Texas School District Selects Motorola’s 802.11n WLAN for Reliable

Texas School District Selects Motorola’s 802.11n WLAN for Reliable, High-speed Classroom Connectivity
North East Independent School District upgrades wireless to enhance e-learning capabilities and bring streaming video curriculum to 66,000 students across 70 schools

June 28, 2010

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – June 28, 2010 – The Enterprise Mobility Solutions business of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced that Minntek Solutions, a leading systems integrator and member of Motorola’s channel partner program, is deploying its 802.11n wireless LAN (WLAN) and AirDefense Infrastructure Management solutions across K-12 schools at North East Independent School District (NEISD) in San Antonio, Texas. The Motorola solution will provide a reliable and secure wireless infrastructure to support the district’s goal of transforming the classroom into a wireless media environment by delivering high-speed voice, video and data streams to different device types and high densities of users without interruption.

The second largest school district in the San Antonio Area, NEISD has more than 70 schools and magnet programs, with an expected fall 2010 enrollment of 66,000 students. The district offers a web-based curriculum and provides students with technology resources to conduct research, complete assignments and communicate with others to complement their learning experience.

“NEISD is committed to building 21st century classrooms that enhance instruction through the use of technology in real-world applications, while offering workforce- and college-ready skills to better prepare students for the future,” said Richard A. Middleton, NEISD superintendent. “We were looking to upgrade our existing wireless network to a solution that would offer increased bandwidth and provide campus-wide, high-speed coverage to support the growing use of video and other multimedia applications in the classroom. Motorola and Minntek Solutions delivered a cost-effective solution that not only supports our immediate needs, but also serves as the backbone for building the classroom of the future.”

The 802.11n wireless network being deployed by NEISD leverages Motorola’s AP 7131 access points (AP), managed by Motorola’s award-winning RFS 7000 controllers, to provide reliable and secure connectivity in classrooms and throughout the district’s facilities. Optimized to handle high user density, the wireless solution provides superior voice, video and data handling capabilities, delivering crisp and clear multimedia to students, teachers and staff over a Wi-Fi network. Built-in mesh capability allows NEISD to easily extend network coverage to hard-to-wire places, such as portable classrooms, without the expense of digging trenches to pull cables.

To manage such a large, distributed network that will consist of more than 5,000 802.11n APs across the district when fully implemented, NEISD selected Motorola’s AirDefense Infrastructure Management solution, a powerful holistic WLAN management tool that simplifies and automates network management to give IT administrators better visibility into their network, its performance and efficiency. The solution ensures compliance with policies and consistency in configuration, while reducing device- and model-specific expertise required by network administrators. The AirDefense solution provides NEISD with a uniform view into network security and performance, ultimately reducing the amount of administrative time required to manage the WLAN.

“NEISD was in need of a robust wireless network that could handle the delivery of large streams of voice, video and data to multiple devices in a single classroom setting,” said Bill Rogers, president, Minntek Solutions. “The Motorola 802.11n solution offers superior multimedia handling capabilities, is easier to manage and troubleshoot and offers a much lower total cost of ownership than competitive solutions.”

The Motorola network offers the flexibility to support personal devices, e-textbooks, smart boards and videoconferencing. Increased Web 2.0 capabilities will enable students to collaborate inside and outside the classroom to gain a deeper understanding of content, access experts in the field and find tools to demonstrate creativity – all while serving as a foundation for NEISD’s future e-learning initiatives. The solution will be deployed in roll-out fashion across the district, with one middle school already fully integrated, and another handful to be completed over the summer. Once fully deployed, NEISD will have installed nearly 5,000 802.11n APs across elementary, middle and high schools across the district.

“K-12 is a growing market for WLAN, and as education becomes increasingly digital, school districts are turning to 11n as a reliable solution that helps future-proof their infrastructure investment and ensure delivery of multimedia content to classrooms and across campus,” said Sujai Hajela, vice president and general manager for Wireless Network Solutions, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. “Motorola’s innovative wireless solutions are helping educational institutions around the world transform the learning experience for students, teachers and staff, and NEISD is at the forefront of this trend.”

Motorola offers a comprehensive portfolio of indoor and outdoor wireless network solutions that enable colleges, universities and K-12 institutions to enhance learning through technology and prepare students to enter the mobile workforce. Working seamlessly together with learning devices and applications, Motorola's solutions include indoor wireless LAN, outdoor wireless mesh, point-to-multipoint, point-to-point networks and voice-over-WLAN solutions, along with powerful software tools for wireless network design, best-of-breed security, management and troubleshooting. Motorola makes the all-wireless campus a reality by providing cost-effective solutions that deliver clear and reliable voice, video, multimedia and data, leading to an enhanced modern learning environment, improved campus security and overall productivity gains for faculty and staff. To learn more, visit http://www.motorola.com/education.

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