Group of schools implements new broadband service to deliver video learning to pupils in remote areas

Published 18th September 2008

Teachers now able to hold classes from their homes via HDTV over
MAXStream broadband, reducing commuting time and travel costs

The Customer

Working together, Viatel and Fusion Media Networks (a low-contention broadband and WAN network design specialist) provided a group of schools, spread across the UK, Europe and US, with a solution that reduced travel time and costs whilst maintaining high standards of teaching. Within the group a large number of schools are set in remote areas.

The Challenge

With fifty sites in the UK, many in remote areas, plus other sites abroad, the group found that their teachers were spending a lot of time and money travelling between schools to teach their students. The group’s IT team was keen to reduce costs, but also wanted to cut the amount of travel for the teachers. Driving for long periods of time was very tiring and the school was aware that this could potentially affect the teachers’ concentration levels, and possibly the quality of their teaching.

The Solution

The group decided to invest in HDTV over broadband to reduce costs and simplify their teaching procedures. Rather than the teachers commuting to class, they can now carry out lessons remotely, either pre-recording the lessons from their own homes or carrying them out live. The group had limited experience of managing the implementation of such an application, so they approached Fusion Media Networks.

“The schools were keen to adopt a “teach anyone, anywhere” solution,” said Glenn Flowers, Fusion Media Networks. “They were very clear about wanting to use HDTV to teach their pupils because it offers a similar way of teaching to standard classrooms, but means that teachers don’t need to be physically present to teach a class. This is a great advantage when there are so many schools spread around the UK.”

Fusion recommended a service known as MAXStream, however mainly due to the group’s budget, a traditional contended (shared) ADSL network was chosen instead to stream the group’s own videoconferencing application. During the first six months the schools experienced a number of problems with the application’s delivery and it was clear to Fusion that the contended connection was causing the bandwidth to fluctuate, affecting the performance.

“The picture would occasionally just drop and the sound could break up, when there was a lot of traffic on the network,” continued Flowers. “After a few months, we met with the group again to discuss new options. When we initially consulted with them on connectivity options, we had discussed options such as MAXStream, leased lines and SDSL. We knew that leased lines were out of the question because although they are reliable and would solve the problems, they can be very expensive. We then considered SDSL, but due to the schools’ remote locations and SDSL’s limited availability, this option was not really feasible. ”

The group then chose Fusion and Viatel’s broadband service, MAXStream. This is an uncontended ADSL service, not shared with any other users so bandwidth is less likely to fluctuate and affect application performance. The service provides up to more than triple the upstream bandwidth available from a traditional ADSL connection at just 256 kb/s taking it to a maximum of 832kb/s. This means that real-time applications, such as HDTV video conferencing, which can require both large amounts of up and downstream bandwidth can run better and with little to no degradation.

“It’s ideal for the schools, because it’s both affordable and available in all areas where ADSL is available; the system utilises the group’s existing network infrastructure,” said Flowers. “Because the service is also uncontended, at times when the network is really busy it doesn’t have any bearing on the performance of the HDTV application. Working with Viatel has been really great, and they supported us every step of the way. No other company could help us to supply a MAX service in this way and put simply, without them we would not have been able to cater to this customer.”

Fusion also supplied the group with a network management solution, enabling full monitoring and control over the network.

The Benefits

Teachers can now teach their pupils from anywhere in the UK, US and Europe. They no longer need to be in a school to carry out a lesson, but can do it remotely via high definition TV.

“All of the pupils can now receive the same standard of education regardless of where they are physically,” said Flowers. “The group’s travelling expenditure has reduced significantly, as well as making life much easier for the teachers.”

The reduction in teachers’ travel time has also provided some additional benefits that have had a positive impact on lessons. The freed up time can be invested into lesson preparation or administration, improving both the structure and content. Plus, teachers are also able to give more lessons in a week than they were previously.

“The schools are happy with the MAXStream service, not only have they saved money in travel costs but the time that they have saved on travelling can be used for planning or teaching foreign students,” commented Glenn Flowers. “Now that we’ve done this project and the school are happy with the results, we have undertaken other projects with them, which has been great for business,” concluded Glenn Flowers.