Media POD Helps to Transform University of Tennessee Football Hall of Fame

Like many athletic departments, the University of Tennessee's must compete with other institutions to recruit talent and secure its share of financial support from university fans and boosters.

Key to that effort is the University of Tennessee Football Hall of Fame, where fans and recruited high school players can get a great feeling about the winning tradition of the Tennessee Volunteers. Unfortunately, the 20 kiosks designed for that purpose were so difficult to use and created such a cacophony of competing sound that the coaching staff simply avoided the hall of fame altogether.

Based on television sets and combo DVD/VCR units for content playback, the system was difficult to use. Content played in loops from each kiosk -regardless of whether or not it was being used- contributed to the acoustic mess. On/off switches were located at the back of kiosks, requiring rear kiosk panels to be removed for access.  "It was dated from the start," in the words of Mike White, owner and president of Multi-Media Solutions in Alcoa, TN, which won the contract to modernize the facility.

From the inception of the project, White consulted with the athletic department, assessing its existing kiosks, exploring options, providing technical guidance and ultimately winning the actual contract.

The system Multi-media Solutions built for the university included Keywest Technology Media PODs to drive the presentations at each kiosk, flat panel LCD and plasma displays -some as large as 50 inches- and two interactive touch screen panels that allow viewers to navigate through presentations with a simple touch.

Keywest Technology helped White solve the audio problem as well. Rather than running 24/7, the Media POD digital signage players interface with infrared sensors that detect the presence of a kiosk visitor upon which audio volume is ramped up. This degree of volume control coupled with directional audio speakers solved the audio problem. Keywest Technology also customized Media POD software to enable interactive digital signage control.

The University of Tennessee athletic department's new Football Hall of Fame kiosks now make it easy for the coach and his assistants to take young men being recruited under their wing and give them a personal sense what it means to be a member of the University of Tennessee Volunteers.