Keller Independent School District deploys Motorola 802.11n wireless LAN solution for seamless delivery of on-demand educational content from SAFARI Montage, enabling visual learning for K-12 students.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – The Enterprise Mobility Solutions business of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and SAFARI Montage announced the delivery of a wireless video solution at Keller Independent School District (ISD) that streams high-quality video and other multimedia resources to the classroom without interruption, providing on-demand access to digital education content and instructional tools for teachers and students. One of the fastest-growing school districts in Texas, Keller ISD is comprised of 36 schools serving more than 30,000 students. The implementation lays the foundation to support the school district’s broader K-12 e-learning initiatives, which include putting wireless devices in the hands of every student to enable district-wide visual learning.
“Keller ISD recently installed the Video-on-Demand and Digital Media Management solution from SAFARI Montage to deliver rich digital educational content to classrooms throughout the school district, and to enhance the overall learning experience for our students,” said Joe Griffin, CTO, Keller ISD. “Our existing wired infrastructure limited where and how users could access the content. We needed a cost-effective solution that could provide high-speed, district-wide coverage and ensure seamless delivery of multimedia content to students and teachers, while supporting our efforts to expand these capabilities to all classrooms.”
“With our plan to move to a digital curriculum, it was crucial to have a reliable and easy-to-use wireless infrastructure in place that would support our one-to-one instructional objectives and enable visual teaching district-wide,” said Dr. James Veitenheimer, Keller ISD superintendent and TCEA’s 2010 Superintendent of the Year. “We also needed a network that could work at a very high level and make it easy for students and teachers to use.”
To support the high-bandwidth requirements needed to distribute large, high-quality digital video files from the SAFARI Montage system, Keller ISD turned to System ID, a leading system integrator and Motorola channel partner, who recommended Motorola’s 802.11n wireless LAN (WLAN) infrastructure and industry-leading Motorola AirDefense wireless security and network assurance solutions. Optimized to provide high quality of service (QoS), low latency and exceptional coverage for voice and video applications, Motorola’s 802.11n solution supports the SAFARI Montage Selective Video Streaming software to manage and ensure seamless delivery of live video streams to the classroom from cable TV, video cameras and the Internet.
“Keller ISD needed a robust wireless network that could handle the delivery of multiple multicast and unicast video streams simultaneously, to many clients in classrooms across the school district,” said Marshall Huffman, director of advanced solutions, System ID. “After testing several vendors, the Motorola WLAN solution was the best performing network for streaming video and other multimedia content to high densities of users, which is critical in the classroom environment.”
Motorola’s 802.11n WLAN solution enables Keller ISD to deliver crisp, clear and reliable video and other multimedia resources over a Wi-Fi network – replacing what was previously handled over a wired network. Leveraging Motorola’s award-winning RFS7000 wireless switches, coupled with dual- and tri-radio AP-7131 access points (AP), the network is optimized to handle high user density and provides maximum coverage to support multiple voice and video streams, as well as complex data applications. The unique tri-radio 802.11n AP allows one radio to be dedicated to security and troubleshooting, while the remaining two radios enable high-speed access and delivery of optimized multimedia content. This eliminates the cost and complexity of deploying separate sensor radios, while ensuring secure, reliable and high-performance delivery of content to the classroom. In addition, Keller ISD installed the Motorola AirDefense Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (Wireless IPS), for 24x7 wireless security and proactive monitoring, and the Motorola AirDefense Advanced Troubleshooting module, which is a component of the Motorola AirDefense Network Assurance Suite. The Motorola AirDefense Advanced Troubleshooting solution is the industry’s first and only toolset to perform expert analysis of wireless and wired connectivity issues and perform end-to-end network testing from the wireless perspective, remotely. These tools provided Keller ISD with a cost-effective way to identify and resolve wireless client and network performance issues across multiple campuses.
“Video is a powerful tool for today’s educators that can significantly enhance the student learning experience. But to truly benefit, schools need to have the right infrastructure in place to support the high bandwidth and quality of service required to deliver rich multimedia content, not just to the teacher’s classroom computer, but to all wireless devices – from Netbooks to mobile phones,” said Tim Beekman, president and co-founder of SAFARI Montage. “Motorola’s WLAN solution provides Keller ISD with the flexibility to deliver educational digital content anywhere, anytime throughout the district, without having to give up quality or quantity. This is the first wireless network that has been able to deliver our content successfully.”
As Keller ISD looks to expand its visual teaching capabilities across the district, the new WLAN infrastructure supports several applications from SAFARI Montage, including the enterprise-class Video-on-Demand and Digital Media Management solution, as well as future multimedia resources that will allow teachers to augment lesson plans with visual and audio learning tools to increase student focus and retention. The Motorola solution also provides ubiquitous access to other technologies used in and out of the classroom, including personal devices such as mobile computers or Wi-Fi enabled smartphones, as well as laptops, that can further enhance the learning experience, improve overall productivity for faculty and staff, and prepare students for the future.
“Online resources and rich multimedia content are becoming an integral part of the K-12 curriculum, enhancing the learning experience of students, and preparing them to compete in today’s global economy,” said Sujai Hajela, vice president and general manager for Wireless Network Solutions, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. “Keller ISD is at the forefront of this trend and its new network is a true testament to the evolution of wireless networking technologies, which today offer a cost-effective, reliable and secure alternative to traditional wired approaches.”
Motorola delivers seamless connectivity that puts real-time information in the hands of users, which gives customers the agility they need to grow their business or better serve and protect the public. Working seamlessly together with its world-class devices, Motorola's unrivaled wireless network solutions include indoor wireless LAN, outdoor wireless mesh, point-to-multipoint, point-to-point networks and voice-over-WLAN solutions. Combined with powerful software tools for wireless network design, best-of-breed security, management and troubleshooting, Motorola's solutions deliver trusted networking and access anywhere to organizations across the globe.
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About SAFARI Montage
SAFARI Montage provides K-12 school districts with a comprehensive solution for their digital media networking and visual instruction needs. The full suite of integrated products provides a single interface for accessing all visual resources from inside the school district intranet or from home. The award-winning SAFARI Montage Video-On-Demand and Digital Media Management enterprise solution is designed to cut costs for school districts by utilizing intelligent digital media delivery, while facilitating visual instruction and learning in the classroom. SAFARI Montage servers come preloaded with educational video titles tied to the curriculum from the industry’s leading video publishers. In addition, SAFARI Montage provides the ability for school districts to easily upload and manage their own digital video and other content, and easily disseminate it to all classrooms throughout the district. With the introduction of its new Pathways SM module, SAFARI Montage now provides a solution for districts to control, manage and schedule classroom and district devices.
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