Desktop Augmentation to Emergency Communications System

Dear All,

In our continued effort to improve both the reach and compliance of our Emergency Communications System (ECS), Trent University has begun the process of installing a mass emergency alert application, called Alertus, on Trent managed desktop Windows computers.

The deployment to labs and classrooms is almost complete with deployment to all other managed staff machines scheduled for completion by April 4th, 2016. No IT staff will visit during the deployment of this application, IT is able to deploy this application remotely to all network connected managed desktops. Following this remote deployment, staff and lab users should notice a new icon on their desktop. This is shown below.  

This application is designed to augment our ECS by rapidly displaying emergency messages on computer screens across campus.  In the event of an emergency on campus, the application would take over display control of the computer, replacing the display with emergency notification and instruction messages.  These messages can be tailored by our administrators and will contain useful instructions in the event of an emergency. 

An initial test of this system is scheduled for April 4th, 2016 at 11:00am.  

During this test, all managed machines will display the following message.

Pressing the “Acknowledge” button will clear the message off the screen.

Following this initial test, the Alertus Desktop ECS will be considered deployed.  

In a real scenario, if you are using a PC which displays an emergency message, please follow the instructions on the screen and make sure those around you have been alerted.  

Thank You