NEWCASTLE SIXTH FORM COLLEGE

Challenges facing the College

When NCG decided to invest £22 million in a brand new, purpose-built sixth form college, it seemed like an ideal time to update the network infrastructure too. The £22 million development project would see the sixth form college become a state-of-the-art building, with futuristic architecture and top of the range facilities. The new building needed a scaleable, intelligent and agile wireless network IT infrastructure solution that would allow students at the college to experience a modern approach to learning.

• The ageing wired network featured outdated hardware that needed updating.
• Patchy wireless coverage was only available at key locations across the college.
• Poor wireless connectivity was affecting the education of students and efficiency of staff.
• Management of the network was time-consuming, with the college helpdesk spending large amounts of time issuing tokens for visitors to access the wireless network.

Benefiting from superior coverage and easy management

As part of the development plans, the sixth from college wanted students and teachers to have access to the latest technology for teaching, learning and work. The blanket wireless coverage offered by the HP Wireless platform means the college now benefits from superior wireless coverage in the classrooms with improved network quality and performance.

The new infrastructure is also optimised for growth, with the college owning the wireless management functionality. Prior to the implementation, the college had to renew its subscription every few years which was both costly and time consuming.