Empower College Prep
Empower College implemented an enterprise-grade WiFi solution to enable a growing variety of learning devices and help students achieve their full potential.
About the customer
Empower College Prep is a public charter school in central Phoenix, Arizona, located in one of the state’s most densely populated areas. The school’s mission is to empower children from low income families to compete academically with students from any school in the country, and combine class lessons with students’ unique gifts and interests in solving real-world problems. Empower College Prep has elementary and high schools spanning grades 3-11. An expansion is underway to offer full K-12 in the coming years.
Solutions used
- Autonomous Network
Alcatel-Lucent has a lot of experience in education and that’s reassuring for us. Not worrying about the network means my team and I are free to focus on other critical tasks, like preparing for Empower College Prep’s upcoming expansion.
Challenges
- Empower College Prep uses modern technology to prepare students academically to aim for, enter and succeed in higher education. The school’s One-to-One program ensures each student is equipped with a computer. The high school curriculum is offered on a self-paced online platform to teach the self-reliance required at colleges and universities. Reliable wireless connectivity is therefore critical to student learning.
- The school wanted to replace its limiting flat network with an enterprise-grade solution that would be easier to configure, offer robust performance throughout campus, and prioritize voice traffic to deliver a consistent high-quality user experience.
Results
Technical benefits
- Reliable and secure connectivity for growing list of IoT devices: wireless classroom projectors, wireless thermostats and student Chromebooks.
- Separating voice and data traffic keeps the network stable. Multiple secure virtual networks for students, staff and guests enables wireless bandwidth allocation.
- OmniVista 2500 centralizes and facilitates management and maintenance, and eases the IT team’s workload.
Financial benefits
- Empower College Prep saved 50% on utilities thanks to centralized network-dependent thermostats.
- The solution supports the school’s planned growth and offers scalability to meet future requirements.
User experience benefits
- Uninterrupted connectivity lets students make use of technology to learn, for example by accessing the online teaching platform with connected laptops.
- High user density areas have seen significant performance improvement for greater user satisfaction.
- Teachers have the infrastructure needed to carry out their mission: preparing students for the challenge and academic rigor of higher education.
Products & Solutions
Products
- OmniAccess Stellar AP1101 WLAN Access Point
- OmniAccess Stellar AP1251 WLAN Access Point
- OmniSwitch 6450 Stackable Gigabit Ethernet LAN Switch
- OmniVista 2500 Network Management System
Solution
- Mobile Campus
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