Xirrus Provides Wi-Fi to Ballinger Independent School District

Xirrus has deployed their 802.11abg Wi-Fi Arrays across Ballinger Independent School District (Ballinger ISD) in Ballinger, Texas.

 

The school district planned to launch 1-to-1 computer initiative “emPOWERs students for the Future” and provide all staff and 500+ students, grades 6th – 12th, with Apple (News - Alert) MacBook computers to be used for classroom learning.

 

The management wanted a cost effective Wi-Fi network that could support all the students, deliver the necessary bandwidth, and be easy to install and maintain. Ballinger ISD evaluated a number of vendors and chose Xirrus as it offered the most powerful Wi-Fi solution on the market, and also promised to deliver the greatest cost and energy savings.

 

Tim Gau, director of Technology of Ballinger ISD noted that they had around six weeks to have the 600+ computers ready, and realized that the only way to meet the deadline was by going with Xirrus.

 

“The Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays required far less than any other Wi-Fi system we looked at…and it was the cheapest when all things considered,” Gau added.

 

Gau also noted his appreciation that Xirrus rapidly responded to their call, performed a free real-world site survey, and helped install and configure the network.

 

Thanks to this, the district was able to build, image, and bind the computers across the Xirrus Wi-Fi network far faster than they could have across the wired network.

 

“The Ballinger Independent School District is a great example using technology to increase instruction and learning,” said Robert Smith, Regional Manager at Xirrus. “Schools do not need to spend months pulling cable and long nights configuring switch ports. With a single cable drop, one of our Wi-Fi Arrays can cover multiple classrooms, support hundreds of concurrent users, and deliver the bandwidth for all types of applications. Like Ballinger, we empower customers for the future.”