Lauderdale County Department of Education Enhances 1:1 Computer Initiative with Xirrus Wi-Fi

Sept. 24, 2008 - PRLog -- Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi "Power-Play" that delivers the most coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry on a per device and system basis, announced today that the Lauderdale County Tennessee Department of Education has deployed Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays at their Lauderdale Middle and Halls Junior High Schools with another five schools coming online shortly as part of the department’s new 1:1 Computer Initiative.

“We are working on a district-wide technology upgrade that includes hundreds of Apple® MacBook® computers and Wi-Fi network connectivity for students, faculty, and staff in order to further enrich the district's curriculum, online project collaboration, and extend reference materials to students where libraries are limited,” said Shawn Kimble, at Lauderdale County Tennessee Department of Education.  “Our goal is to place a Cart on Wheels (COW) in every classroom in every school – only Xirrus was found to have the bandwidth and reliable signal needed to make our goal a reality.”

“Unlike other vendors who try to sell us based on slide presentations or predictive RF modeling, Xirrus cracked open their product to demonstrate its ingenious design, performed an active site survey, and guaranteed everything with a 100% customer satisfaction – and their design is completely compatible and upgradable to 802.11n – very impressive,” continued Shawn.

"The forward-thinking leadership of Lauderdale’d Department of Education has provided a state-of-the-art wireless network for their students and faculty," said Scott Lecher, Director of Corporate Accounts at Xirrus. "They now have a powerful Wi-Fi network that is as powerful as a workgroup switch, but much more flexible and capable of supporting a wider range educational tools both now and in the future."

About Lauderdale County Department of Education
The Lauderdale County Department of Education serves over 4,600 students from four communities encompassing the Comprehensive District. The system, throughout its eight (8) schools, delivers a challenging curriculum in combination with a supportive environment, both crafted to meet student needs. The Board and staff believe in innovative programs that encourage and challenge the county's students; differentiating instruction to address individual needs; and in developing family and community engagement. Lauderdale County is one of the leading districts in Tennessee in the area of using technology to enhance teaching and learning. All certified personnel are given iBook laptops and all students in grades 6-8 have their own laptops with plans to extend this program into the high school grades. All other grades have access to mobile computer carts.

About Xirrus
Xirrus, the only Wi-Fi “Power-Play,” manufactures 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 support for more users 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.

Xirrus – Switching Without Wires™
Xirrus – High Performance Wi-Fi™
Xirrus – The Air is the Network™
Xirrus – Wi-Fi Array®

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Xirrus, the leader in high performance Wi-Fi designs and manufactures the patented Wi-Fi Array -- the most powerful Wi-Fi architecture offering the most coverage, user capacity, and bandwidth per cable drop.