Tandberg, Dimension Data contract win to connect NSW classrooms

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 21 May 2009 15:04

IT Industry - Deals

Telepresence vendor, Tandberg and IT services provider, Dimension Data, have inked a contract with the NSW Department of Training and Education (DET) to video enable every state school and TAFE college in the state as part of the government’s $158 million connected classroom project.

Under the contract, Tandberg says it will partner with Dimension Data to provide upgraded core video conferencing infrastructure for access by schools and TAFE colleges in NSW as part of the project, which gives staff and their students new opportunities to connect with each other across enhanced facilities for sharing resources and data collaboration.

Philip Siefert, Australian and New Zealand  regional director for Tandberg, say the two companies will deliver a solution with capacity for the department to securely connect 2,200 locations via multi-site high-definition video and audio conferencing.
 
“Once fully deployed, students from any NSW state school will have increased capacity to interact with each other and receive course material irrespective of both their location and the teacher delivering the lesson.

“DET’s interactive classrooms allow students to take virtual excursions anywhere in the world, while schools will be able to beam experts into classrooms for real-time lectures, communicate with peers in other parts of the state, and significantly expand subject choice by providing classes online through videoconferencing.”

According to Siefert, the initial deployment of video conferencing technology has already had a big positive impact on NSW school students, and, she says “by utilising the bridging technology from this project, it will raise collaborative learning in our state education system to a whole new level.”

Dimension Data NSW state manager, Pete Murray, says the partnership with Tandberg and DET is “building on the good work we have been doing to date for DET in the areas of video, IP telephony and security.”