The Situation
Erith had an HP WiFi solution throughout the school site but as the number of users and client devices increased the availability of WiFi to users decreased. Lessons that once were carried out with hand held devices and Laptops slowly ceased to be possible leading to considerable frustration and impacted on lesson planning.
Key objectives
- Capable of Hi Density performance
- High throughput over a large campus environment
- Seamless mobility
- Cost-effective WiFi solution
- To take full advantage of the capabilities of the laptops, tablets and hand-held devices the school has invested in
- Minimal to Zero on cost
The Benefits
- Affordable and Enterprise level WiFi solution
- Easy installation and set up
- Concise analytics
- Superior signal strength
- Free Lifetime Warranty
- Free Firmware upgrades for Life
- Free Technical Support
The Solution
On such a large Campus, a robust Enterprise Solution was required and once installed had to operate problem free from day one as the potential for major disruption was not an option. Several manufacturers were selected to conduct trials including Ruckus and EnGenius and extensive tests were undertaken taking a total of three months to conduct.
Budget cuts across the Education sector meant that the solution had to be robust, scalable and have incisive analytics to enable the Network Manager to see at a glance what was happening across the site as well as have minimal on costs once installed. Erith School is a specialised Sports College producing a number of well known Athletes and has extensive playing fields that also require and External WiFi coverage.
The EnGenius Neutron Solution provides a seamless WiFi blanket across the school both internally and externally. Its superior signal strength enables coverage for not only users on the pitches but also with The Installation the Community Sports Complex, multiple sports halls and class and lecture rooms. At the end of the trial period, EnGenius was selected due to its performance, range, and ease of management and with an added benefit of Zero on costs.
The Installation
79 off EnGenius EWS360AP internal access points were installed across the site and 3 off EWS660AP external access points for playing field coverage, with the whole solution managed by the Free EzMaster Management suite that enables the addition of multiple sites to be added to the management console, especially useful for Academies that may have multiple locations.
As the School has limited IT resource in terms of numbers of staff, it was essential that the solution would be able to provide intuitive management features The EnGenius Neutron Solution comes with a Lifetime Warranty, Free Firmware upgrades for Life and Free Technical Support.
