Ensuring our children and young people have access to emerging digital tools and services is vitally important for equipping them with skills for the modern workplace, whilst also providing new opportunities for highly engaging teaching resources. Schools can struggle to gain access to high speed fibre based connectivity needed. In these circumstances, 5G connectivity offers an alternative. This was the case for Hudson Road Primary School, where 5G connectivity transformed the children’s learning environment, enabling the children to live stream, video call and access multimedia content without buffering.
Advanced connectivity is also key for tertiary education. Sunderland City Council, Boldyn Networks and the University of Sunderland have deployed advanced wireless technologies across the university’s campuses to , support research in key areas, enhance teaching, and improve the student experience.
The deployment provides the University of Sunderland with 5G campus test labs, LoRaWan IOT capabilities and comprehensive outdoor campus Wi-Fi coverage. A 5G test lab has been established on the University’s Sir Tom Cowie campus at St Peter’s, making The University of Sunderland one of the UK’s first 5G-enabled universities and putting it at the forefront of smart education.
Other features of the deployment include a new IoT network across the university’s campuses, which will improve operational efficiency for a broad range of services such as estate management and footfall analytics. Enhanced public WiFi will be available across the campuses, using EduROAM to give students, staff and visiting guests access to the new ultra-fast public WiFi service being made available across the centre of Sunderland and Roker as part of its smart city infrastructure roll-out.
The installation of cutting edge technology will support advanced research and teaching around new 5G and IOT related digital technologies for students to learn about new and emerging technology. It will also benefit the university community with technology enhanced teaching environments and cutting-edge research opportunities for uses of 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) in key local sectors including manufacturing and health care. This will maximise digital employment possibilities for students. Having the latest technology on campus will also improve the student experience and help keep the university competitive in attracting student enrolment.
Further details on these solutions can be found on our Innovation Challenges page.
For more information on how our networks and solutions could benefit your organisation, please contact us using our contact form. We would be delighted to discuss how our smart city capabilities can support you.