Ballinger Independent School District Empowers Students with High Performance Network

PRLog (Press Release) - Feb 18, 2009 -
Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi "Power-Play" that delivers the most wireless coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry announced today the deployment of their 802.11abg Wi-Fi Arrays across Ballinger Independent School District (Ballinger ISD) in Ballinger, Texas. Ballinger’s newly launched 1-to-1 computer initiative “emPOWERs students for the Future” by arming all staff and 500+ students, grades 6th – 12th, with Apple® MacBook® computers to be used for classroom learning. Xirrus was selected as the Wi-Fi provider after the district performed an extensive product and cost analysis of competing solutions, which found Xirrus to not only offer the most powerful Wi-Fi solution on the market, but also the greatest cost and energy savings.

“Our school board decided they wanted each staff member in the district and all students in the junior high and high schools to be equipped with an Apple MacBook computer this year, so we quickly went to work to find the Wi-Fi network that would support all the students, deliver the necessary bandwidth, be easy to install and maintain, and not cost the district an arm and a leg,” said Tim Gau, Director of Technology of Ballinger ISD. “We had roughly six weeks to have the 600+ computers ready, which meant having the network in place and the teachers and students trained. By and large, the only way we were able to make the deadlines was by selecting to go with Xirrus—their Wi-Fi Arrays require far less devices, which is a big deal when you include the installation costs, the cables for each device that must be pulled and the switch ports that must be configured. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays required far less than any other Wi-Fi system we looked at…and it was the cheapest when all things considered.”

“Selecting Xirrus was the right call—they came when called, performed a free real-world site survey, helped install and configure the network, and guaranteed we’d have the promised signal strength throughout the schools,” added Tim. “We were able to build, image, and bind the computers across the Xirrus Wi-Fi network far faster than we could have across the wired network. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays made it possible to deploy our 1-to-1 computer initiative quickly and cost-effectively—they saved us from having to rebuild our wired infrastructure in the middle of the project. Our students and faculty have been using the new system since August now and we’re all very impressed with it’s performance and the increase in student/teacher collaboration—well worth the effort. You know you have a top-notch wireless infrastructure when teachers are able to run full motion video over wirelessly connected computers at the same time. The system is secure and has not gone down since we brought it online.”

“The Ballinger Independent School District is a great example using technology to increase instruction and learning,” said Robert Smith, Regional Manager at Xirrus. “Schools do not need to spend months pulling cable and long nights configuring switch ports. With a single cable drop, one of our Wi-Fi Arrays can cover multiple classrooms, support hundreds of concurrent users, and deliver the bandwidth for all types of applications. Like Ballinger, we empower customers for the future.”

Xirrus Press Contact
John Merrill
E-mail: john.merrill@xirrus.com
Phone: +1.805.262.1644

About Xirrus
Xirrus, the only Wi-Fi “Power-Play”, manufacturers the Wi-Fi Array® architecture that displaces both overlay Wi-Fi offerings and switched Ethernet to the desktop. The Wi-Fi Array integrates 4, 8, 12, 16, or 24 802.11abg+n radios coupled to a high-gain directional antenna system into a single device along with an onboard multi-gigabit switch, Wi-Fi controller, firewall, dedicated Wi-Fi threat sensor, and an embedded spectrum analyzer. The Wi-Fi Array provides more than enough bandwidth, security, and control to replace switched Ethernet to the desktop as the primary network connection. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array delivers the most coverage, bandwidth, throughput, and user density on a per device and per system basis than anything else available on the market today - resulting in a solution that uses 75% fewer devices, cabling, switch ports, power, space, and installation time compared with any other offering.

Xirrus is a privately-held company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. For more information, please visit www.xirrus.com.

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