporting events and alert interested parties
- Many more uses…
Scaling
The Priority Alert video system uses multiple protocols. It can scale to deliver live video to any number of viewers via IP multicast. If multicast is not available, the system automatically rolls over to three different unicast protocols. This gives you the best chance of reaching your audience in virtually all circumstances. The network load is very small and there is minimum dialog before, during, and after an alert is active.
Easy To Deploy
We’ve taken special care to make it easy to deploy. Users can install Priority Alert on their computers. The desktop .msi installer can be pushed to desktops and everything is setup automatically so the user need do nothing. You can even prevent the user from making any changes.
Easy To Trigger
In an emergency, you don’t want to spend time logging in to a system and navigating to trigger button. You can trigger an alert several ways:
- From a logged-in web page
- From a desktop App single button press
- From a desktop App and a USB physical button or foot switch
- From a Web API
- From a dry-contact closure
Priority Alert has been completely redesigned and improved in our DEVOS system (V4.8 and above). We are excited about it and all of the new features. The DiscoverVideo Priority Alert system has been serving our customers for about a decade, and it is now better than ever.
Cheers,
Rich
