St Benedict\u2019s Catholic School for Boys has a reputation as\none of the top schools in South Africa, not least for the effective use it\nmakes of technology to enhance both the teaching and learning experiences. With\nhelp from long-standing IT service provider, LanDynamix, the school has\nimplemented a state-of-the-art wireless capability on its extensive campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a leader in the use of technology in education, it is no\nsurprise that St Benedict\u2019s wanted to make its entire campus wireless in order\nto enhance the learning and teaching experience and integrate IT even more\ntightly into the teaching and learning environment,\u201d said Dane Walker, Cloud\nInfrastructure Manager at LanDynamix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHowever, implementing any wireless environment, especially\none covering a large campus environment, is a complex business, which is why\nthe school called us in to consult on the design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walker says that planning is of critical importance in\nensuring that the wireless environment is of good quality and highly available.\nThis requires a sound understanding of the factors to be taken into account, as\nwell as which hardware and software would be most appropriate for the specific\nenvironment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo create a wireless network that actually works as planned\nmeans more than just putting up access points,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou need to understand how frequency spectrums work, as\nwell as how they can be affected by interference. One also has to know the\nstrengths and weaknesses of the various brands, as well as the intricacies of\nconfiguration. This is not a plug-and-play situation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Walker and Peter Clarke, CEO of LanDynamix, are Ekahau\nCertified Wireless Planners, so can provide this high-level expertise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortinet\u2019s FortiAP product was chosen to create the wireless\nplatform. One of the deciding factors for this was due to St Benedict\u2019s already\nowning a Fortigate Firewall appliance, a product that LanDynamix specialise in.\nOne of the major advantages of using the two products in unison is that the\nFortigate Firewall is also a fully-fledged wireless controller, which is an\nabsolute necessity especially on a network of this size. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After completing the campus design, LanDynamix also offered\nsome help in the rollout process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that today\u2019s pupils, as digital natives,\nreally rely on connectivity to study, not forgetting to conduct their social\nlives,\u201d said Chris Breetvelt, IT Manager at St Benedict\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also a critical teaching platform. For us, therefore, a\nproperly designed wireless network was a critical success factor for the school.\nWe knew that the design is highly specialised and were very happy to rely on\nLanDynamix\u2019s expertise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
St Benedict\u2019s Catholic School for Boys has a reputation as one of the top schools in South Africa, not least for the effective use it makes of technology to enhance both the teaching and learning experiences. With help from long-standing IT service provider, LanDynamix, the school has implemented a state-of-the-art wireless capability on its extensive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":28328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,338,367,103,38,19,9059,382,13,262],"tags":[10706,8565,10704,10705,35,8560,8653,453],"class_list":["post-28327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-case-study-newsletter","category-education","category-mobile","category-networking","category-regional-news","category-south-africa","category-telecom","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-chris-breetvelt","tag-dane-walker","tag-fortiap","tag-fortigate-firewall","tag-fortinet","tag-landynamix","tag-peter-clarke","tag-south-africa"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28327"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28335,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28327\/revisions\/28335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}