Essa Academy Finds Wireless ‘N’irvana

PRLog (Press Release) - May 20, 2009 -
Wireless and Mobile 09, Olympia, London, UK - Essa Academy, a 900-student Academy in Bolton, England, has completed the deployment of an Extricom Draft N Wireless LAN (WLAN) designed to deliver a multi-media, anytime and anyplace learning environment.  Implemented by systems integrator Solutions House Ltd, the Extricom WLAN will enable the migration of pen-to-digital teaching, allowing students and staff to utilise innovative applications and media both in and beyond the classroom. Supporting a wide array of devices, such as wireless projectors, CCTV, and streaming voice, video and data applications, the WLAN will also underpin the roll-out of Apple iTouches to students in September.

Abdul Chohan, Assistant Director at Essa Academy, comments; “The Academy’s mission is to transform and enhance learning opportunities available to students, and technology is key to achieving this. A wireless network brings greater depth and breadth to the education environment.  Through this, students and staff have considerable flexibility and creativity in the way they use tools and applications to support and deepen learning.

“Extricom’s blanket wireless coverage ensures we have consistent and reliable connectivity throughout the school campus. No longer confined to the IT suite, students are accessing the network and various applications from the dining hall, playing fields, and taking advantage of different media; uploading videos and podcasts as part of their coursework, for example.  Furthermore, the resilience of the network means we can now explore the option of online exams for up to 200 users in a single location, and even promote the Academy as a business-class conference venue.”

Chohan concludes; “Extricom and Solutions House Ltd have given us the foundations to position Essa Academy as an outstanding learning establishment offering students the best possible environment to maximise their educational and personal development.”

With all significant investments fully supported by the Board of Governors and private sponsors, Solutions House Ltd selected Extricom’s WLAN system to ensure the Academy would achieve the maximum return-on-investment (ROI) from their wireless network.  Michael Horabin, Managing Director of Solutions House Ltd, said:  

“As schools increasingly adopt digital learning structures, it’s important that the network foundation can evolve and have the capacity to support new devices and applications.  Extricom’s Channel Blanket Architecture enables organisations to increase the availability, density or functionality of the network without requiring new site surveys, or causing interference to the existing network.  The ability to organise network traffic into physically separate layers of coverage allows us to design networks that match the customers’ application requirements.”

About Essa Academy

Essa Academy is a new, mixed, non-denominational Academy for 11 to 16 year- olds.  Essa Academy provides an excellent environment for learning and teaching comparable to the best available in the maintained sector. It offers a broad and balanced curriculum to students of all abilities, with special focus on the Science and Languages areas. As Essa Academy becomes fully established it will go on to share the special expertise and the facilities with other schools and the wider community.

About Solutions House

Solutions House is a flexible network infrastructure provider, with a strong track record in the Education sector. With its own in house engineering team Solutions House offer a UK wide service in wireless, cabling, audiovisual systems and unified messaging. It is a Microsoft Gold Partner, a HP Preferred Partner and one of the most experienced Extricom installation partners in the UK.